The "Shot Heard 'Round the World " ... Just Down the Road
In 1837, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Concord Hymn” regarding the battle of North Creek Bridge on April 19, 1775 in Concord, Massachusetts. This battle, where the Massachusetts Militia were drastically outnumbered by three companies of British Regulars, was one of the first battles of the American Revolution. The heavy losses inflicted upon these well trained, well equipped British Regulars, as they fell back to seize refuge in Boston, was the initial clash of not only the American Revolution, but commenced the 11 month Siege of Boston, which eventually drove these British soldiers from Massachusetts rocky soil.
It was truly the “Shot Heard ’Round the World” as coined in Emerson’s tome, and as geographically small as Massachusetts is, Concord exists just down the road from anywhere within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Now once again, on January 18, 2010 in a special election to replace the senate seat left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has sent a resounding shot across the bow of unbridled liberalism that is unambiguously manifested within the Democrat controlled House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. This bellowing victory in Massachusetts proved that even an ultra liberal state can come full cricle when the going gets rough. And cousin, these are some rough times, with little light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
The Commonwealth is so liberal that it was the only state / commonwealth that voted for George McGovern in 1972. Furthermore in the 2008 Presidential Election, Massachusettes gave then Senator Barack Obama a 26 percent victory over Senator John McCain. For nearly six decades a Democrat has held this seat, but this special election, with the light at the end of the tunnel more resembling the headlights of a steaming locomotive named "Economic Adversity for All," the Commonwealth sent a taunt unambiguous message to the Democrats in control in Washington, DC: “We do not want a socialist America that will not protect its citizens!”
In response to the President Obama’s campaign promised, and summarily enacted, disinterest in protecting the citizens of the United States, Senator-elect Brown (a rare Republican lawyer, and Lt. Colonel in the Massachusetts National Guard) promised,
“Our laws and our United Constitution are here to protect the citizens of the United States not those that are here to harm us. Our tax dollars are here to defend us against our enemies, not to hire lawyers to defend them.”
Former State Senator Brown, who ran in a state where just 12% of its voters are registered Republicans, used a simple, but strong message in his campaign that our federal government must protect its citizens, not the rights of terrorists and that this is one nation enjoying equal protection under the law: Not one where the Senate leadership buys, or is it bribes, votes with our collective tax dollars as it did in the “Louisiana Purchase” and the Nebraska Cornhusker Kick-back,” with respectively Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator Ben Nelson benefiting. Furthermore, Senator Brown promised one class of citizens, not two classes of citizens, where the small business owner and his employees pay the higher taxes on their purchased health plans, so that the Democrats, in charge, can grant union members that same plan without paying any taxes. The underdog challenger Scott Brown, who at one point in the early campaign polls was down 33%, promised a historically liberal Massachusetts fair play, and it one the day.
This was a terrific victory for the republicans for the Late Ted Kennedy’s seat due to the fact that this Health Care Reform Bill was to be Ted Kennedy’s legacy. In fact his name is in the bill’s unofficial subtitle. Now the Health Care Bill is in serious jeopardy with the Republicans’ surprising win in Massachusetts. Consequently, with Senator-elect Brown becoming the 41st Republican Senator, there is little chance for cloture in the Senate (a chamber rule that forbids debate, and the resulting filibuster, on the bill on the floor).
Will the new senator adhere to his promise? Well he signs his autographs as Scott Brown ‘41.’
When the Senator-elect Brown stated in his victory speech, “What a great crowd, and I bet they can hear this cheering Washington, DC. And I hope they are listening tonight because the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken.”
His throng of volunteers cheered, “41, 41, 41.”
As Candidate Brown chipped away at his Democrat Opponent’s seemingly insurmountable lead, the interim senator, Paul Kirk promised, “I will stay in this seat to vote Senator Kennedy’s conviction regardless of who wins this seat.”
This bit of controversy was averted and subsequently signaled in the Senator-elect’s comments, “I have spoken to interim senator Paul Kirk, and he has informed me that he has completed his work as a senator.”
To which the crowd then boomed, “Seat him now, seat him now, seat him now.”
The first Democrat senator to read the proverbial tea leaves was Virginia Senator Jim Webb stating, “We should not take any votes until the new senator from Massachusetts has been seated.”
Later in the evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “We will seat Mr. Brown as soon as the proper paperwork is received.”
While it appears the people of the Commonwealth have rejected the Health Care Reform Bill with the secret, backroom deals, which were manifested in the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Nebraska Cornhusker Kick-back.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky Republican) best summed up the political gravity of this victory by stating, “The voters in Massachusetts, like Americans everywhere, have made it abundantly clear where they stand on health care.”
While it appears the people of the Commonwealth have rejected the Health Care Reform Bill with the secret, backroom deals, which were manifested in the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Nebraska Cornhusker Kick-back,” I suppose Scott Brown’s campaign, and subsequent election was a bit more complex than a one issue tradeoff. Whereas overturning the current Health Care Reform Bill may became a welcome by-product resulting from the Senator-elect’s victory, it is not solely the reason why a little known senator from Wrentham, Massachusetts beat all the odds to win this race. Scott Brown connected with the voters by promising to return the Nation and Massachusetts to traditional American values, and by sincerely
identifying with the voters as a regular guy. Massachusetts, historically speaking, is not use to that.
The present Senior Senator, John Kerry, married an heiress, Teresa Heinz, and could never fully reconcile his military record, from which he was, and still is quite conflicted. The Late Senator Ted Kennedy was an alcoholic, who came from a family of profound privilege: Once avoiding a willful manslaughter charge in the drowning / asphyxiation death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island, with nary a slap on the proverbial wrist. This would have destroyed any Republican’s political career, as well as any offspring he might sire. Teddy was a Kennedy, from the liberal Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was never seriously challenged.
Consequently, Scott Brown’s victory as Senator from this commonwealth is so remarkable that it does signal a sea change, maybe just in the hearts of good liberal folks of Massachusetts, or possibly this sociological transition runs a bit deeper. For now, Scott Brown speaks his heart and it resonates with his new commonwealth wide constituents.
During the campaign, while Scott Brown's opponent, Martha Coakley, continued to run a message-less campaign that appeared to be more aimed at the ideology of George W. Bush rather than at him, Senator-elect Brown stressed American values and that he drove a GMC truck.
Flanked upon the dais by former Massachusetts Governor, and former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, and Boston College Football Icon Doug Flutie, Senator-elect Brown pushed home that point, “I’m Scott Brown, I’m from Wrentham, I drive a truck, and I‘m nobody’s senator but yours.”
The crowd then bellowed back, “Gas up the truck, gas up the truck, gas up the truck.”
The Senator continued, “When I began, I said it was me against the machine, but I was wrong, I was wrong, we all were all against the machine. This seat belong to no one person, no political party. It is the peoples seat.”
Time will tell whether Senator-elect Brown will make a big difference in this modern-day “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” however, with liberal politicians the flakiest of a pretty flaky bunch, the odds on with the Republicans that change is at hand. While it remains to be seen whether the overwhelming Democrat controlled U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives is still as powerful as they could be, it is a distinct possibility that their political empire is now built upon a house of some very shaky, shifting cards.
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