With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility
Posted on | January 25, 2010 | No Comments
Last week, the voters of Massachusetts – my adopted home state – decided to elect a Republican senator. Needless to say, this is not the outcome I was hoping for.
I figured if I waited a few days to write about it, cooler heads (namely, mine) would prevail, but there’s still quite a bit about this election that bothers me.
A number of news stories keep saying that this election was a “warning” to President Obama and Democrats, that it was a “rejection” of certain policies or specific bills or even that it was “frustration and anger” that led to Scott Brown’s win.
All of that might very well be true, but it bothers me because it’s reactionary politics. The Massachusetts voters weren’t voting for Scott Brown as much as they were voting against something else – Martha Coakley, the health care reform bill, the (presumed) lack of economic progress, etc. And while those people certainly have the right to do that, it drives me crazy because it almost always ensures that the voting results are driven by emotion, instead of who is actually best suited for the job.
So many people, when they talk about who they might vote for (in any election), often talk in terms of what’s best for them and their families or in terms of specific issues or pieces of legislation. Again, that’s perfectly valid, but from my point of view, it’s also incredibly selfish and short-sighted.
Voting is a right in this country, but it’s also a privilege and a responsibility. As unpopular as I suspect this position to be, I believe that voters have a responsibility to think not just of themselves, but also of the greater good. Elections are more than just one issue, one family, or one moment in time.
Senators get six years to govern and they do so by working with colleagues from every state in this country, on laws and bills that affect every citizen of this country. Voting for a candidate because he or she promises to make things better, right now, for your family, means we’re ignoring a very large part of a Senator’s job description.
Of course people are angry and frustrated. The economy still sucks, the health care bill is controversial and divisive and we’re still fighting two wars. But voting against the party in power simply because things aren’t improving on your time schedule? That’s just plain stupid. George W. Bush had eight years to drive our country into the ground. Call me crazy, I think we should give Congress and the White House a bit of a break and allow President Obama and the Democrats more than just one year to try to fix things.
In the meantime, I’ll try to resign myself to Senator-Elect Brown and attempt to wrap my head around the idea that a plurality of Massachusetts voters thought it was a good idea to give Ted Kennedy’s seat to the one candidate who has promised to vote against the very bill that comprised Senator Kennedy’s life work.
Sorry, Teddy. We tried.
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