Turns Out Brown Can Do Plenty for You

Once again, conservatives are confusing everyone.  The intolerant hillbillies who passed around moonshine jugs at Tea Parties/militia meet-and-greets are supposed to reject any candidate who doesn’t make Sean Hannity look like Bob Beckel.  But right-wing zealots apparently keep forgetting to intolerantly shove out those who don’t universally conform to their intolerant views.  Instead, they just supported a candidate who occasionally veers across the yellow line.  Darn it, righties: would you please begin conforming to stereotypes?  You’re confusing every single MSNBC host.

Then again, making Keith Olbermann fume and Rachel Maddow pout is one of the innumerable good things about seeing Scott Brown become Massachusetts’ first Republican senator since the Neolithic Age.  By teaching Brown the conservative secret handshake, his Tea-Partying fans tacitly proved that there’s no purging of those who are only in agreement with the base four-fifths of the time.

The Centerfold Senator confused a few pundits.  In the election’s lead-up, some claimed that it’s tougher to define Brown politically than even, for example, a presidential candidate who deliberately obscured his views in favor of promoting Yes We Canism.  A few commenters even maintained he was more liberal than Dede Scozzafava, the most rhinocerosy of RINOS.  If that dubious notion is true, then his anti-“stimulus,” anti-Democraticare, anti-Obama’s-limp-terror-approach campaign shows that he’s fantastic about controlling his image.

Some on the right may feel uneasy about aspects such as his pro-choice tendencies.  While those concerns are valid, most of his checks are in the preferred column even if he occasionally deviates.  Instead of basing his campaign around, say, defending the Defense of Marriage Act, Brown offered a still-generally strong alternative to Washington’s most miserable current tendencies.

It’s not as if Brown is an Arlen Specter clone in waiting.  And he famously doesn’t drive a glorified golf cart of a hybrid with a plug dragging behind as he putters along the highway’s shoulder.  In addition to absolutely opposing the government simultaneously taking control of health care and one-sixth of the economy, he’s also against ruining the other five-sixths via insane taxation and limitless federal meddling.

Most tellingly, Massachusetts residents realized they were voting on semi-nationalizing the health system.  Um, they voted “no.”   Clearly, Brown’s eagerness to provide the single most important vote against Democraticare was the election’s overriding factor.  He stressed that he alone would be able to scuttle anything the president wants just by shaking his head.

Brown seized momentum in part about being what Obama isn’t.  Despite occasionally diverging from conservative doctrine, the newest senator still advocates most of the same principles  that should guide Republican candidates; his improbable triumph wouldn’t be worth celebrating otherwise.  Conservatives should be pleased by how much their respective circle overlaps with his in a hypothetical Venn diagram.

The tolerance for occasional ideological dissent is especially marked compared to lockstep Democrats.  Consider the preliminary health care vote: while Queen Nancy Pelosi allowed just enough vulnerable members to defect, a majority of Democratic House members got into line.  Blue Dogs are like stimulus projects: we keep hearing about them but never see them in action.

Further, every Democratic senator along with their two independent pals complied on health care.  It’s true even though it meant that the Ben Nelsons of the world had to surrender their integrity and dignity.  The current reigning party tolerates every view between liberal and leftist. 

Blame their executive boss for failing to grasp that his personality won him an election, not his policies.  The one person making conservative victories easy is our president.  Republican hopefuls simply must point out that any Democratic counterpart would vote for what Obama wants.

By doing so, it’s possible to win even in the state where Republican wins happen as rarely as drivers use turn signals.  Americans are seeing what happens when the left gets to run things; consequently, they’re demanding reductions in taxes and regulations.  It’s why conservatives are looking forward to November’s election like it’s a Christmas birthday.

As for our beleaguered leader, Obama gave in and stumped for Martha Coakley.  But he didn’t do so because he thought she was a Democratic rising star who could be the next, well, Obama.  Rather, he knew that she would obey Harry Reid until he is mercifully forced to begin a new career in November.  Thankfully, it was a wasted trip.

Democrats cast off Coakley by pointing out that she was a lousy candidate.  They’re partially right: she was lousy, but mostly because she agrees with the president about everything.  A thoroughly sluggish, reporter-shoving, voter-insulting, outrageous-even-by-campaign-standards-ad-publishing campaign couldn’t hide that she would have been a reliable Democrat for Obamacare and everything else.  Coakley was the Air America of challengers: the only thing more unappealing than the messenger was the message.  As a result, they’re both out of business.

Unlike Coakley, her opponent didn’t seem to be repulsed by the public.  But Brown largely won by highlighting that he’d be a Republican who actually might act like a Republican should.   That’s true even if one must qualify the word “conservative” with “basically” when classifying his politics.  If that’s not perfect, it’s acceptable: being semi-inclusive while still only backing candidates who get the big picture is a winning strategy for red state-minded people who happen to reside in Democratic nests.

For those upset that Brown isn’t a 100 percent Reaganite, please remember that he was just elected senator from freaking Massachusetts.  Complaining that he’s not conservative enough is as reckless as hitting after being dealt an 18.  Anyone from the Bay State to the right of Yuri Andropov would be a plus; Brown’s triumph as a right-leaner is like finding a sack full of recession-proof gold doubloons on the sidewalk.  Further, this win proves that the present Democratic reign’s shelf life approximates that of Jay Leno’s primetime run.

Supporting center-right candidates in traditional liberal bastions is fine as long as the emphasis remains on “right.”  Thanks to Brown, we’ve seen that standing against Obamacare, Obamanonics, and general Obamaism can be an effective strategy anywhere.  That’s true even if potential officeholders may stray on a handful of beliefs.  Best of all, such majority-minded conservatives could help conservatives win a majority.  It was a good day when Brown became number 41 by largely tilting rightward.  It will be a great day when he’s one of at least 51.

Anthony Bialy is a freelance writer and “Red Eye” Conservative in Western New York.  He blogs at http://thebuffalobean.com and tweets at http://twitter.com/AnthonyBialy.

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