When Republican Sen. Scott Brown campaigned throughout Massachusetts last month for the late Ted Kennedy’s vacated seat in the U.S. Senate, he assured his potential constituents that he was not a Republican-as-usual and that he would call it like he saw it if they gave him a shot at Washington. Bay State Democrats grudgingly digested his eventual election and Republicans were sure they had the former state senator under their thumb.
Monday, Brown surprised naysayers when he followed through on his promise to stay evenhanded as a Commonwealth representative and not vote strictly on a partisan basis. Not only did he throw his support behind a $15 billion job bill that Democrats have been pushing, but he was the first and one of only a small fraction of his party to do so when the choice to align with his party would have helped to stop the bill in its tracks. Though he is a freshman senator, and though the fresh support of Mass. Republicans is at stake, Brown made the choice to go against party lines and keep the bill alive.
He later said in a statement, “I voted for it because it contains measures that will help put people to work.”
It sounds simple enough.
The bill isn’t revolutionary &-&- it centers on allocating tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed applicants. What speaks decibels louder is the idea that the new kid in the Capitol could help set the precedent for a different dynamic in the United States Congress. And he didn’t hide or cower in the session’s aftermath, but boldly defended his decision and has continued to preach the necessity of a bipartisan Washington built upon independent ideas and a foundation of the best interest of the country’s citizenship. And who’d have thought the guy who carried so much of our disdain could spark such an important movement and make such a powerful statement?
If nothing else, the idea that a small state senator could change the face of politics &-&-even if it’s only slightly, and even if it’s just for a second &-&-is an unexpected vote of confidence for the government that has recently carried nothing but our shattered hopes and fleeting trust. True, Republicans still bogged-down by politicking are outraged, but hopefully even the most red-bleeding can appreciate the power of a verifiably bipartisan act, especially when it was made by one of their own.
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