When will people learn? The Kennedys are gone, lost to the ages. Jack and Bobby were gunned down long ago, and a lifetime of guilt claimed Teddy. It’s been a long time since we heard the Boston accent in the White House and we might not ever again.
When Ted Kennedy died in 2009, Democrats all over Massachusetts wept but never worried; they had the audacity to believe that no Republican could ever win in that state, let alone take over for the last lion of the Senate. But that arrogance is exactly what did them in; Martha Coakley didn’t even bother campaigning. She simply yawned and honestly believed that being a Democrat in Massachusetts would carry her to the Senate. But then Republican Scott Brown, the proverbial underdog with a zero percent chance, pulled the rug right out from under Coakley and the Democrats. He won because he wanted it more and never pretended that he was entitled to it.
With 2012 looming eerily closer, campaigning for the Doomed Season has begun. But it is not the Presidential election that has people talking right this minute; it is the fight for the seat that so many people still believe belongs to a Democrat. Elizabeth Warren, the Special Advisor for the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, (what a mouthful, right?), has announced that she will be running for the spot currently held by Brown. But the issue is not whether who will win or who will lose; it’s the consistently arrogant consensus from the Democrats that Brown never really held the seat at all. To them, it’s still Kennedy’s seat and Brown was just a fluke.
I’ve never been a supporter of Scott Brown. In my opinion he’s a politician who believes he has that presidential look and who doesn’t fully understand the immense responsibility that the Senate is supposed to hold. But at the end of the day, he won, fair and square. And truth be told, he not only earned the seat over Coakley but he also deserved it. He campaigned harder and fought tooth and nail to win a seat that no one said he could. The trouble is that no one will give him credit where credit is due.
Elizabeth Warren may well win the seat back for the Democrats. She has name recognition in a state that overwhelmingly elects Democratic Senators. She has the resume to back up what she’s preaching, and she understands the economy and political world far better than Brown does. But at the end of the day, the seat is not rightfully hers just because she’s a Democrat. Ted Kennedy is dead, and while his legacy lives on, the seat is no longer his. There will always be the stigma attached for any Senator, knowing that that was the seat that the last Kennedy brother held before he died.
But to continue saying that the seat belongs to Kennedy is doing a great disservice not only to Scott Brown, but to the democratic system itself. Scott Brown won the same way the John Kennedy won the White House; through perseverance and an unwillingness to surrender. And in this democracy we call home, if someone gets 50% plus one, they win. And like it or leave it, Scott Brown won.
Chances are good that Scott Brown will be a one term Senator, that he will always be remembered as the fluke who somehow temporarily took Kennedy’s seat. But regardless of what he accomplishes or fails to accomplish, he deserves more respect than he’s getting. And more respect than he’ll probably ever get.
A nomenclature doesn’t entitle you to anything. Hopefully Elizabeth Warren learns this lesson, or else she’ll end up no better than Coakley. And this leads to this inherently entitled question: would it still be remembered as Kennedy’s seat if a Democrat had won? Or is this simply a narcissistic question of self worth?
Truth be told, there are no lions left here.
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