I voted in my first election in 1976, and even though I had a Republican senator to vote for in 1978, though to be fair, the Republican candidate was no conservative. Since then, I have gone through election cycle after election cycle with no reasonable candidate to vote for. I could cast my vote for this candidate or that one, on the basis that they had to be better than the liberal they were running against, who always won anyway.
Year after year, the Massachusetts political scene moved further and further to the left, further than I ever thought was possible. Romney and Weld were only palatable, because we knew that a candidate like Patrick on Beacon Hill would be a disaster.
But we collected, over the years, senators like Kennedy who has arguably done more damage to this country through his sponsorship immigration legislation and other liberal programs than any other politician in modern history. John Kerry, who has the distinction of being one of the wealthiest senators as utterly useless as teats on a bull. If he was only useless, that would be a vast improvement over Kennedy, but he was also a traitor to this country through his antiwar activities and support of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Barney Frank is one of the worst, whose homosexual partner grew pot in one Frank's houses another was a prostitute who ran a ring out of Frank's house, and is one of the people who is primarily responsible for the fiscal crisis this country finds itself in. Marty Meehan, who didn't even wait until the bodies were cold after 9/11 before he began what became the liberal flood of criticism and slander against then President Bush. Gerry Studds, who unrepentantly and unashamedly worked in congress for 14 more years after his censure for having sexual relations with an underage boy.
And so on.
I love this part of the country, and I say that as someone who has lived in many places throughout the United States and overseas.
But I was terribly embarrassed by Massachusetts politics. This anecdote that follows highlights why.
My buddy and i were out in Oshkosh for the annual air show a few years back, and it was the end of a beautiful day...the sun was going down fast, the flight line was emptying out, and we found ourselves standing in a big circle with about a dozen people we didn't know, from all over America. It was just a chance thing, a bunch of strangers talking, asking all the usual questions such as "Where are you from?" and so on.
Going around the circle, there was someone from Oklahoma, which caused someone to sing out "OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...!" and someone else was from Texas, and a comment came up about how tough the Texas Rangers were...you get the idea. It was kind of fun.
When they asked my buddy and I, and we said we were from Massachusetts, the entire circle fell silent. There was about a two second pause, and someone very quietly and politely asked "Ah. Um...what IS going on up there in Massachusetts?"
I felt like the eight year old Little Leaguer who was the worst player on the team, consigned to playing out in Right Field. If you ever watch those kids, they stand out there, one foot kicking at the ground until there is a good, deep furrow in the grass. They all do it. Whether out of embarrassment, boredom or fear that a baseball might actually be hit in their direction, there are always those furrows in the outfield.
That's what I was doing there, when that guy in Oshkosh asked that question of me. I was kicking at the tarmac with my toe. For much the same reasons as that eight year old kid in Right Field. I was embarrassed to no end, and there was not a thing I could say.
I have had many disagreements with many Freepers on this issue as well, primarily because I don't like being painted with a broad brush that tars me as a Massachusetts liberal, a drone who, in election after election, votes in people like Kennedy, Kerry, Frank, Meehan and Studds. I had no defense. It isn't easy being a conservative in Massachusetts.
Now, at possibly one of the most critical times in our nation's history, with a socialist governmental takeover of healthcare looming, this election suddenly jumped to the top of the list of important elections. Is is said that Lenin once pointed out that "medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism". With a Democrat controlled House and Senate, they were planning to push this legislation through while the iron was hot. They didn't want to let a good crisis go to waste. And it seemed that there was nothing to stop them.
There was only one small problem: They didn't want to do it alone. They wanted the legislation to be "bipartisan" so they couldn't get the disaster pinned on them. They had the Democrat votes to do it. But not only did they not want to do it alone, they were having problems getting their own liberals to line up behind it. As each day passes, it becomes more apparent that that the American People don't want socialized health care. As in the story about the dog food company executive who was puzzled why the dogs didn't want to eat their new dog food product even though they had the best jingle, the best commercials and the best distribution network, one of his subordinates said: "They just don't like it."
Enter Scott Brown, and here he is, the one who can make a difference in the fight, replacing Ted Kennedy, THE most liberal Senator in history. It is as if two teams were tied, and one team is getting ready to score but they fumble the ball in the end zone and the other team recovers it and runs it back for a touchdown. A "fourteen point swing". It was the "Perfect Storm" of politics. A dissatisfied electorate, a good decent candidate who vows to oppose socialized heath care and do everything he can to help American Business and citizens by reducing taxes, running against a candidate who was so horribly inept and incompetent. We might never have got this chance again in a generation.
But the Massachusetts voters grabbed the chance and took advantage of it.
I want to thank everyone on Free Republic who contributed to Scott Brown financially, and anyone who helped his candidacy by promoting it in a positive way and helping the wave to build. There are many who fear he is another Romney, and their fears may or may not be justified. We don't know for sure that he isn't. But we know he is no Ted Kennedy or Martha Coakley. And as a voter with a voice in Washington, it is up to those of us who helped get him elected to keep his feet to the fire and remember why we put him there.
In closing, all of us feel the importance of this election. You could see it on FR, where it seemed to infiltrate nearly every thread leading up to today. I have often wondered over the last 20 years, how a state that gave us Samuel Adams, John Adams, The Minutemen and the "Shot Heard Round The World", could give us Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Barney Frank. Now, with the huge weight of the survival of our country as we know it pivoting on this jewel of an election, all of you have helped us in Massachusetts do what those farmers did on the west side of Concord's North Bridge back in 1775.
It was there that the Colonials stood their ground against their oppressors and said, when fired upon, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!" and delivered the first counter-blow against tyranny.
Today, all of you put your hands on the pike with us, helped us drive it deep into the Massachusetts soil, and delivered the message to the White House and Congress: "IT STOPS HERE!"
God Bless all of you, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help and support. This is only the first step in taking our country back, and I hope we can say to generations of Americans to follow us: "January 19th, 2010 was the high water mark of Liberalism."