At the end of his famous Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln emphatically stated that “government (is) of the people, by the people, (and) for the people.”
At some point in the history of our beloved country, Americans forgot what Lincoln so eloquently acknowledged. This principle of governance by the people should not be taken lightly. This method of governance was seen in town hall meetings and was enshrined in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
In America today, we have seemingly strayed as far away from this principle as possible.
To be fair, politicians on each side of the political spectrum have notions of entitlement.
Put differently, certain politicians or party leaders often feel as though certain seats in Congress belong to them. This has lately been best exemplified by the race to fill Senator Ted Kennedy’s former seat.
After Senator Kennedy’s death, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was considered a virtual lock to serve the remainder of Kennedy’s unexpired term. Maybe Coakley should have recalled that even in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts, the people still must vote.
Why did Democrat Coakley lose the election to Republican State Senator Scott Brown? David Axelrod, an Obama adviser, claims that Brown ran a “very clever campaign.” For her part, Coakley blames the national Democratic Party establishment. In a memo, one of her top advisers noted “the failure of national Democrats to support Coakley.” Because of a lack of support, Coakley “was forced to devote significant time to fundraising.”
As usual, there are two sides to the story. Certainly this can be seen in Coakley’s demise. Who is at fault? Does the fault reside in Coakley or in the national Democratic Party? Could blame be attributed to both? If so, what mistakes did each make?
Undeniably, this was largely Coakley’s election to lose. Massachusetts Republicans are outnumbered almost 3 to 1 by their Democratic counterparts.
Additionally, the voters hadn’t elected a Republican to either of the two Senate seats since 1972. How, then, did Scott Brown win this election?
Scott Brown never forgot that no matter for whom voters have cast ballots in the past, they may change their minds at any time. No person or party is entitled to anything simply because the people have historically placed the same party or person in power. The people retain the right to uproot any representative and place another in his seat.
When asked by moderator David Gergen if he would oppose healthcare legislation while sitting “in Teddy Kennedy’s seat,” Brown responded, “With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedys’ seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.”
Coakley didn’t lose the election due to a lack of party support or money. She lost because she took the votes of the people of Massachusetts for granted, despite that the voters of Massachusetts were signaling their displeasure with pending legislation all along.
Instead of talking to voters about her ideas, Coakley criticized Brown for doing so.
When asked about her strategy of courting members of the political establishment instead of average voters, she responded with a critique of Brown’s strategy of talking to voters outside Fenway Park. She must have found “standing outside Fenway Park in the cold (and) shaking hands” to be ridiculous. I guess she didn’t need to because the seat already had her name on it.
That’s the story of an election. One candidate forgot that the people have the power in the United States of America. In contrast, the other called to memory the great American principle of governance “by the people (and) for the people.”
Brown never lost faith in the ability of his fellow citizens to recall the power voters possess. In doing so, he ran an honorable, issues-based campaign. He was not forced to resort to name-calling, as was Coakley when she began to lose grip on a seat that never belonged to her.
United States Senator Scott Brown has led the American people to a victory in our war to regain lost liberties and freedoms. However, the war is far from over. As President Thomas Jefferson once said, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
Such being the case, we must remain ever vigilant. We, like Brown, must maintain an abiding faith in the Constitution and the people of America. Never fall prey to vain illusions of entitlement.
We have begun the long process of regaining our power. May we march forward into the future with the same zeal and passion for the Constitution as did our founders!
--As Appeared in The Daily Mississippian on Thursday, January 21, 2010
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