Response to Scott Brown's Win

Journalists are writing that Brown's win over Martha Coakley was an indication that people have a diminished confidence in Obama's agenda after his one year in office. But are they really disillusioned with the Obama Administration? Or with reality itself?

After such an energetic and exciting 2008 presidential campaign, we all expected Obama to surge into office with his "new hope" attitude, wave his magic wand and solve all the nation's problems with the drop of a hat. But we were disappointed when this didn't happen. We failed to recognize that Obama's policies needed more time to be put into action and work themselves out. After all, one short year isn't enough time to clean up after the Bush Administration's eight years of incompetence, nor is it enough time to deal with issues like Health Care, which has basically been a doomed issue for years now.

So along came Scott Brown and we were quickly swept off our feet by his celebrity-like charms. We were attracted to his energetic personality with the good looks and all-American attitude (so much more interesting a persona than Martha Coakley; I mean, heck, this guy knew Curt Schilling wasn't a Yankees fan!). With such hunkish, pick-up-truck-driving charisma, Brown certainly appeared to possess the magic wand...but ultimately he's not going to get things done any faster or any more effectively than any other mortal being.

The disillusioning reality of the matter is that NOBODY has a magic, problem-solving wand that can instantaneously solve problems, and switching from the political Left back to the Right - so quickly - is just going to be counterproductive in the long run. We need to choose one direction and stick to it...at least for a little while longer than one brief year.

If we elected Obama in 2008 because we wanted change, then we have to be accepting of the amount of time it may take for this change to occur, and also accepting of the risks that may come along with it (things like more taxation and more government control for health care reform). But maybe Brown's win over Coakley means we don't really want change. Maybe the idea of change sounds good, but the reality of change is much too scary for us to handle....