Consider: With this victory is going to come expectations. Just what those expectations might be are going to vary wildly between the conservative rank and file in the Republican Party and those who are going to give Brown his victory — namely, the poor, put-upon, and slightly confused independent voter.
The base will be celebrating the destruction of the Democrats’ liberal agenda. But the independents won’t want to stop there. They may actually expect the GOP to work with the Democrats to get things done. Fixing the economy for starters; then, perhaps looking at some kind of health care reform that makes sense. Finally, with gas set to rise again, it may be prudent to come up with an energy policy beyond “drill baby, drill.” These are three issues that independents may very well expect the Republicans to help deliver on.
