http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122766BOSTON – Analysts say the wave of discontent Republican state Sen. Scott Brown rode to capture the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy for more than 40 years reveals a deeper unrest that isn't going to be resolved easily.
Instead, they believe the election revealed broad anger and discontent over the direction of the nation and said Brown's victory is an example of things to come in this year's mid-term elections.
Bob Adams, executive director of the League of American Voters, believes the trouble is deep, and growing.
"I think it's really clear that people from coast to coast, whether it's Massachusetts or whether it's California, Texas, you name it, are sick and tired of Congress simply ignoring them," Adams said.
Republican Brad Hudak is running for Massachusetts' 6th congressional district against incumbent Democrat John Tierney. He said Brown has set a standard for how to win this year.
(Story continues below)
"There is no doubt that this is the recipe for success. In this state we're tired of being the butt of jokes because we're called 'Taxachusetts.' We're tired of seeing people at the national level taking hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes for plans that the country doesn't want (referring to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's compromise for his vote on the health care bill)," Hudak said.
"Most of all, the people are tired of being unemployed and the government not responding to the honest needs of the people," Hudak said. "The people want to see lower taxes, have financial control of their lives and to get government out of the way so they can prosper and grow."
Hudak believes that Brown rode the anti-government wave, but didn't start it.
"I think the conservative tide was there before Martha Coakley and Scott Brown decided to run for Kennedy's seat. Before Ted Kennedy died there was already a conservative groundswell," Hudak said.
Listen to an interview the Massachusetts election's impact:
Timothy Baldwin is an attorney and the founder and director of the Liberty Defense League, a constitutionalist think tank and advocacy group. Baldwin hopes his efforts will complement the other pro-liberty and anti-government movements in the country.
He said there is a strong anti-government mood in the country, but isn't sure how much Scott Brown's election reflects that mood.
"There are a lot of people who are in fact a part of the freedom and liberty movement, but how it relates to Scott Brown is uncertain at this point," Baldwin said.
"There are questions as to whether or not Scott Brown is true to the principles on which this country was founded because he may be more the status quo Republican," Baldwin said.
"Some of the positions he holds are not what would be considered conservative. At the same time, some of the positions he holds are what would be considered neo-con positions, so that would contribute to the idea that he's not going to put principles of freedom before the Republican Party," Baldwin said.
"Brown says, 'I'm for the people, I'm for the people,' but in spite of what Brown claims to be, I don't see him being any different than any other mainstream Republican," he said. "I've seen his website and his positions aren't too much different than those of John McCain."
Still, Baldwin believes that there is a groundswell developing.
"The people really are waking up to some of these atrocities of governmental intervention with regard to powers the government doesn't have and unconstitutional acts," Baldwin said.
The tea party movement has held rallies across the country and has mobilized an anti-government mood. The movement endorsed Brown for the Senate, but there are questions about how much of an impact the endorsement had.
David Paleologos is the polling director of Suffolk University's Political Research Center and he said Brown used the issues first.
"The health care issue was the vehicle that drove the Brown win. It was not only the health care issue. It was the cost of the plan, the 'I can't afford it,' element. There was an economic component to the issue. It was also, 'We also have near universal health care in Massachusetts so why should we pay twice?' element. It was a double taxation issue."
"The health care issue was a subset. It was a vehicle to vent frustration over what was going on in Washington, which was, 'We're going to do this whether you like it or not.' So there was an anti-establishment vote," Paleologos said.
Adams said the issues are playing a major role in the public's mind.
"It's not just health care. It's on a whole litany of issues like national security where we're now offering Miranda rights to terrorists who want to kill us. Whether it's health care, whether it's taxes or whether it's the bailouts, the endless bailouts, Americans have absolutely had it with a Congress that just ignores them," Adams said.
Paleologos said health care and the other issues played a part in Brown's election, but it was more than the issues.
"I think it was the vehicle that housed the anti-establishment, anti-arrogance sentiment, plus the health care issue housed the health care issue on two fronts, the we can't afford it on one and double taxation," Paleologos said.
Even though Brown used the health care issue to mobilize the anti-government feeling, the tea party support only explains part of Brown's victory.
"Think about how many people voted for Scott Brown. One-point-one million voted for Brown. If you took the 20,000 people who signed Scott Brown's nomination paper and you tripled it, and you filled up Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play. That's 60,000 people. That's a lot of tea party of activists, but that's not 1.1 million people," Paleologos said.
"What the tea party movement did was get the ball rolling. It was a catalyst for getting a campaign of anti-establishment, anti-Deval Patrick, anti-Harry Reid, anti-Barack Obama feeling going and harnessing all of those forces on the backs of two key issues, health care and jobs. The campaign pieced together enough votes to beat out the Democrat Martha Coakley," Paleologos said.
Assessing the dynamics of the election, other candidates around the country would do well to observe that while Brown tapped into the anti-government sentiment, no candidate can win on anti-government feeling alone, he said.
"He tapped into Democrats, Republicans and Independents to put together a major political force. This is how he ended up winning," Paleologos said.
He said the ripples will be felt across the nation.
"If you go out to the West Coast, you have Harry Reid in Nevada who's losing in polls to both Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden decisively. I'm not sure about a primary opponent, because even if the Democratic nominee wins, the rubber meets the road on whether the state is red or blue," he said.
"And in California you have Barbara Boxer who's trailing her three potential opponents. So there will be enormous ramifications that will result from the Scott Brown win in Massachusetts," Paleologos said.
Adams believes that the health care vote is partially responsible for the fact that a lot of senators' jobs are on the line.
"All of the senators who voted for this thing, their constituents are up in arms. Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Harry Reid, we're talking about a citizen revolt against these folks," Adams said.
Some compare the present anti-government mood to 1994, Timothy Baldwin among them.
"Look at how many Republicans got put into office in '94. That was the same sort of environment that we have now. Whenever the people get frustrated over economics or some major policy the federal government is undertaking, the people tend to shift power from one party to the other," Baldwin said.
"We are going to have a much different Congress next year," Paleologos said.
Topic: 'We are going to have a much different Congress next year' (Read 1081 times)