Mark Tapscott: Scott Brown can save Democrats from themselves

He aimed well because his shot ultimately led to victory in the American Revolution and adoption of the Constitution under which we now live.

Wherever he is today, the spirit of that brave Bay State militiaman from long ago is alive and well in the magnificent victory of Republican Scott Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley and “the machine.”

It’s difficult to envision how Brown’s victory could be any sweeter or less likely. President Obama carried Massachusetts by 26 points in 2008. The state’s congressional delegation is all Democrat. Coakley, a veteran machine pol, had all the right connections in the bluest of blue states and in Washington, D.C.

Most important, Brown sought the Senate seat held for nearly 47 years by Ted Kennedy and before him by his martyred brother, John. There could be no greater sacrilege than a Republican winning “the Kennedy seat.”

Yet in one of those wonderful turns that ought to persuade the most hardened of atheists that God not only exists but He also has a divine sense of humor, Brown is now in a position to save America from the catastrophe of Kennedy’s great obsession, nationalizing health care.

Just as a month ago, Coakley looked like a shoo-in to be elected, it appeared before Tuesday that nothing could stop Democrats from enacting Obamacare and thus fulfill Kennedy’s dream.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would complete their secret dickering, Coakley would join the Democrats’ “filibuster-proof” 60-seat Senate majority, a final vote would be taken, and Obama would sign the bill into law.

But that very inevitability was the defining ground for Brown’s Massachusetts miracle. The Democratic machine had it all figured out. They just forgot to consult the people.

“I can stop it,” Brown said, promising to be the 41stvote against Obamacare. Not even last-minute appeals by Obama and Kennedy’s widow could stop Massachusetts voters from telling Brown to go for it.

Obama and his Democratic compatriots likely don’t see it in the ashes of defeat, but Brown may have saved them from themselves, if they are smart enough to admit what just happened and why.

Obama was elected on promises to cut taxes for most Americans and a “net spending cut” in the federal budget, and to make government work better by bringing to it a new level of transparency and accountability. It was the perfect appeal for a liberal Democrat masquerading as a moderate while seeking to lead a center-right nation.

But once in office, he joined Reid and Pelosi in the biggest expansion of federal spending, red tape, and debt since the New Deal. It’s been mostly done behind closed doors with no transparency at all. It’s as if they decided to enact every liberal dream and damn the consequences.

Worse, they scoffed at the Middle American Rebellion their proposals incited across the country last summer in thousands of Tea Party protests, raucous town hall meetings, and the Sept. 12 march of more than a million angry citizens on the National Mall.

In short, Obama and his compatriots identified themselves as the machine Brown vowed to defeat.

There is only one way Democrats can rescue themselves now: Admit they overreached, go back to the drawing boards on their major policies and programs, and start over. To be credible in this effort, they must reach out to Republicans and seek genuine consensus.

In other words, our Democratic majority must do what the Founders intended our representatives to do all along; respect minority rights, reject partisan extremism, and seek workable compromises that serve the national interest. Otherwise, America suffers the same tyranny of the majority that destroyed the ancient democracies.

Do you think Obama and the Democrats in Congress understand this reality? Me, neither.

Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott’s Copy Desk blog on washingtonexaminer.com.