Real Hope

The tremor you felt last night at around 10:36 Eastern time wasn't an aftershock from any number of recent earthquakes. It was me, jumping up and down in my family room for joy. But more importantly, it was politicians everywhere falling out of their chairs. The world of the political incumbent, from any political party, was rocked last night as the unthinkable came to pass.

If you have been watching the political landscape recently, you know that Scott Brown won the special election for the vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts. He ran with an "R" behind his name, but seems to hold no deep allegiance to the Republican Party. A huge part of his campaign was his up-front and vocal opposition to the Health Care reform before the legislature. He also professes to be largely independent and ready to serve the citizens rather than his own purposes. I will wait for him to fulfill those promises and watch carefully, reserving judgment until the deeds match the words.

But the win was stunning for many reasons. The most amazing thing to me about this election is that he won a seat that Ted Kennedy held for decades; a seat the Democrats assumed to be a given. He won the seat that Kennedy seemingly held for a lifetime, while trying to fulfill his lifelong "mission" to pass socialized health care in the U.S. But Brown won anyway, in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1. He won in a state that hasn't sent a Republican to the Senate since 1972. He won in a state that already has government health care, but is suffering mightily under the burden of high taxes and unemployment.

Tonight, for the first time in almost two years I have hope--not the hollow kind of politically promised Obama-hope. I'm talking about real hope; hope that stems from faith in the citizens of this country; hope in our realization that we have let the government slip out of our control, to our everlasting shame. I have hope that it's not too late. Victories like this one, as unlikely as it is, will help many of us believe that we can fix our problems and we must. That fix starts with electing better people--people that believe in our Constitution and the power of the vote; people that believe in our nation, its founding principles and our future. I have hope that we will stop electing the arrogant, self-serving thieves who scarcely acknowledge all the "stupid" people in the masses, and start electing public servants and statesmen again. I hate to confess that I have been discouraged of late and for that reason haven't had the stomach to blog. But the hope I now feel is the like the first warm rays of spring sunshine after a very long winter. IF we as citizens stay the course, we may yet salvage our inheritance. In spite of all our flaws and failings, our system still works. We still have the best form of government ever known to man and its preservation is a worthy cause if ever there was one. I have hope that many of us have learned some painful lessons and that this victory is the first of many lessons we will teach during the elections in November.