20 January 2010 I can’t believe we are that stupid

Massachusetts voters elected Scott Brown, a GOP candidate who believes that Obama is not an American citizen, to fill the Senate seat formerly filled by Edward Kennedy.

Brown subscribes to the “birther” conspiracy and is notable for these other concerns:

“6 Shocking Discoveries about Scott Brown

By Laura Clawson, Daily Kos

The campaign against Scott Brown has effectively been 10 days long. Ten days is not a long time, but in that time we've learned a lot about Brown.

1. Scott Brown suggested on television that President Obama was born out of wedlock, then tried to claim that Martha Coakley was making things up when her campaign called attention to it.

2. Scott Brown voted against aid to 9/11 recovery workers because it was too expensive, while at the same time he was trying to fund a golf course in his district and give tax subsidies to corporations.

3. Scott Brown tried to deny emergency contraception to rape victims. When he was called on it, he tried to deny the truth, then hid behind his daughters.

4. Scott Brown claimed he didn't know anything about any Tea Parties, even though he'd appeared at their rallies and publicized fundraisers they threw for him.

5. Scott Brown opposes a fee to get back bailout money from the biggest banks.

6. Scott Brown supports a constitutional ban on gay marriage and thinks two women raising a child is "just not normal."

That's a lot to take in in 10 days. Imagine if there had been a longer campaign in which these stories emerged more gradually so voters had time to absorb them fully.

Now imagine what else we'll know about Scott Brown in 10 more days.”



Again, I am citing a source I rarely read myself. I’ve heard references to these concerns on television political discussion programming. Essentially, we’ve just been handed another member of the Senate who is in thrall to the Christian fundamentalists, who would force rape victims to bear children conceived during assaults, and who lies about his own appearances.



The nation doesn’t need another GOP Senator, doesn’t need another racist servant of the financial industry. We don’t need elected officials willing to deny that Obama was born a citizen. Nor do we need voters too stupid to believe such conspiracy theories.



The loss of Kennedy’s seat to the GOP is shocking on multiple levels. I recall the election of 1960 very well. I recall the generational change as Ike handed the keys to the house to JFK. I recall the sense of hopefulness that came into politics with the Kennedys. Jack pledged our trips to the moon and made us believe we could make them. Robert brought civil rights to the forefront and Edward stood in line to play his role in the nation’s progress. But bullets took out Jack and Bobby and personal mistakes nearly ruined any chance that Teddy would ever serve the people of Massachusetts as Senator or the people of the U.S. in any elected capacity.



Teddy, in the end, dug in, made his apologies, and working against the bitter hatred of the reactionary right and the religious right, made his mark as a proponent of health care and education, able to work with his elected opponents, for the benefit of all Americans. He did this during the Reagan and Bush administrations when it is doubtful anyone else could have done so.



For me, and I’m sure for Gloria who grew up in Massachusetts, an era has come to an end. We don’t have a Kennedy in the Senate and we don’t have a beacon of hope and proponent of opportunity for all citizens to lead by example in the hard contests.

What we have now is a Senate built around greed, bigotry, hatred, and lies. The GOP has won enough seats to forestall any legislation that would benefit citizens instead of corporations. We’re busily creating a Theo-con oligarchy that will lead this nation into more banana and oil wars. I had hoped we, collectively, had sufficient memory of the stupidity of the Bush and Reagan policies. But like the Kennedy’s those voters who can see through the GOP lies seem to have vanished from the American political scene.