Voting for Quality
As I watched all the sturm und drang about the Massachusetts Senate race, I realized just how unhappy I was with the Democratic Party. It didn’t help that Martha Coakley was involved in an atrocious miscarriage of justice back when she was a county district attorney. Nor when the Dems came out with a shameful ad claiming Scott Brown would bar rape victims from hospitals.
The other morning on my walk, I ran into a couple I know who are very informed about current events. The wife is very liberal and pro-Dem; the husband is more discerning. I asked her if she would vote for a Republican against Barbara Boxer if he had a better record and made more sense. No, she answered adamantly. Then you, I said, are part of the problem. We talked further. She shifted out of her adamance.
I was talking about Tom Campbell, who entered the Senate race after his gubernatorial campaign went nowhere against a billionaire waging a spare-no-expense assault on the governor’s seat. I’ve known of Tom for fifteen years, and personally for a decade. I’ve worked with him and expect to again.
He has impeccable credentials in both law and economics, but his trump card is his character. He is bright, funny, a lover of truth, and a patriot in the right sense. He has an impressively independent voting record. For example, when in Congress, he broke with his party by voting, in vain, to sustain Glass-Steagall, the abrogation of which created the economic disaster in which we find our world today.
Unlike the fellow in Massachusetts, Tom Campbell is the kind of Republican we need in the Senate. He is a principled man, a statesman, who puts nation ahead of party.
There are issues where he and I disagree, but I confess to being humbled by the scope of his knowledge and the deliberation that have produces his views.
Ya gotta think Bay Staters probably wish they had the opportunity to vote for such a candidate.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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