Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts on ObamaCare, via YouTube video: "Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway. Their attitude shows Washington at its very worst – the presumption that they know best, and they're going to get their way whether the American people like it or not." Quote via Politico's Mike Allen.
I could do without the demagoguing of how the bill is going to "take away" Medicare money from seniors, and a senator from Massachusetts should be familiar with a book by an earlier senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, about moments when politicians did the right thing even though it was politically unpopular. The Republicans pressed on with the Iraq War, for instance, even when it became unpopular. We have a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy for a reason. With all those caveats, I do think Mr. Brown is on to something with his reference to and denunciation of the arrogance of the elites, a theme that is resonating these days across the political spectrum.