A Victory Speech for Scott Brown

by Paul A. Rahe

I believe that Scott Brown will win the senatorial election being held in Massachusetts today and that he will do so not by an eyelash but by a landslide. We are about to witness the Massachusetts Miracle.

I have three reasons for being so confident. First, the polls — with admirable consistency — suggest that he is ahead. Second, the Coakley campaign and the Democratic Party nationally have panicked. Coakley’s minions have sent out a flier accusing Scott Brown of wanting to turn rape victims away from Massachusetts hospitals, and the DC apparatus has sent in Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for last-minute campaigning. Both moves are likely to backfire.

First, the claims in the flier are ridiculous and demonstrably false, and voters in Massachusetts have the wit to recognize that fact. Second, the bloom is off the rose. Clinton is a has-been, and Obama inspires little in the way of adulation these days. Their appearance in Massachusetts under these circumstances is a public confession that Martha Coakley is herself a loser. In special elections, turnout is everything. Scott Brown commands enthusiasm; no one — even within the Democratic establishment — has expressed any genuine excitement regarding his opponent.

There is, then, if I am right, one crucial matter left to consider. This evening Scott Brown will be called upon at some point to address his supporters, and the whole nation will be watching. Here is what, I think, he should say:

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a turning point — not only in Massachusetts politics, but in the politics of the United States. We have won a great and unexpected victory against a well-entrenched political machine, and I want to thank all of you for the help that you have given my campaign. I know how hard you and many others not present in this room have worked, and I promise to do my best to justify the hopes that you have lodged in me.

Tonight marks the end of a long, hard campaign. But it also marks a beginning. The people of Massachusetts have a way of speaking for the American people as a whole. They did so at the time of the Boston Tea Party; they did so again when a shot was heard around the world; and they did so today. For this election was a referendum on the conduct of the Obama administration in Washington. It was an anticipatory tremor — a harbinger of the electoral earthquake that is going to take place throughout the United States in November.

President Obama was in Massachusetts on Sunday campaigning for my opponent. Your rejection of her candidacy was, as he well knows, a rebuke of his administration. What you have said is simple and straightforward, and I will do my best to put it into words.

First, Mr. President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, there is this: You promised us transparency in government, and you have done the opposite. We in Massachusetts demand that you deliver what you promised. No more deals behind closed doors. No more corrupt bargains. No Gator Aid; No Louisiana Purchase; No Cornhusker Kickback; no special deal for union members. What we want is a fair deal for all Americans!

Second, Mr. President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, there is this: We do not want healthcare rationing; we do not want to gut Medicare; and we do not want a middle-class tax increase under any disguise.

Please understand, it is not our view that the existing healthcare system is perfect. We believe that costs could be reduced and access encouraged by four simple expedients.

First, we urge the adoption of tort reform — which would result in a reduction in the costs of malpractice insurance and an elimination of the pressures on physicians to order unnecessary medical tests.

Second, we urge a repeal of the measures which consign health insurance to state regulation. We want a national market for health insurance — we want to increase competition and thereby lower costs.

Third, we urge that hospitals, clinics, and physicians be required to post their prices — so that consumers can shop around.

Fourth, we urge that legislation be passed eliminating the connection between employment and the formation of pools for the purchase of health insurance so that voluntary associations — churches, clubs, professional societies, unions, and other comparable organizations — can form pools to negotiate discounts and health insurance arrangements on behalf of their members.

Mr. President, when you were inaugurated, you promised to “roll back the specter of a warming planet” and “restore science to its rightful place.” This past Fall, we learned that what many have long suspected is sadly true: that the work done by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which formed the basis for the four reports issued by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is a fraud — that the data was doctored, that the computer simulation was a scam, and that systematic efforts were made by prominent climate scientists to corrupt the peer-review process and suppress legitimate criticism — all for the purpose of imposing a socialist strait jacket on the world economy.

We remind you, Mr. President, that a specter is “an apparition inspiring dread” and that one of the principal functions of science is to dispel illusions of this very sort. We demand that you now be true to your word; that you act to “roll back the specter of a warming planet” and “restore science to its rightful place” by sponsoring an impartial reconsideration of the evidence both for and against man-made climate change.

Finally — and most important — Mr. President, we remind you that this country faces an economic crisis and that a great many Americans are unemployed and underemployed.

It is not our opinion that a massive expansion in the federal bureaucracy is conducive to a recovery of the private sector. Nor do we do believe that a massive increase in the national debt is favorable to the long-term well-being of the American people. We call upon you to balance the federal budget by reducing dramatically the size of that bureaucracy and by eliminating unnecessary programs reflective of corrupt bargains negotiated in the past.

We also call upon you to make the tax cuts introduced by President Bush permanent — so that Americans have a compelling reason to work long hours and risk their savings by investing them in new ventures likely to produce jobs.

We have one more thing to say. Not long after the spontaneous formation of the Tea-Party Movement, Anderson Cooper of CNN disgraced himself by applying to those who joined that movement the obscene phrase “tea-baggers.” Since that time, Mr. President, you have demeaned your office and others, such as Senator Schumer of New York, have demeaned theirs by deploying the same vile phrase. We call upon you to stop this practice, to apologize to the American people for your misconduct, and to conduct debates concerning public policy in a civil fashion from now on.

If, in his victory speech, Scott Brown were to say something along these lines, I am confident that it would electrify the nation, put both the Obama administration and the Democratic Party on the defensive, and set the Republican Party on the right path. The country is beginning to mobilize; the first Tuesday in November is just a few months away; and now is the time for the campaign to begin.


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Posted Jan 19th 2010 at 2:17 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Economics, Environment, Federal Spending, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, State Politics, Tax Reform, Tea Party | 58 Comments