Readers Write About Scott Brown
Massachusetts voters have an opportunity to correct the crippling desire of the Senate to engage in partisanship at the country’s expense. President Clinton, in his rousing speech at the Democratic Convention, emphasized the need for bipartisanship and indeed listed it as the main qualification for being elected to that body.
Sen. [Scott] Brown has an outstanding record of engaging in bipartisanship while he has been in the Senate. He has reached across the aisle on several occasions, voting with the Democratic majority to pass legislation he considers favorable to the citizens of both Massachusetts and the country. By his actions, Sen. Brown has served Massachusetts well.
For the good of the country, the Senate desperately needs to cease its partisan ways. That goes for both Republicans and Democrats. A start in the right direction to end that corrosive practice is by voting to retain Sen. Brown, who, by his actions and votes, meets the test for bipartisanship.
That is why the Massachusetts Senatorial election is so important.
Marshall O. Potter, Jr.
Vienna, Va.
In this campaign season, we’ve now had many opportunities to see Sen. Scott Brown’s presentation of himself, as he tries to make the case for re-election. There are many reasons to be troubled by what he has shown us.
My short list would include his eagerness to persistently question the ethnic heritage of his opponent, Elizabeth Warren. This tactic of his has been offensive on so many levels! Unless he is a geneticist or genealogist, there is no basis for Scott Brown to question Elizabeth Warren’s family background, except for the obvious political one. Scott Brown has shown tremendous ignorance about the complexity of racial inheritance: one is rarely either all or nothing. One doesn’t necessarily “look like” one’s racial or ethnic makeup, as he as ludicrously suggested; what else does he expect of Warren—feathers and war paint?
Most Americans get it; we elected a president whose own family is woven of diverse strands. And although Elizabeth Warren has proudly claimed her Cherokee and Delaware roots as part of who she is, Scott Brown’s campaign has gone over the edge with racially charged expressions against her. He himself may not be a racist, but he is willing to appeal to those who are. The chief of the Cherokee nation has demanded he apologize for the mocking actions and speech of his staffers.
Scott Brown’s black-and-white thinking is uneducated and childish. He’s made contesting Elizabeth Warren’s family narrative his top campaign issue, with relentless ads [expressing] faux outrage at “The Lie.” This hyper-focus is an astounding deflection of your attention. If Scott Brown has redirected your awareness sufficiently, perhaps you won’t notice that that he’s voted against three jobs bills, blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, voted down middle class tax relief, opposed the Disclose Act [which would identify the donors of large political contributions], voted against keeping student loan rates from doubling, and more; most of his votes have been in support of the Republican congressional agenda to stymie the President’s efforts to help working families.
I have no concern whatsoever that Elizabeth Warren might be a “fake Native American.” However, I am disturbed that Senator Brown is a fake Independent. Study his voting record; you’ll learn more about Scott Brown from his votes than from the candidate himself.
Dinah Kudatsky
Amherst
