So on Tuesday Massachusetts will have its first open Senate election since 1984. Â A 26 year wait, and this is the best crop of candidates we can come up with? Kinda depressing, if you ask me.
The candidate I’m most passionate about is Scott Brown – and why he should never be a US senator.
First and most is what he thinks about gays. Â He thinks that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry, and he thinks that the states should vote on the question. Â Vote on it? I’ll let him vote on my marriage as soon as he lets me vote on his.
I’m equally inflamed by his preferred policy regarding high school gay support groups. Â He thinks that students should get parental permission before attending the groups! Â Whatever your position on gay marriage, just think about some poor scared teenager who doesn’t know what the heck is going on – and Scott Brown thinks that poor kid needs parental permission before getting help from a peer group. Â Brown might as well give the kid a teen suicide how-to guide with the permission slip.
I know there are a lot of conservative voters out there who don’t care about the social issues but see Brown as a voice of fiscal sanity. Â The thing is, Brown isn’t a fiscal conservative. Â He’s a big-government, big-regulation, tax raiser. Â He may even be more dangerous because he claims to be fiscally conservative.
If you’re thinking about voting for Brown because of his fiscal chops, please consider the following:
- He urged people to vote against Q1 to end the income tax.
- He doesn’t support this year’s question to roll the sales tax back from 6.25% to 3%
- Repeatedly voted to override Romney’s (rare) spending vetoes
- He lists the MA health care plan as a major accomplishment, but the average Massachusetts family’s health care insurance premium rose from $9,867 to $13,788. A 40% increase! 21% higher increase than the national average.
- He joined the Democrats and passed legislation requiring Massachusetts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in a cap-and-trade pact among Northeastern states requiring power plants to reduce emissions or to buy credits from cleaner industries. “Reducing carbon dioxide emission in Massachusetts has long been a priority of mine,” Brown said in a news release in 2008. “Passing this legislation is an important step . . . towards improving our environment.”
I am deeply sympathetic to the statement that one-party rule isn’t healthy for Massachusetts. Â But is this really the kind of Republican you want to encourage?
1) Martha sucks just as bad on all of those (except the gay rights stuff).
2) I want the Dems’ 60th vote eliminated right now and not wait until November.
Dan — Obviously this race is getting a lot of national attention, but here in DC it seems like nobody is really paying attention to Brown’s platform/record. It’s all about ruining the Dems’ 60th vote and stalling health care reform.
Although your points about his fiscal resume should be required reading for the tea party folks, who are behind him in a big way…
You are all disillusioned about the lies the republican conservatives have spread about the health bill. It will not raise taxes, it will allow you to keep your own doctor and choose your own health plan. If you like the plan you currently have you can keep it. It just gives more public options to those who can’t afford health care to gain care. It will cover 30 million Americans with minimal impact to the economy. The stuff you hear in the media are REPUIBLICAN LIES regarding the health bill.
@QM – On #2, I just can’t agree with you. I’m not a fan of a lot of the things moving through Congress, but I can’t care enough to support someone like Brown.
@Joseph – The local tea party folks are all voting for Kennedy (that cracks me up to no end, btw, that there is a Kennedy in the race). The national teapartiers are demonstrating their complete willingness to compromise.
@Jeff – Welcome to my blog. I just wish you’d read it before you posted.
Hey Dan! Ok. The only reason I am even contemplating voting for Scott Brown is because I haven’t seen a single Coakley supporter holding a sign in Millis. I have seen 3 Brown supporters in Millis and 4 in Medfield. This made me stop and think. I was gardening over the summer and thought.. jeez wouldn’t it be cool if a candidate really gummed up the works and put Millis in the spotlight? Wrentham isn’t far from here you know. If the dems want the votes in Millis, guess what you’re gonna have to friggin get em because we put up with a ton of crap from the more populated towns that have more sway and get more political promises. Millis is not an elite town. It’s working middle class, and I mean working. The whole reason he’s gaining support is because of that feeling of neglect from the Democrats who we’ve been faithful to forever. Going to Northeastern and WPI to get the students excited is a good strategy..if they were going to vote.. but I think the older citizens who’ve been around for a long time who find themselves with huge taxes and are unemployed are a little more motivated. Right or wrong, it’s actually not about the issues.. it’s about the treatment we get. If Martha can’t as much as mention Millis, why would I give her my vote? I do think she will win but I’m either not going to vote at all or I’ll vote for Brown at this point. As for the gay thing, I grew up in Millis and I’m gay. It was very isolating back in the 90s, my best friend Jessica started a GSA in Millis when I came out and it’s still up and running. If a permission slip is needed then so be it. At least the mainstream media is more clued in these days and there are GSA’s in school. It might actually not be a bad idea to include the parents in on the discussion so they could help. I’m not one to support Republicans, but if they know they have some of the gay vote they might not be so homophobic. Also I look at my neighbors who I’ve grown up with and if they are all seriously debating this guy then who am I to tell them they are wrong? I am also an environmental scientist who has been killing himself to do crap labor for companies who suck. Kennedy himself killed the Cape Wind project.. so I know Coakley is pro renewable energy the green thing isn’t blue any more!! They screwed that up, it’s more red than anything these days.
Ok ok.. maybe I will vote for Martha.. she sent me a personalized tweet. God bless inbound marketing!