“People Aren’t Stupid, And Leaders Should Figure Out They’re More Informed Now Than Ever”
Jan 30, 2010 14 Comments ›› Erik Wong
When I arrived at his cramped state senate offices, Scott Brown had just opened one of the many packages he’s received since his stunning U.S. Senate victory 11 days ago. A local artist has done up a version of the iconic red, white and blue collage from the 2008 presidential campaign that shows Barack Obama with the word “Hope.” This one features a smiling Mr. Brown instead, but the word below is different. It reads “Change.”
By filling the seat vacated by liberal lion Ted Kennedy in a state Mr. Obama carried by 26 points barely over a year ago, Mr. Brown has certainly changed the political landscape. We sit down the morning after President Obama’s State of the Union message, an address in large part shaped by what’s been called “the Scott Heard ‘Round the World.” Mr. Obama uncharacteristically recognized some unforced errors in pushing his liberal agenda, along with expressing some new flexibility on issues ranging from small business tax cuts to offshore oil drilling to nuclear power.
Settling into a pinkish-red upholstered chair that looks like what it is—a castoff from a state furniture inventory—Mr. Brown reflects on his new celebrity. “I have to rely on who I’ve been and still am. I’m still the guy who works out at the YMCA and hangs out at the coffee shop,” he says. “The way to handle the attention is to fall back on normalcy.”
But he knows things are no longer normal. A few hours after we talk he will appear on Jay Leno’s TV show. His daughter Ayla—the one who performed on “American Idol”—has been offered a job by a major TV network. And the symbols that propelled his campaign forward are now a part of popular culture. On the day we meet, the Boston Globe has a lengthy article on the meaning of the brown leather “barn coat” he wore on the campaign trail. And then there is the pickup truck he drove around the state, which has become a symbol of his authenticity and “Everyman” origins as a kid who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and was scared straight by a judge after he was caught shoplifting as a 12-year-old.
The key to Mr. Brown’s victory was politically independent voters in the Bay State, who favored him by 3-1. So how should other candidates court the independent vote, which in most parts of the country is growing faster than that of either major party?
“People out there are disgusted,” he says, shaking his head. “Especially with any one party dominating government and talking down to them. They want straight talk, no BS. A focus on jobs and what really creates them. They want problem solvers in office, and it helped me that I was able to show I could work with Democrats in the legislature.”
That last point has not gotten the attention it deserves. For all of the excitement Mr. Brown generated among conservatives, his actual legislative record reveals a man who rejects ideological rigidity on most issues.
A businessman who attended a fund-raiser for Mr. Brown a few years ago tells me that he marveled at how the man was able to navigate the abortion issue to the grudging satisfaction of both camps. “He directed people to his Web site for specifics, but mostly he listened and made clear that he respected the heartfelt views of everyone on the issue,” he says. “That won him a lot of points from a tough crowd.” Not exactly straight talk, perhaps, but certainly smart politics. (Mr. Brown does not favor rolling back Roe v. Wade, but supports parental notification, banning late-term abortions, and conscience clauses for medical workers.)
I ask Mr. Brown at what point during the four hard months he spent campaigning he felt he was truly connecting with Massachusetts’ voters. He instantly replies that it was the first TV ad he ran in late December, which began in black and white showing John F. Kennedy pushing for his 1962 across-the-board cut in tax rates. The screen then slowly morphed into an image of Mr. Brown as he calls for a new tax cut by finishing Kennedy’s remarks: “Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary.”
Massachusetts’ senator-elect says he had always admired JFK as a president who “wanted to help everybody,” and when he and his staff pored over that president’s speeches his defense of tax cuts leaped out. “That’s what we need now. Across-the-board tax cuts,” he says. “A payroll tax cut would have been better than any government stimulus.”
Mr. Brown says he designed his campaign to revolve around four issues: taxes, excessive spending, terrorism and health care. But it’s clear that voter angst over ObamaCare was the rocket fuel propelling him to victory. “People got where I was,” he says. He was often asked to sign his autograph with the number “41″ next to it, meaning he was running to be the key vote to block health-care legislation from final passage.
Nonetheless, Mr. Brown is clearly sensitive—and a tad defensive—about his state’s own universal health-care system. It now covers about 95% of the population; but it has also led to the nation’s highest insurance premiums. It is driving hospitals towards bankruptcy and making it more difficult for people to see a doctor. Mr. Brown voted for the system in 2006 when it was proposed by then-GOP Gov. Mitt Romney. “Of course, it can be made better,” Mr. Brown says today. “But it was bipartisan and it fit our local needs. We were being eaten alive by health-care costs.” Universal coverage hasn’t changed that, however.
Asked about the Senate committees he’d like to be a member of, Mr. Brown mentions Armed Services and Homeland Security (he’s a 30-year National Guard veteran) along with Appropriations. The last choice seems mildly surprising; Appropriations is the Senate’s “favor factory”—it parcels out earmarks. “I’ve not been shy in the legislature about telling people no,” he says. “I’ve told groups I don’t think a grant is for them, and we’ve improved the transparency of earmarks here in the legislature. Let’s bring the power of the Internet to Congress so people can debate and control earmarks.”
Mr. Brown’s election has touched off a debate among Democrats about the direction their party should take, as populists tangle with moderates over how or whether to play the class-warfare card. So why does he think Democratic attacks on him for opposing Mr. Obama’s bank tax didn’t seem to gain traction? “People are mad at banks and the TARP money. But the banks are paying off that money with interest,” he says. ‘They get that a bank tax will be transferred down to individuals through ATM fees and the amount of money they can lend to create jobs will also be reduced.”
Mr. Brown says it frustrates him that too many politicians still believe that people will be fooled by what they’re proposing. “People aren’t stupid, and leaders should figure out they’re better informed now than ever.” Perhaps that explains how Scott Brown was able to pull off his improbable Cinderella story.
Back in September, picking up on the rising tide of public anger over health reform, excessive spending, and one-party arrogance, he fashioned a simple, compelling narrative to deal with it: no to a rushed, confusing health-care bill, yes to a freeze on federal spending and to introducing some sunlight into government. Mr. Brown repeated it over and over with the inner confidence that his message would eventually resonate. It did.
