Reasons to be wary, and reasons to be excited

Scott Brown, soon to be senator of the bluest of blue states. Bless you, Massachusetts voters!

It's not a total victory. Here's why:

1. I didn't know until today that Brown voted for RomneyCare in Massachusetts. This guy doesn't want to be the forty-first vote for the sake of defending individual rights in medicine. He wants to be the forty-first vote so that he can block the Democrats from being able to take credit for any action, and perhaps so that Republicans can propose their own bad healthcare policies.
2. As other astute Objectivist bloggers have observed, we're still not having a debate in terms of principles. It is only ObamaCare vs. the current system, which is a false dichotomy. The question should not be "our current set of controls, taxes, and entitlements" vs. "even more controls, taxes, and entitlements." The question should be: A free market in health care, or continued tyranny?

But here's why I am excited:

1. The people of Massachusetts have bought us time -- time to turn the debate toward one of principles, time to spread the idea that health care is not a right, and that doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and insurers are not slaves to be chained for the purpose of churning out care for everyone, regardless of whether or not he has earned it.
2. There's been talk of what would happen in midterm elections if healthcare "reform" was passed over the protests of the American people...but now politicians facing election this year have a concrete example staring them right in the face of what happens when you run roughshod over your constituents. And that, I hope, will scare them out of marching in lockstep with Obama's demands.

I had been discouraged by the House and Senate passages of "reform" bills and hadn't written a letter to the editor or even posted to this blog much for a while. But now I'm reenergized for activism. I thank the people of Massachusetts for that!