The state was Massachusetts, (I know it's a Commonwealth, but so what) and the event there created a blizzard of op-eds and a cacophony of know-it-all-noise from talking heads on TV and radio. Each of them had their own analysis about what happened in the special Senatorial election and where it might lead. And bloggers of all stripes have certainly not wasted the opportunity to add to the din. So why on earth would this blog feel compelled to chime in?
Because despite the "no spin zone" approach claimed by others (who actually just add their own spin) I never miss an opportunity to add the pro-liberty spin anytime I think it has gotten short shrift.
Replacing the departed hero of Chappaquiddick with another elite feelgoodist was certainly predicted by pundits to be a coronation of a party-anointed liberal-of the day, not an actual contest with the candidate of the (almost invisible and largely irrelevant) Massachusetts Republican Party. That state party richly deserves those descriptions. Amazingly, an actual election occurred and one liberal was selected instead of the other liberal. For certain there are differences between the two, but there are even more similarities.
The one big difference was that the winning candidate promised to huddle up with national Republicans to deny the Democrats a filibuster proof super majority just when the President and his politburo were on the verge of shoving phase one of the nationalization of the health insurance up an unmentionable part of the American anatomy. It seems that even the perpetually -government is the solution- delusional in the bluest of states have temporarily regained their sense of rational thought long enough to turn the Washington green light into a yellow one.
Do all of these developments mean we can un-cap a Samuel Adams Boston Lager to celebrate the success of the nascent "Tea Partiers" in bean town?
Well, kinda, as long as you chug it instead of sipping it so as not to linger in an illusion of victory. If you think the battle is won, or that new Senator Scott Brown is a friend to the concepts of individual liberty and personal responsibility, you will suffer the hangover even while you are still intoxicated.
Any conception that the Democrats in that state have converted to the GOP is preposterous to me. Not to mention an even more preposterous notion that the majority of folks there are changing from liberal to conservative.
My advice is to clink your mugs together and toast the unexpected help from a most unlikely ally. Then get out of the pub and put your helmet back on. Using a war metaphor, this was just the success of a delaying tactic in one skirmish of one battle. That battle isn't even over, much less the war. We can hope this aid turned the tide and we will now prevail in the battle, but it is by no means certain. (In the Frank Capra version we win the war)
Scott Brown remains an uncertain ally in the effort to save ourselves from socialized medicine.
Many do not know that he supported and voted for the soon to be bankrupt Massachusetts twin version of national Obamacare. Brown admits this himself. "In Massachusetts, I support the 2006 healthcare law that was successful in expanding coverage, but I also recognize that the state must now turn its attention to controlling costs".
So, thank you to the people of Massachusetts for waking up momentarily and electing the soft left big government advocate instead of the hard left socialist devotee.
And a word to Republicans; if your party thinks it's future lies in supporting more Brown/Chaffee/Snowe republicrats, you will retain the minority status you so richly deserved and along with it your moniker as "the stupid party."
2 comments:
Ah yes. The Stupid Party.
I like what Beck said, and I paraphrase: All we really know about this guy is that he posed naked for Cosmo and he attempted to pimp out his own daughter during his finest hour to a national t.v. viewing audience.
What I say is, 109,425 votes do not make a landslide. But I will surely take it.
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