Crazy, right? But maybe not.
Reason #1: This disappearance of the centrist Senator is bad for America.
As we all know the Senate fillibuster has gone from a last ditch effort that required physically occupying the stump and talking non-stop to a tactic where any Senator simply tells the majority leader “I fillibuster this” and a cloture vote is automatically required. No Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Strom Thurmond vs. Civil Rights acts of physical endurance necessary.
This rule as it is currently used means that every piece of legislation must have 60 votes and pass cloture to pass the Senate. My my perspective neither party will have such a majority in the forseeable future. Bi-partisanship is necessary for any bill to come out of the Senate. And yet bipartisanship is exactly the thing that is dying more and more every two years on Capitol Hill.
Look at National Journal’s 2010 voter ratings. Look at the 10 most moderate Republicans and 10 most moderate Democrats. Half of those who occupied the center in 2010 will be gone come the start of the new legislative session in 2013:
Retired in 2010: Judd Gregg, Kit Bond
Retiring in 2012: Joe Liberman, George Voinovich, Jim Webb
Defeated in 2010: Blanche Lincoln, Robert Bennett (lost to Tea Party challenger in Primary), Lisa Murkowski (she squeaked by with a write in after loss to Tea Party challenger)
50/50 chance for re-election in 2012: Ben Nelson, John Tester and Claire McCaskill (rode in on the anti-Bush tsunami of 2006), Olympia Snowe and Dick Lugar (they’ll surely face a dangerous Tea Party candidte in the primary) and Scott Brown
The center has been shrinking for both parties since the Civil Rights issue began pushing southern Democrats into the GOP.
Across the aisle friendships are now historical relics and gridlock has become the rule. Moreover the voting public has also become much more hardened in their partisan views to a large extent because of how partisan and one sided their “news” has become. More and more people get all of their “news” about politics and policy from the blatantly partisan outlets on cable TV (Fox News and MSNBC and to a lesser extent The Daily Show) or the internet (Salon.com, The Huffington Post and DailyKOS among others.) As a result voters have become much less open to contrary opinions – it’s no longer point/counterpoint. It’s this point is right and here’s why the other guys are assholes. Voters have become much more likely to see the other side not as fellow patriots with thoughtful ideas that should be considered in a respectful manner but rather as anti-American zealots who hate your way of life and hate America.
If Republicans like Scott Brown do not have a chance to make a real political career in the Senate other similar GOP centrists won’t even bother running. The GOP will move further to the right and barring large 60+ seat Democratic majorities nothing of any importance will pass the Senate. Big issues that require swift and decisive legislative action will bog down in the Senate and our country will fail to adequately adjust to the ever changing world.
Reason #2: The parochial interests of Massachusetts
Scott Brown is one of the most powerful Senators in DC. He has been since his swearing in. And it’s solely because of his centrism and willingness to be open to negotiating with the Democratic majority. In all likelyhood the Democratic challenger he’ll face in 2012 will be a true ideological successor of Ted Kennedy whose long-term future is to become Bernie Sanders or Pat Leahy – a liberal stalwart who is never invited to the negotiating table when important legislation is being discussed because they are always a safe “yes” vote for the Democratic leadership.
A free agent like Brown can ensure that Massachusetts’ interests are always taken into account in every important (aka controversial and difficult to pass) bill. Because everybody hates pork and specific give-aways to certain states only when that state isn’t theirs, right?
Moreover, as a Democrat, I can take pleasure in the fact that every six years the RSCC will need to flood money into Massachusetts to get Brown re-elected just so he can vote against the GOP leadership 50% of the time when it counts.
Somebody needs to talk me out of this or you may find me secretly donating to Scott Brown’s re-election campaign next year….
