Arthur Schaper: What Would Senator Brooke Say, Mister Governor?

Friday, August 02, 2013

Arthur Christopher Schaper, GoLocalWorcester Guest MINDSETTER™

Edward Brooke is a shining example of the party that the GOP should be for Massachusetts.

In 1990, Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first popularly-elected African-American governor in United States history. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts is well-known as the second African-American governor. Unfortunately, his tenure has been uninspiring and impoverishing, despite its initial significance.

With the secondary distinction of an African-American governor, the Bay State should be primarily recognized for the first popularly-elected African-American US Senator, Republican Edward Brooke, the eponym of a state charter school, and the epitome of a social liberal statesman who also believed in balancing budgets and cutting costs.

Rising above

In the 1960s, Brooke had state-wide recognition, while Democrats in the South and throughout the country were still putting blacks in the back of the bus. Serving as state Attorney General, then winning the US Senate, Brooke amassed sizeable grassroots support. He petitioned for votes not just as a black man, or as a Republican, but a man who could do the job. "You can believe in Brooke!" was his campaign slogan. Massachusetts voters believed, and Brooke received higher office for his efforts.

Brooke’s legacy as an African-American Republican US Senator rebukes the empty rhetoric of Former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, whose trite and trashy remark that a dark vein of intolerance exists in the Republican Party in fact demonstrated his own darker vein of ignorance. Powell’s lingering presence in the Republican Party actually proves that the GOP embraces a wide coalition with loose borders, enough that a moderate like Powell is permitted to call himself a Republican despite twice endorsing President Obama.

Has Brooke betrayed his party, like Powell? Not at all. "I am a Republican," Brooke reaffirmed in an interview three years ago. Why did he join the GOP?

"They gave me the nomination," he replied right away.

Moving forward

In addition to opposing McCarthyism, Brooke recognized that the Republican Party had (and still has!) the "more progressive" record on civil rights: the Republicans had desegregated the Massachusetts National Guard. Senator Brooke could have also mentioned the efforts of President Dwight David Eisenhower to enforce desegregation in Southern public schools, and Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy, which finished the job.

Of course, Brooke never shied away from his socially liberal leanings. He has proffered time and again that the Republican Party, like any political platform, must have a head and a heart (a more libertarian-leaning GOP would unify both).

True to his fiscally conservative roots, Brooke never believed that government should do for a man what he can do for himself.

"I don't like huge government," Brooke asserted. Neither should we, and neither should Governor Deval Patrick, whose administration has encouraged an unprecedented rise in welfare fraud and spiraling medical costs. If anything spells "huge government," it would be Governor Deval Patrick: high taxes, higher spending, height of regulations.

Enabling poverty, not eliminating it

Having outlined Senator Brooke's background, I began wondering what Brooke would say about Governor Patrick's two terms in Beacon Hill.

First, he would be appalled at the indiscriminate expansion of welfare under Patrick's administration.

During an interview on his life in politics, Brooke offered the following advice for all who were seeking success: "A work ethic."

In contrast, Governor Patrick enables laziness, refusing to enforce limits on food assistance. He assumes that Massachusetts residents do not have it in them to make it.

Brooke would remind Patrick that there are no easy roads to success. Patrick must assume that only he can succeed, and everyone else should bask in his political ascendance as they wallow in government dependence, far beneath the prosperity achieved through harnessing one's gifts and talents. Brooke would brook no argument and reprimand Patrick for enabling such slovenly sloth in the Commonwealth.

Finally, Brooke would likely take Patrick to task for putting his voters, both black and white, in a place of poverty and stagnation, where no one can get a job, yet offer them access to payouts on plastic. Nothing exacerbates poverty like easy money, at least easy for those who get it, as opposed to those who pay for it.

Taking initiative

What would Republican Edward Brooke say to Governor Patrick? He would voice deep disappointment, for Patrick's policies place Massachusetts residents "in the back of the bus."

As an illustration of his contrasting belief in individual liberty, Brooke recalled a moment from his youth, "My grandmother told me: 'Remember your place now.' That disturbed me."

Senator Brooke later learned, "Your place is anywhere you want it to be. You make that decision. It's left up to you."

Republicans like Brooke make getting a job easier than government assistance. Only the Republican Party, not Governor Patrick, can deliver Brooke's message.

Brooke’s history with the Republican Party, and in the Northeast, should sponsor greater support for the Massachusetts GOP, which has for too long fielded middling standard-bearers instead of fiscal conservatives, for fear of offending Big Government types. Instead of hiding behind watered-down mantras, Republicans need to stand on principle, as did Senator Edward Brooke, and stick with their core convictions, then inform everyone about the truth behind the GOP.

I can think of no better slogan for the Mass GOP than, "What would Senator Brooke say, Mister Governor?"

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCSchaper, reach him at [email protected], and read more at Schaper's Corner and As He Is, So Are We Ministries.