What does a Scott Brown victory mean for us?

This campaign has reached an absolute fever pitch and the atmosphere here in Massachusetts is electric.  I cannot remember the last time we witnessed this kind of mass hysteria over a candidate, oh wait, it was just a year ago when a black president was going to change America once and for all.  Indeed, we have our own mini-Hopenchange rumbling through the state and one emotional radio host have even hijacked Obama's favorite slogans!  Neighbors, extended family members, strangers, homeless people and co-workers are all coming out of the woodwork urging people to vote for Brown and all semblance of debate has been eradicated.  If you think only liberals can blindly worship a candidate, you are sorely mistaken. So what does a Scott Brown victory mean for us Americans?

Now I have been no stranger to criticizing Brown and my facts speak for themselves, I have paid the price for going against the establishment so let us consider what the fallout will be as the notorious Kennedy seat falls to a Republican.  Three distinct groups will be significantly affected on January 19th in the case of a Brown victory and given the momentum and internal polling a victory is very much in the cards.

Three groups being the Republicans, Democrats and everyone else.  Republicans will consider this a gigantic moral victory and a protest vote against the liberal tide sweeping over this nation.  Inevitably this victory will send shock waves through the country especially battleground states where unpopular Democrats will appear ever more vulnerable.  Democrats will have no way to spin this and will humbly take their losses just as the GOP took their losses in 2008.  Every liberal celebrating the death of the GOP in early 2009 will be eating their words.  As far as everyone else, they will watch idly by in varying amount of interest.  Some will be content at a potential gridlock and a slowdown of the Obama tide while others will be concerned that another big spending Republican joined the Senate ranks.  Those celebrating gridlock as our best outcome will eventually come to realize how meager our victories have become.

Since I happen to be in the third group, this is the way that I see the fallout unfolding.  First and foremost I will be content at gridlock although I am under no illusion that Brown will stop ObamaCare - he will not.  In fact the most amusing aspect behind this campaign is that ObamaCare has become the single most polarizing issue and Brown's strongest crutch.  It will be interesting to see how Reid and Pelosi twist and turn to cram their horrendous bill down our throat and their tactics will continue to provide fuel for the tea party movement.  A movement that might potentially be compromised with a Brown victory.  This is the single most distressing issue for me as I have seen tea party activists and so-called small government proponents blindly throw their support behind a big government politician like Brown using him as a tool to bloody the noses of the Democrats.  Still, a perceived victory against the liberal tide can cause great damage to the tea party movement and sap the will to fight as many become complacent thinking the worst is behind them.

When supporting a candidate only in spite of another candidate you inevitably carry on the sad and sorry tradition of voting for the lesser of two evils.  Whether you rationalize this by claiming that Brown is the most "conservative" Massachusetts can produce or the urgent need to "stop ObamaCare" is not relevant, you are still supporting a poor candidate.  This is why I am proudly and happily voting for Joe Kennedy the only candidate who understands we need to cut spending.  Will I be upset at a Brown victory?  NO!  For the next two years Brown will be a junior senator in the minority party, seemingly the only position the GOP can handle with any kind of skill.  So what is the problem?

Beyond Brown's impeccable RINO credentials, there is the small matter of incumbency.  Brown will absolutely run in 2012 and will be much better financed to do so crushing anyone in the primary.  Every conservative or independent thinker who is backing Brown now must understand and accept that a vote today will insure Brown on the GOP ticket in 2012.  While I have heard some conservatives claim that by 2012 they will no longer be supporting Brown, it is as laughable as Kerry being for the war before he was against it.  Does not work like that, sorry.   If you are helping to elect Brown now then you are also helping him in 2012.  This is of course critical to remember because a Republican majority with a Republican president expanded government faster at the turn of this century than any other time in the past 30 years.  Worse yet, Brown's presence in the Senate for anything longer than 2012 also poses risk in the health care industry as he has famously declared that he plans to go to Washington and "show them how we did it here".  Stopping ObamaCare while supporting and fighting for 49 RomneyCares is not exactly a bargain!

Lastly, Brown will send a misleading message to all those running for office.  A message suggesting that being a fiscal moderate is sufficient in gaining support of millions of people, a message we cannot afford.  Waves of moderates running for office is precisely how we got into our current mess and a Brown victory can further exacerbate the situation. 

So this coming Tuesday, I will be content to see Brown win primarily because it will further embarrass Obama who decided to arrogantly stump for Coakley on Sunday and because it will slow down the liberal machine.  However my excitement will have to be curtailed as a Brown victory is a hollow victory.  For every single supporter believing change is coming or that a major victory has been won - think again, you win nothing.  Not only because a RINO is incapable of ushering in change, but because he represents the same old tired policies and tactics of the past thirty years.  There is no victory, because we ordinary Americans will have gained nothing other than a momentary reprieve from Obama's madness.  We will still have our debt, our broken entitlement programs, our wars and a political system that seems to be producing Republicans and Democrats whose differences are becoming harder and harder to identify. 

Could Brown be a step in the RIGHT direction?  Could we get a true fiscal conservative in 2012, someone committed to reversing the growth of government?  Can this be a stepping stone to stop one party rule in America?  Based on historical precedent this seems unlikely, but I would love to be proven wrong.