Even if you happened to be living under a so-called rock for the first month of 2010, you have probably heard the name "Scott Brown" tossed around. Scott Brown is the man that the state of Massachusetts elected to replace the late Edward Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. What made this election such an eye-opener was the fact that the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, was very heavily favored to win. She watched over a two-week period as her double-digit lead in the polls shrunk to a multi-point deficit. The most Democratic state in the Union had just replaced arguably one of the greatest Democratic Senators of all time with a Republican. What gives?
Health Care is what gives. Scott Brown campaigned on the promise of the 41st vote against Health Care, and the American people answered. Conservatives across America rejoiced at having a chance to stop this "socialist takeover". What they didn't realize is that Scott Brown is far from the cookie-cutter conservative that he was projected to be.
Monday night, Brown announced that he would join the ranks of four other conservatives in blocking a filibuster of Senator Harry Reid's new jobs proposal. The political world exploded in a hailstorm of harshly negative comments that were slung at Brown via Twitter and Facebook - "RINO (Republican-in-name-only), letdown, sellout, and betrayal" were some of the more popular ones. Conservative activists were shell-shocked, especially since most had helped fund the senator's late-game run to the Capitol. Tea Partiers were outraged and hurt. I'm over here asking, is anyone surprised?
Scott Brown was elected in the state of Massachusetts. On a scale of 1-100 (1 being conservative, 100 being liberal), Massachusetts is a 562. Scott Brown is a Massachusetts conservative, and that makes him the most moderate Republican in the Senate. Do you really think the people of Massachusetts would have elected the likes of Orrin Hatch? John Boehner? John Kyl? Not a chance.
This whole "savior of conservatism" and "Ronald Reagan reborn" rallying cry that claimed Brown could make a run at the White House in 2012 was an image of false hope projected by America; an image that Scott Brown never claimed to be. People saw the red in the election map, and the "R" next to his name, and immediately assumed he'd be a model Republican. Vote on party lines, support GOP filibusters, not hop on board with the Democrats, etcetera etcetera. All Brown did was promise to be the 41st vote against Obamacare. Nothing more. Scott Brown is representing the state of Massachusetts, a state just like the other 49: plagued by unemployment. He knows his constituents put him there, and he's simply taking care of them.
You know, I'm not so sure voting for Reid's jobs bill and against a GOP filibuster is a bad thing. At all. Finally, we have people willing to step over party lines and take a chance. Who knows? Something might get done. Everyone knows the nation is not okay as-is, and nothing has been done so far. We need more centrist Democrats and progressive Republicans to meet in the middle and iron out some bills.
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