Proud of Massachusetts
Hell just froze over. Massachusetts just elected a Republican senator, Scott Brown, to the seat that was held for 47 years by Ted Kennedy.
As long as I can remember, Massachusetts has had only Democratic representatives in Congress. No general election has been anything more than a formality. It has been considered a fact of life that a Republican running in Massachusetts cannot win and is just running to get his/her message out, like a third-party candidate would in a normal state. Putting (D-MA) after a Senator’s or Congressman’s name is considered redundant.
This is how African-Americans and Democrats felt when Obama got elected.
A caveat: I do not think that Brown is a great candidate, in terms of his views on the issues. He supported the Massachusetts law requiring everyone to have health insurance and opposed Question 1, the 2008 ballot initiative to repeal the state income tax.
But for a Republican to take Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat and vow to defeat the health bill that Kennedy championed? That’s just awesome.
Some blogs and websites with interesting opinions, both pro and con: