Thursday, January 21, 2010

Scott Brown Won Because GOP Stayed Out

This cartoon on Boston Globe cannot be more inaccurate.

One, GOP didn't do much at all to have Scott Brown elected. And two, it is a wish by many liberals and progressives to portray the so-called "tea party" as controlled by the extreme right wing of GOP. It's amusing how they spit the word "teabaggers", usually with a snear, at anyone who opposes their dear leader, but it is just their wish nonetheless.

(And remember, the Red Coats and loyalists threw the word "Yankee Doodle" at the rag-tag army who dared defy their dear leader, the British Crown.)

11.4% of the registered voters in Massachusetts are Republicans and 37% Democrats. The majority, 51% believe or not, of registered voters are not affiliated with either party - in other words, independents. (Read this pre-election Boston Globe article.) Scott Brown won by winning them.

Republican National Committee didn't even bother campaigning for the guy because until about a week ago he was no doubt considered by the Committee to be a lost cause. A Republican taking the seat that was occupied by Ted Kennedy for over 4 decades? Not a chance.

Scott Brown won because GOP stayed out of the race. Let that be a lesson for the GOP leadership. He ran, as far as I gather, on a libertarian platform: smaller government and fiscal responsibility. GOP didn't bother to spend money on him until the last week, when the turn of the tide became noticeable even for the party leadership.Then it scrambled to claim Brown as their champion. That was funny to watch.

Many of Ron Paul supporters seem to be dismayed, with one supporter saying "Scott Brown is a pro-Torture, pro-War, pro-PoliceState, pro-ForeignOccupation, pro-DroneAttack, pro-CIA Neocon shill and hack."

That may be, I do not know, frankly. Those discriptions equally apply to the defeated Democratic candidate, as she embraces Obama's policies.

But that's not really the point. The point is that Brown has proven that someone can be elected to office without the traditional party apparatus. Brown was supported by the grass-roots "tea party" people. As Christian Science Monitor called it, it was "the tea party's first electoral victory", a party that is not even a party, really. That should scare Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

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