A Tribute to Scott Brown (Will He Run Again?)

Wrentham state senator Scott Brown wowed the Massachusetts (Democratic) Political Establishment in 2010, flying up from behind by double-digits to winning the People's US Senate Seat (vacated by the deceased Ted Kennedy) by five points.

Scott Brown is the bipartisan US senator that our country needs now more than ever. He lost the 2012 election by five points, more likely because of the failings of the national conference, with Mitt Romney at the front. The former Massachusetts Governor was an unappealing candidate for a record number of Republican voters across the country, who decided not to vote at all. Although Romney had no chance of carrying his former state, he could have corralled the animus toward Barack Obama with a sharper image which did not distance him from his moderate past. All of those debates caused more problems than they solved. The Republican National Committee must give up on the idea of prolonged primaries.

Scott Brown is the bipartisan senator that the Republican Party needs to recruit and reequip not in the Northeast, but throughout the country. He was not the "perfect" conservative, yet the inner purging which afflicts the national parties from time to time must swing back to open doors and bigger tents.

Scott Brown deserved to win the 2012 Senate seat in his own right. Red Mass has declared the GOP is dead in the Bay State. I am not so sure. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has acknowledged that the GOP has to soften its stance, or at least its perception, in order to carry more liberal constituencies. The proper candidate, connecting with voters, not with the affiliates of the "Rich and the Famous", can leech away the sometime Democratic votes and the tepid Independents to go for the GOP once again.

Scott Brown deserved to win the Senate Seat. He was sandbagged by a national party committee which is still playing off of Richard Nixon's formerly successful Southern Strategy. He and other like-minded libertarian-leaning candidates should force party leaders to cobble together a North-Eastern strategy, one which will promote "Tea Party" fiscal conservatism with Richard Tisei's "live and let live" stance on social issues. If George Will can lay the foundation for a broader tent without caving on core principles, then so should the GOP grassroots organizations.

Scott Brown deserved to win the Senate Seat not just for what he brought to the upper chamber in Washington, but for what he has already done. An army veteran still fulfilling the rank of "colonel", Brown shook hands, he greeted voters, and he cared enough to keep on coming to the forefront of bipartisan efforts to cut spending, not just pass  on the partisanship over deficit reduction to future Congresses.

Scott Brown deserves to win a Senate seat once again. The national Republican committee must amend the language dealing with abortion. Never should candidates statewide or nationwide have to repudiate the remarks of a candidate who believes that abortion should be illegal, even in the case of rape. Those values belong in the private sector among charitable types. Our government must protect the lives of the unborn, yet at the same time our government cannot prevent the evils which befall men and women in this fallen world. Pro-life with exceptions is not a craven compromise, a stance which would permit "pro-choice" Republicans more lee-way in moderate or liberal states.

Tea Party principles are good, and the Tea Party supported Brown in 2010. They backed away in 2012 -- not OK. Absolutist extremism with litmus tests are not good. Republicans can stress law and order, fiscal restraint, and immigration reform without wandering into marginal talking points. Limited government does not mean "no government"; constitutional rule does not mean "no social security for you". Brown represents this true spirit of compromise. Too many uninformed detractors of the Tea Party Movement and the conservative  elements in this country have disgracefully misconstrued the two. Brown has resolved those distortions before, and he deserves the opportunity to do so again.

Scott Brown understands the need to stop the federal government's spending spree without stopping people from making the choices that they alone are entitled to make. A better coalition of conservative  Massachusetts  candidates,  including state rep Ryan Fattman of Sutton, can renew interest in a brand which should interest everyone: limited government, free markets, and individual liberty, all prospects which belong to Republicans, not Democrats.

President Obama is currently looking for another Secretary of State, following Hillary Clinton's decision to step down. The Democrats should either reconsider this option entirely, or at least they had better prepare their ground game, because Scott Brown barely lost in 2012, and he has the experience to step up and retake the US Senate seat should circumstances permit.