Meet John Overland Jr.

While I add my congratulations to those of many others to Senator Scott Brown on his victory in the Massachusetts special election to fill the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, I have to admit that I was only cautiously optimistic about his chances for success. That he had indeed prevailed surprised and delighted me: after all, this was the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy (though not “Ted Kennedy’s seat”), and Massachusetts had not elected a Republican senator since Edward Brooke in 1972. (To put that event in proper perspective, I was eleven years old at the time of that election!)

The election of Senator Brown in a state as solidly “Blue” as Massachusetts is an event roughly comparable to the cellular telephone commercials featuring the man calling and asking “Do you hear me know?” The aftermath of the gubernatorial campaigns and elections in Virginia and New Jersey (another reliably Blue state) may have been pooh-poohed as the result of sorry campaigning on the part of the Democratic candidates (for whom Obama campaigned, though more heavily for New Jersey’s Corzine). But this event was indeed the wake-up call, the “come to Jesus” moment of the Democratic Party in general and to jittery “Blue Dog” Democrats across this nation in particular. For if “Ted Kennedy’s seat” (in liberal Massachusetts, for crying out loud) was not safe, then no Democratic seat truly is.

During a recent interview on ABC, Obama tried to spin Brown’s election by opining that the political forces that swept Brown into office were the same forces that had swept Obama into the White House in 2008. But this is pure spin: Obama has done everything possible to advance a socialized health care agenda. Brown had openly campaigned on becoming the 41^st vote against socialized medicine. Obama has opted to return to the failed Bill Clinton strategy of treating terrorist acts as crimes rather than as acts of war and his attorney general, Eric Holder, has called for investigations against certain military servicemembers and intelligence personnel who have sworn to protect us and who did so valiantly, as Obama prefers to express it, “during the past eight years” concerning alleged “war crimes.” Brown, a former servicemember himself, is pro-defense. In short, for Obama to say that he and Brown are the products of the same political forces is as moronic as it is self-serving, for it ignores the true reasons why Brown won.

The first major reason for Brown’s victory (as for those of Governor Bob McConnell in Virginia and Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey in November 2009) was that for many Americans, the Democratic Party’s true attitude towards us was fully exposed to the light of day and was as much as wake-up call to all of us as Brown’s election has been to them. This true attitude has consistently been one of arrogance, condescension, and contempt. For example, when the American electorate votes for liberal Democratic candidates and agendas (as the majority did in 2008), the electorate is viewed as insightful, intelligent, deliberative. When we oppose liberal officeholders and their agendas, however (in other words, as we are doing now), we retroactively become rubes, buffoons, or children throwing a tantrum (as the late Peter Jennings described the electorate in the aftermath of the 1994 midterms). Nothing illustrated this more than Obama’s and the Democratic Congress’ reactions to those protests known as the “Tea Party” and “Town Hall Meeting” protests. (I’ve written previously about the Obama Administration’s email address for reporting “fishy” communications about their campaign for socialized medicine as well as of the reactions of the labor unions to these protests, which included the dispatch of SEIU goons to a town hall meeting during which one citizen had been confronted and assaulted in a blatant attempt at intimidation.)

But the point that drove this general contempt for us home was the mainstream media’s blatant attempts to minimize and marginalize those citizens participating in these protests. How many references to “teabaggers” (a play on “Tea Party” and a reference to a certain bizarre sexual practice) and to racists and racism have we heard used by the media to ridicule and marginalize these citizens? Such rare and open honesty on the part of MSNBC and others made media bias real to too many who had previously been prone to dismiss such allegations as talk radio rhetoric. This open contempt, coupled with the condescending notion that we simply do not possess their greater wisdom to understand that what is “good” for us, was made even more apparent with the closed-door meetings and special deals made to individual senators and to the unions to advance the objective of socialized medicine. This is true despite Obama’s campaign pledge to make such negotiations --- as well as the bills themselves --- open and transparent to us all.[1]

While it was the issue of socialized medicine (and the resulting open contempt for the opinions of ordinary Americans seeking to be heard) that ultimately led to Brown’s victory (and again, those of McConnell and Christie), I believe that another major issue was defense. 2009 saw one incredibly horrible and deadly attack at Fort Hood (by an Army major best described as a terrorist infiltrator), a terrorist attack on board an aircraft bound for Detroit (which had been thwarted by passengers on board the aircraft and not by Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security) and an earlier attack outside of an Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas by a gunman with Jihadist sympathies and which saw one young soldier dead. As I’ve written previously on this site, Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, appear to be much more interested in investigating those responsible for our security (especially those who were in service during the Bush Administration) and in protecting the civil rights of captured terrorists than they are in prosecuting the war on terror. That Obama and Holder maintain such perspectives and desire to pursue objectives based upon them --- especially in light of these deadly attacks and one very close call --- reinforces the belief that many of us have that Obama and his minions, as educated and intelligent as they are reputed and claim to be, simply don’t “get it.” I fear that such a perspective will most likely get more Americans killed as a result.

While Obama is desperately trying to spin Brown’s victory into yet another “plus” for himself, there are indications that the more sober Blue Dogs are indeed getting the real message and are running away from the extremist agenda advocated by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. As satisfying as this is for Americans that America has just narrowly dodged a terrible bullet and while I congratulate Senator Brown on his victory, there are reasons for us to stay on offense.

The first reason is that there are already indications that Obama has not given up on socialized medicine. This has been a cornerstone issue of his and Obama, apparently thinking he has failed to properly teach the electorate on why he knows best, has returned to campaign mode and has brought back his chief campaign manager, David Plouffe, into the White House to assist him. In short Obama, ever arrogant, believes that he should still be in teaching mode, when in fact he should be on listening silence and paying attention to what the American people are telling him.

The second reason sadly involves certain members of the Republican Party. The GOP leadership, understandably shell-shocked in the wake of the 2006 midterm elections and the 2008 general election, opted for a “me too, but less” approach to the failed domestic policies and national security beliefs advocated by the Democrats. Doubtlessly this position was best advanced by John McCain who, famed “Maverick” as he is for “reaching across the aisle” to the Democrats, lost the 2008 election nevertheless.

The GOP lost the 2006 midterms and 2008 general election for a variety of reasons, but advocating Conservative principles and seeking to govern in accordance with them were not among them. I am concerned that other GOP “mavericks” will desire to co-opt Brown’s victory to save themselves and the positions that they advocate which, though watered down somewhat from the Democrat approach, nevertheless favor an ever-growing government and an ever-increasing dependency upon it. This will be true despite the fact that Brown campaigned as he did on lower taxes, lower government spending and growth, and against socialized medicine. Sadly, these “Republicans” are every bit as dangerous to the Republic as Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and their minions, and these people need to be defeated every bit as much as do the openly-liberal Democrats.

John L. Overland, Jr., a Texan and former military officer and police officer, moved to New York City to marry in 2005. He now practices law in Manhattan.

[1] Also, please recall the speed with which health care “reform” was to have been imposed upon us. First, passage was sought no later than August. Then before Thanksgiving. Then before Christmas. The Democrats’ “need for speed” was every bit driven by the desire to pass this turkey long before any of them had to face re-election, the voters, and the consequences --- concerning their vote.

The Election of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA): Analysis and Caveat

The Election of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA):
Analysis and Caveat