What Does Scott Brown's Victory Really Mean?

Scott Brown’s stunning victory in the Massachusetts special election last month has been dissected for the past three weeks. One year after President Obama took 62% of the vote in the historically liberal state; the people went against tradition and elected Brown with 51.9% of the vote.

But is Brown’s victory a metaphor for the problems with party politics our country is now facing? The victory was monumental for blocking (at least temporarily) the President’s health care bill.

Obviously, all the chips had to fall into place for Brown to pull off the upset, and about three weeks before the election it became apparent that Brown had a realistic chance to win.

“As a republican, I wasn’t paying much attention at first,” explained John Collias, “I thought it was a done- deal; she (Martha Coakley) thought it was a done deal.”

Collias, a Fall River resident, said he always votes but, like many other Massachusetts Republicans, he didn’t start paying close attention until the polls starting coming out.

One of the earliest polls (conducted by Suffolk University) on September 16 of last year showed Coakley holding a commanding 30 point lead over Brown. The Boston Globe reported Coakley's lead had been cut in half on January 2.

“People think the fix is in. People get mad when they think their vote is taken for granted, and I think that's what happened here” Collias said.

And when Brown, now famously, explained that the seat he was running for did not belong to Ted Kennedy, but rather belonged to the people of Massachusetts he got more attention.

People voted for him, and the healthcare bill was blocked.

“I love my country, I want to see the president get things done,” Collias said. “But I think the Republicans just want a chance to fine tune the (healthcare) bill, before it passes.”

Time will tell whether Brown’s victory will be just another Republican vote in the Senate, or if he will be able to break down party lines the way he did in Massachusetts.