Most of us don't have the time to become experts on every issue that comes before Congress. That's why we have to trust our representatives and senators to do what we would do if we had the opportunity to study the issue in question. In this case, the issue is health care reform and the person I am choosing to trust is Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH.
Now, to some extent, this choice is based on personal experience. I have known Senator Brown on a casual basis since 1976. He has always struck me as a sincere and thoughtful person. It's not that I always agree with him, because I don't. It's that I know that he reaches his position after study and thought.
I also know that his heart is in the right place. By that I mean that he sincerely cares about those less fortunate than him and he wants to do the right thing by them. He cares about the middle class and he cares about American workers and their families.
So when Sen. Brown tells me that he is going to support this bill because he believes that it is the best that Democrats can get, I believe him. When he tells me that this bill is, all things considered, a good thing, I believe him. When he tells me that this will make the lives of millions of Americans better, I believe him.
This is the choice I am making. I am choosing to trust Senator Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat who has managed to win election in a center-right state. He didn't do it by telling people what they want to hear and not caring about whether what he said to group A was different than what he said to group B, as I have seen many politicians do, both Democrats and Republicans. He did it by campaigning as a person who would defend American workers and their families and who would go to D.C. and fight for the American middle class.
Now, when other people tell me that I shouldn't like this bill, or I should work for its defeat, well, they don't have the same credibility with me. One, of course, is that I don't personally know them. The other is, though, that they haven't been in the political trenches fighting Republicans for the last 30 years.
I have seen the right attack Senator Brown when he was an Ohio State Representative, when he was Ohio Secretary of State, when he was a Congressman from Ohio's 13TH District, and now, when he is a Senator. I have seen them make outrageous attacks, try to drag his personal life through the mud, and lie about him. One time it worked, most of the time it hasn't.
It hasn't worked because Sherrod Brown is a fighter. He can take a punch and deliver one, too. He is not a person who proves his liberalism by writing blog entries, but by getting in the arena.
So, you can call me naive, or foolish, or whatever you want, but don't tell me that Senator Brown is some sort of puppet of the insurance lobby. That's just not true.
I am choosing to trust people like Sherrod Brown over the leftist critics of this bill. In the end I don't think I will be disappointed.