Scott Brown’s Meteoric Rise in New Hampshire Proves Mediocre

Ever since he lost the senate to Elizabeth Warren in the 2012 presidential elections, ex-Massachusetts senator Scott Brown has since decided to go back to square one in the state of New Hampshire, a hotly contested political battlefield during elections. However, his move is not entirely driven by political aspirations. His family often spent vacation time at their second home in the town of Rye, N.H. Brown’s political career, decidedly squashed for two years by Elizabeth Warren, has sent him on a meteoric rise in New Hampshire; so far, though, it’s proven to be no more mediocre than his tenure in the Bay state.

Much speculation has been cast as to whether or not  Scott Brown would run again, and never once has he denied any rumors. In fact, he announced his plans to run for senate last month, and then announced official candidacy yesterday. His opponent, for the third time in a row, is a woman. He defeated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2010, but lost to Elizabeth Warren despite many shortsighted attacks on her character. This is Brown’s modus operandi. He doesn’t bring any revolutionary ideas to the table, and despite his boasts of Republican bipartisanship, he gets trapped in the same pitfalls as Tea Party Republicans: chauvinistic displays of trying to tear women down, and attempting to demonize the Affordable Care Act – the enrollment of which garnered 7 million people who did not have health insurance; and for those that previously did have some form of insurance, must have deemed it mediocre enough to rise up and sign for it on www.healthcare.gov before March 31st.

He continually finds himself outside the zeitgeist of politics, and far out of touch with the reality of people’s lives. He lambastes free health insurance (ignoring his own support of Mitt Romney’s version of the bill in 2006) for those that can’t possibly afford it, and for the people that have devastating sicknesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar depression, cancer, or HIV/AIDS. Yet, he votes for the interests of those on Wall Street, and has targeted the Environmental Protection Agency with damaging consequence. The United Nations released a report this week citing that the worst of climate change has yet to come, and widespread famine and drought are believed to be a reality within our lifetime. Brown’s support of companies like Koch Industries, that contribute green house gasses in our world – the kind that ruin entire ecosystems – show that he doesn’t have anyone’s best interests at heart other than his wallet.

Scott Brown and Women

Just one week after Brown set his eyes for the prize once again in the D.C. wheelhouse, he and his team released a biting mud-slinging ad against his political adversary Jeanne Shaheen. She was criticized for her positive vote on Obamacare (ACA) set to dramatized background music and heavy-handed editing made to paint her in a bad light. Although ad attacks are all too common in high stakes campaign seasons (especially when it earns you a seat in Washington), Brown continues a pervasive and reductive pattern of disrespecting woman. To put that in perspective, he continually called out Warren on her Native American heritage, and claimed she lied about it to get into Harvard. He never missed a beat to add this to his political narrative, despite the fact he had no proof that Warren was, in fact, not being forthright about her ethnicity – and by turns, her identity.

This all came to a head to in 2012, when campaign staffers employed by Brown, dressed up as Native Americans, covered themselves in tribal paint designs, and dispersed into the streets of Boston to mimic Native American chants. Although he condemned the behavior of his employees during the aftermath, not only did he not fire them, but he did not apologize to Elizabeth Warren. No, instead, he continued his misguided rhetoric against her and continued to slam her for her supposed lies (that again, he had no proof of).

There’s still plenty of time in 2014, and there’s no telling what will happen. It’s possible he has learned from his mistakes in the two years he spent outside of the political sphere. But it doesn’t seem likely, what with such haste he’s gone on to execute in discrediting Jeanne Shaheen, a rising star for Democrats in New Hampshire. The mid-term elections are still a way’s away, so the citizens of New Hampshire, the Greater Boston area, or the entire nation have not yet seen Brown dip down to lazy politics with hurtful implications. There’s no telling for sure that there will be, either. But if his current track record proves anything, it’s that meteors are huge and bright, but quickly burn out into a mediocre dust with the first contact of the realities of the atmosphere.

Scott Brown came and went, now let’s hope he stays out.

Written by Tyler Collins

Sources:

Boston.com

The Huffington Post

The Boston Globe

Think Progress