There are some interesting symbolic factors which may be significant for this election year

Symbolism in Massachusetts

By Lance Thompson
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Both sides have spun their versions of what Scott Brown’s decisive upset of Martha Coakley means in political terms. Conservatives cheer the end of the Democrat supermajority in the Senate, Democrats from the President on down characterize the victory of the Republican in true-blue Massachusetts as a symptom of Bush fatigue. But there are some interesting symbolic factors which may be significant for this election year.

First is the widely-discussed pickup truck, a GMC Canyon with 200,000 miles that was Scott Brown’s executive ride. The mere fact that Brown has put 200,000 miles on the vehicle shows that whenever it was new, it was not acquired as a conscious political symbol. Nonetheless, it is.

Trusty trucks with two hundred grand on the odometers are the transportation of choice for middle class working people. They are driven by Americans with mortgages to pay, groceries to buy, and private sector work to do. As Scott Brown has shown, people like this actually live in Massachusetts, much to the surprise of the Democrats in Congress. He is not just “in touchâ€