Scott Brown, a Republican down a month before the 19 January 2010 special election in Massachusetts to a better known State Attorney General, Martha Coakley, has beaten her with a 52% to 47% margin of victory. Most of the Democrats are either blaming her as a bad candidate or the National Democratic Committee for not supporting her strongly enough. But Coakley was the perfect caricature of the out-of-touch, uncaring educated elitist socialist. Given that many of the People have been awakened by the Tea Party movement in their alarm at losing their rights and individual choices to governments grown massive, paternalistic, corrupt, aloof, and uncaring, she confirmed their growing understanding of the Democrat party.
Scott Brown, on the other hand, had a pretty good sense of the changed mood of the People, which had changed far more in Massachusetts than one can easily comprehend, given the almost slavish past history of the people of that state to the Democrat party. They had massively voted for such dim-wits as Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry many times. But finally, even the people of Massachusetts have awakened to the fundamental and critical issue of our time. Will Americans remain individualists with the independence to choose their own values and to manage their own lives or will they simply become numbers in a group identity as Mao wanted to make his people. Yes, the same Mao admired by some of Chairman Obama's advisers.
Massachusetts already has a very expensive "reformed" health insurance plan. For a small increase in insurance coverage, all the covered are paying much more in premiums already. The plan is not proving popular and ObamaCare is even less popular. At this point, ObamaCare will only raise the costs of health care more in Massachusetts and will not increase the coverage further. In other words, the bad deal for the rest of the country is a really, really bad deal for the people of Massachusetts. So, this is a bit of a special case situation for Massachusetts.
Scott Brown campaigned as though he was virtually an independent in a state where most voters are not registered under a party. There are 3 Democrats for every Republican, but added together these two parties only account for a bit less than half of the voters. Scott Brown campaigned as a supported of the War on Terror, not as a first responder to man-made disasters. He most importantly said he would vote against ObamaCare as the 41st vote. He also said he was committed to tax reductions and a more limited role for government. He also proved a hard campaigner who was eager to get out and talk to real people. Perhaps because he did so, he found a way to appeal to real people, many of whom have become Tea Party participants.
Tea Party participants have a renewed understanding that government has become too big and too expensive. It is interfering with their personal lives too much. They have a renewed appreciation for the Founders and for the Constitution. They resent the pointless debts they, their children, and their grandchildren are now saddled with. They are angry that their representatives will not listen to them, that they do not read the bills they vote for, and they do not care if those bills are constitutional. They have come to understand that government does not create jobs, they do. The source of jobs is the private sector and it is Capitalism, not Socialism, that allows everyone the opportunity to improve their lives. Socialism just picks out special interests to reward with grants of government powers and favors. Corruption and vicious fights between huge numbers of special interest groups is a necessary result of choosing fascism and Marxism. The people are becoming aware that that is what communitarianism and progressivism really are. That is not the change they want.
The Tea Party people are voting for the party out of power. They are turning to the Republican candidates, at least in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts, not because they are happy with the Republican party, which has also pursued big government and too often proven corrupt, but simply as a counterbalance to the very out-of-control Democrats. The Democrats have proven that they learned nothing from their loss of power for many years after the early Clinton years. They are as arrogant and power-grubbing as ever. They are worse than the Republicans in power lust and corruption. Still, the People want a sense that the Republicans will not once again betray them. They do not yet have much confidence that they will not. The future of the Republic depends upon whether the Republicans can at least earn the confidence of the People of a Tea Party mood to regain the greater measure of control of government. It looks likely they will be tested with it after 2010 or 2012. They had better prove worthy, or the Tea Party movement may well become a third and a dominant party.
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4 comments:
Seems to me that it's the Republican's game to lose here. If they can make an ally out of the tea party people them the Dem losses might be huge.
If they support very liberal candidates, then not so much. I think the Dems will suffer some important losses this Nov, but those losses could be much larger.
Thanks for your comment Greg.
I agree that the Republicans will benefit from the Tea Party mood and if they can only convince Americans that they stand for limited government, low taxes, low spending, and low deficits, then they will quickly take over control of the House and will take the Senate by at least 2012. But, they showed themselves to lack constitutional principles the last time they held power in Congress and that is remembered.
In truth, they are held to a higher standard than are the Democrats, who are always assumed to be scalawags. But, the Dems were seen as a counterbalance to big business of the kind that sought special favors. One of the interesting observations of the Tea Party folks seems to be a new awareness that the Dems are handing out special favors to those big businesses that support them, as well as being in the pocket of generally unpopular labor unions. The Republicans could step up to the plate and really champion small business by refusing to give many of the big businesses those special favors. As such, they could be the clear champions of opportunity, which is what most Americans want. They just want a fair chance to compete based on their individual merit. Clearly, the Dems have lost much of their reputation for justice and it is a great opportunity for the Republicans to become the champions of both justice and freedom. The two should go together when properly understood.
Heh. I like your comment about the Dems being scalawags. I always figured the the combination of a compliant media and lower general standards (from their base) made them somewhat lower on the ethics scale, but it's nice to see someone else say it. :)
I agree, the R's have a HUGE opportunity here, but then... they had a good one in '08. Crossing fingers here...
Just had a very pleasant surprise today, http://hillbuzz.org/
Have you seen that site? It's been awhile since I've seen a sane Democrat blog. I'm beginning to think that there are a lot of us out there who feel the same way, more than I had thought.
I'm more optimistic now.
Currently or very recently, the House Ethics Committee has investigated 9 Democrats and 4 Republicans. Of course there are more Democrats in the the House, but not by a 9 to 4 ratio. Also, there is usual more interest on the part of the party in power to go after members of the party out of power! Admittedly, this is a snapshot in time, but in my lifetime, it is my strong impression that Democrat politicians tend to be more corrupt than Republican politicians. Of course, both parties are actually embarrassing with corruption and many more politicians are corrupt than are ever prosecuted.
I looked at the Hillbuzz website. It is interesting that a Democrat has come to such conclusions. It has been interesting to watch Dick Morris' transition on that subject. On the other hand, it has been amazing to see how many Democrats have been willing to march off the cliff under the direction of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi!
The Hillbuzz site commented that Pelosi will lose the House Speaker position and wants to be remembered in the meantime for longtime Democrat wish-list programs such as the health care takeover. I laughed at that one. If you were to go Jaywalking and were to ask people on the street who Sam Rayburn was, you would get a correct answer about one time out of 100, I expect!
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