It is both amusing and frustrating to watch Republicans and Democrats try to make hay out of Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Republicans assume that Brown will eventually warm up to big-government conservativism and support the entitlements and programs of the right. Meanwhile, Democrats rationalize that Brown won by tapping into "the same voter anger" that put them into office in 2008.¹

Some Democrats, for example Howard Dean, have gone so far as to claim that voters elected Brown because the House and Senate bills were not comprehensive enough.²

The truth, however, is that Scott Brown was elected by neither Republicans nor Democrats. He was elected by a large middle-class contingent of independent-minded voters, most of whom want the federal government to get out of their wallets and out of their private lives.

Brown explicitly ran on the promise that he would be the vote that would block health reform. On the campaign trail he signed autographs "Scott 41" and told crowds he would kill the trillion-dollar Democratic mega-bill. The threat of a single mega-bill may be past, but now Democratic leaders are concocting a plan in which Congress passes the Senate bill (which is unpopular in the House) while Pelosi and Reid cut a deal to guarantee that House-friendly provisions are added later. This approach does not require a supermajority, so Brown's 41st vote will not stop anything.

Whether Republican or Democrat, anyone who wishes to be the voice of the independent majority needs to understand that voters don't want Obamacare in any way, shape, or form. We want to enact the one political philosophy that would represent true hope and change in the United States: constitutionally limited government.

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¹ Several elected officials have made this claim, including President Obama and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

² See Howard Dean's appearance on MSNBC's television show Hardball with Chris Matthews, aired January 20, 2010.

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