by Jordan Yost

Somewhere Keith Olbermann is crying. Somewhere Ed Shultz is screaming. Somewhere Chris Mathews and Rachel Maddow have begun drinking, heavily.  Ladies and gentleman, Scott Brown has been elected to the United States Senate.

The Democrats have lost their super majority and thus, the political barometer has officially swung to the right. Left for dead just weeks ago, Senator-elect Brown reminded his constituents that the open seat belonged to the people and not the Kennedy’s and his populism rang true. He will be the first Republican seated from the State of Massachusetts since Ed Brook in 1972.

How could this happen? Nearly a year to the day after President Obama was sworn in to office and after months and months of liberal self-satisfaction regarding the assumed extinction of the GOP, the suddenly resurgent Republican Party has ripped off gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey and now this, the special election for the late Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat. The reports of Reagan Conservatism’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

What lessons should Democrats take from this? Well for starters, they should stop trying to cram a bad health care bill down the throats of Americans. The most significant issue according to numerous polls was growing anxiety over Obamacare. This in a state that has seen skyrocketing debt over the state’s own version of universal healthcare coverage.

Mr.President, listen to the American voter, let’s do healthcare reform in a way that truly reforms, not a bill that nationalizes one-sixth of the U.S. economy. For if you don’t, you’ll be meeting a lot more Scott Browns come January, 2011.