WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SENATOR-ELECT SCOTT BROWN?

• First of all, Brown’s election is a reaction to the current political culture of Washington, namely the arrogance of power of the Democratic majority in the Congress and in the White House.  Several polls and an analysis just completed by the Washington Post indicate that the Democratic leadership in the House, the Senate and the White House believed they could force their agenda on the American people with no transparency (despite the President’s promises to the contrary), facilitated  by backroom deals (e.g., Ben Nelson and the deal with the unions who secretly won a five-year exemption from the tax on “Cadillac” health-care plans) all the while manifesting a sense that as leaders they know best!  Despite all pronouncements from these leaders to the contrary, dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, antipathy toward federal government activism and opposition to the Democrats’ health-care proposals drove the upset election of Senator-elect Scott Brown.  The Washington Post poll and analysis demonstrated that 63% of Massachusetts special-election voters say the country is seriously off track and Brown captured 2/3rds of these voters in his victory.  Nearly 2/3rds of Brown’s voters say their vote was intended at least in part to express opposition to the Democratic agenda in Washington; and nearly half said that they were against the health-care legislation.  In fact, health care and the economy were the most important issues driving the Massachusetts voters.  Overall, just 43% of Massachusetts voters say they support the health-care proposals—and this is in the most liberal state in the union! 

Primarily, the Obama coalition from 2008 that elected him in Massachusetts has splintered badly, just as the Virginia and New Jersey elections two months ago had demonstrated.  The evidence is unmistakable.  Independents, which in 2008 had elected Obama, swung massively against the Democrats:  dropping 16 points in Virginia, 21 in New Jersey.  Last Tuesday it was worse:  Independents, who had gone 2-to-1 Republican in Virginia and New Jersey, now went 3-to-1 Republican in Massachusetts.  And, the turnout in the special Massachusetts election was the highest for any nonpresidential election in 20 years.  In short, the president and his congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are in political trouble.  Their closed-door deals, their arrogance manifested in how they have rammed through health-care legislation, and their lack of bipartisanship have been rejected by the voters of Virginia, New Jersey and now, quite unbelievably, by Massachusetts.  It would not be incorrect to conclude that these Democratic leaders are evidencing not only arrogance but a demeanor of being totally out-of-touch with the American people.  Scott Brown’s argument that his Senate seat is “the people’s seat” resonated with the people of Massachusetts.  George Will has written:  “By promising to cast the decisive 41st vote against the president’s health-care legislation, the Republican candidate forced all congressional Democrats to contemplate this:  Not even frenzied national mobilization of Democratic manpower and millions of dollars could rescue one of the safest seats in the national legislature from national dismay about the incontinent government expansion, of which this legislation is symptomatic.” 

• Second, Scott Brown’s victory sends a strong message that is ideological in content.  George Will writes that “the essence of contemporary liberalism is the illiberal conviction that Americans, in their comprehensive incompetence, need minute supervision by government, which liberals believe exists to spare citizens the torture of thinking and choosing.”  Certainly, it is more than obvious that trust in government within this democratic-republic has fallen, precipitously!  David Brooks points out that “the share of Americans who say the country is on the wrong track has risen.  The share who call themselves conservative has risen.  The share who believe government is ‘doing too many things better left to business’ has risen . . . Many Democrats, as always, are caught in their insular information loop.  They think the polls are bad because the economy is bad.  They tell each other health care is unpopular because the people aren’t sophisticated enough to understand it.”  If Obama, Pelosi and Reid do indeed follow this logic, “it would be the act of a party so arrogant, elitist and contemptuous of popular wisdom that it would not deserve to govern.”  It seems to me that the American people want a government that serves a humble, helpful and supportive role to the central institutions of American life, not an arrogant, elitist set of paternalistic leaders who desire to foster greater dependency on a bloated, nearly bankrupt government.  The current leadership cannot blame this remarkable defeat on George W. Bush, as they have tried to do with so many things over the last 12 months.  Scott Brown ran a campaign targeting President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid—and the people of blue state Massachusetts thundered their support.  A response of humility, not continued arrogance, is appropriate.  We shall see how these leaders respond.  Finally, it is imperative that the current Democratic leadership (Obama, Pelosi and Reid) be reminded that America remains a center-right nation.  As mentioned, the number of people calling themselves conservative has increased, and the number calling themselves liberal has not.  Further, disapproval of Obama, Pelosi and Reid flows directly from traditional conservative anxieties about government spending, taxing and meddling.  Democratic Senator Evan Bayh perhaps said it best:  “Whenever you have just the furtherest left elements of the . . . party attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country, that’s not going to work too well.”  The president, Pelosi and Reid must take what is happening in America seriously:  Scale back health-care reform, take the deficit seriously and work with Republican leadership.  The US government is on the “fiscal path of a banana republic” and the Democratic leadership is promoting a health-care plan that promises vast benefits while doing little to reduce costs.  The arrogance with which these three have governed the last 12 months must be replaced by a humility that shows a deference to the wisdom of the American people.  If they do not heed the true meaning of the election of Scott Brown, not only will they suffer defeat but our nation will be perilously close to fiscal and political catastrophe.  May God have mercy upon our nation.

See Michael Gerson in the Washington Post (22 January 2010); George Will in the Washington Post (21 and 24 January 2010); David Brooks in the New York Times (19 January 2010); Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post (22 January 2010); Dan Balz and Jon Cohen in the Washington Post (22 January 2010).

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