The Vote Heard Round the World...

Tuesday January 19, 2010 was not exactly the "shot heard round the world," more like the "vote heard round the world." That was the day a special election was held in Massachusetts to fill the vacancy created in the US Senate by the death of Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy. Kennedy held the seat for 47 years. Before the election on the 19th, the last Republican elected to the US Senate from Massachusetts was Edward Brooke, ironically Brooke was the first African-American elected to the US Senate.
The election of Scott Brown to the US Senate breaks the "Super Majority" held and created by Senate Democrats, Independent Joe Lieberman and Socialist Bernie Sanders. The White House was quick to pronounce that Brown’s election was not a referendum on the President or his policies. The White House instead chose to blame Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for running a poor campaign. The White House conveniently forgot that Coakley won the office of Attorney General (also a statewide election) with 73% of the vote a little over two years ago.
I vigorously disagree with the White House point of view and although I don’t often agree with Virginia’s Senator Jim Webb, I believe his statement shortly after Brown’s victory is appropriate. Senator Webb said, "In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."
Recent polls have shown that the President’s health care reform efforts are backed by only 36% of the country and opposition has been well over 50% since August of 2009. During the campaign then Senator Obama promised government transparency and bipartisanship. Speaker Pelosi too promised transparency. In spite of these promises and commitments reconciliation talks between the House and Senate have been held in secret and Republicans have been virtually locked out of the process. Legislation has been written and passed without being read.
"What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?" That was Michigan Representative John Conyers in an interview discussing the health care bill July 27, 2009. By the way, Representative Conyers is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a lawyer.
Throughout the summer of 2009 the President and Congressional Democrats ignored the will of the electorate. Thousands called, emailed and wrote letters of protest against Obama style health care reform. Thousands more attended and demonstrated at town hall meetings. Rather than listen, the Democrats cancelled many of the remaining meetings set in their districts. The protests culminated on September 12, 2009 when more than 1.2 million Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to let their views be known. Their protests and views were ignored.
Only time will tell if the election of Scott Brown was a wake-up for the President and Congressional Democrats. If not, then maybe Tuesday January 19, 2010 will, like April 19, 1775 become another red letter day in American history.