Oh, What A Week!

What a difference a little bit of time can make. And I do mean little.

Not long ago, the entire MSM and Democrat Party establishment (plus many members of the Republican establishment, lest we forget) were declaring that conservatism was dead; that Reagan’s influence was extinguished; that Republicans would not regain power for at least another 40 years; that supply side economic theory had been rejected; and that the Democrat Party had been so embraced by America that its policies would be unassailable for the foreseeable future.

But this past week, within the space of three days, all that conventional wisdom was laid to waste and liberalism yet again was shown to have no clothes.

Scott Brown’s defeat of Martha Coakley on Tuesday was a political event of seismic proportions, whose importance can not be overstated. Not only did a Republican defeat a Democrat in the bluest of blue states -- he did it running on a conservative platform that was loudly and unambiguously opposed to Obama's agenda.

Brown was positively Reaganesque in his touting of across-the-board tax cuts and forceful national defense. And much like Reagan in 1980, he pointed out to his fellow Bay Staters that John Kennedy, unlike Ted Kennedy and the rest of the modern Democrats, was a pro-business tax-cutter whose economic policies would have no place in today’s Democrat Party.

On Wednesday, before the jubilation from Brown’s victory even had a chance to begin subsiding, another resounding win for conservatism (in other words, for freedom) occurred when the Supreme Court struck down much of the essence of McCain-Feingold, that free-speech-killing charade liberals like to refer to as “campaign finance reform.”

And then -- in case you actually needed proof that liberals can not compete with conservatives when it comes to using facts and logic to state their case -- Air America Radio met its official demise on Thursday. It stopped broadcasting new shows; announced that within a week it would also stop broadcasting re-runs; and confirmed that it would be liquidated in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The past week has been the best and most important for conservatism in years, and it has been hilarious watching the contortions employed by left wing spin doctors as they try to rationalize it.

One of the most amusing things that has been said by spin doctors is that Massachusetts is more of an independent state than a Democrat state, and therefore Tuesday’s results are not that amazing after all. But in reality, up until Tuesday every one of Massachusetts’s senators and congressmen was a Democrat; Massachusetts had not elected a Republican to the Senate since I was one year old; and only 12 percent of the state’s voters were registered as Republicans.

On top of all that, the seat Brown won had been held by a Democrat for 57 years. It had been held by Ted Kennedy for 47 of those years, all the way until his recent death, and throughout Kennedy’s time in the Senate he made it clear that national health care was his lifelong dream. Yet Brown made defeating national health care the centerpiece of his campaign, and he wound up winning the so-called “Kennedy seat” after famously asserting “it’s the people’s seat.” In the process, he was victorious even in Barney Frank’s district.

I am not dense enough to believe that Massachusetts has become a red state. In fact, there is much work ahead of us since Democrats and liberals (who are virtually indistinguishable) hold many more legislative seats than Republicans and conservatives (who are not always the same thing). However, I know the nation’s tide has turned strongly against Obama’s liberalism, and I know that the demographic once known as Reagan Democrats has reawakened with a vengeance. In honor of freedom and America, and the great revolutionary from Massachusetts for whom the beer is named, I am drinking a Samuel Adams tonight and looking forward to the coming philosophical battle.

et ceteras

If you read any of the posts on my travel blog about our recent trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I hope you enjoyed them. I plan to publish two more in the near future. But now that we've been back in Florida for a week, and both my house (thanks to Erika) and my desk at work are almost back to normal, I feel ready to resume this blog by offering up a sampling of the thoughts running through my head.

First off, I have to congratulate Erika for being chosen as a design team member for the scrapbooking web site Polka Dot Whimsy. Yes, I'm biased when I say she always churns out excellent scrapbook pages, especially when you consider that scrapbooking is not my cup of tea...but even so, I know I am correct to make that claim. She often posts the pages on her own blog. If you are into scrapbooking or anything similar to it, you will enjoy following her creations.

Switching to politics, it is a simple fact that Massachusetts is as blue as the U.N. flag, and that it elects Republicans to federal office about as often as snowflakes fall in Venezuela. For those reasons, I am not one of those Republicans who expect Scott Brown to defeat Martha Coakley on Tuesday. But there is no doubt that the race is a genuine toss-up, and that Coakley is having to fight for a seat she would usually win without breaking a sweat. That this is true in Massachusetts, of all places -- and that Brown's rise has occurred as he focuses on opposing federal involvement in health care, which was Ted Kennedy's most cherished cause for more than 30 years -- is proof that the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to Obama's agenda.

Switching to pro football, this year's NFL playoffs have been the most uncompetitive and boring I can remember. Minnesota just beat Dallas 34-3. Arizona gave up 45 points -- twice! It's hard to take the games seriously. Hopefully the Chargers-Jets contest that starts in a few minutes will be good and balanced.

Switching to college football, I know the season ended more than a week ago, but I have to mention that I found it almost scandalous that the two "BCS busters" (Boise State and TCU) were forced to play each other, which denied them a chance to play teams from the BCS conferences. Considering that BCS busters were 3-1 in BCS bowls going into this post-season, it looks like "the system" pitted Boise State and TCU against each other in order to avoid any possibility of another credibility-damaging outcome.

And sticking with college football, I have to say that the Outback Bowl -- in which my Auburn Tigers pulled out a 38-35 overtime thriller against Northwestern -- was by far the best bowl game of the season. I watched it from the 35-yard line and almost went into cardiac arrest several times, but it was worth it.

And finally, back to a personal note. A week ago I did something I swore I would never do: re-enter the world of dog ownership. We got a 2-year-old, already-potty-trained, sweet-as-could-be Chihuahua. We got her for Sarah, and even though my reasons for opposing the move are as valid as ever, Sarah's excitement proves we did the right thing. Here is a picture I took in the car the day we picked her up: