1523 Post Party Depression

1523 Post Party Depression

A few words about the Fox TV encounter among the top ten Republican presidential wannabes. (Fox called it a debate, but it wasn’t.)

You can put the ten of them neatly into five categories.

Louts/Gavones: Trump, Christie.

Smarmy/Whiney: Huckabee, Kasich.

Dopey: Bush, Walker, Paul.

Self Lobotomized Brain Surgeons: Carson.

Tokens: Cruz, Rubio.

There’s some potential bleeding among the categories.  For example, you could put Carson in “tokens” and move Paul into “Self Lobotomized” though you’d have to change the category name to “Blind Eye Doctors.”

What a sorry lot.  Who won?  Fox News and Hillary Clinton.  Carly Fiorina and Bernie Sanders were the runners up.

The differences among the republican candidates are microscopic.  Pour some hand cleaner over the crowd and you kill the microbes.  It was Trump's show.  But even he didn't score any real points except drawing fire from the moderators and laughs from the audience.

As usual, the dems don't know how to fight back. Their responses to the GOP debate:  "No mention of income inequality."  "No mention of climate change." The only thing said about gay marriage was from Kasich, who said we should all love one another.  Very effective.

Each Republican has his own peculiar flaws. The basics are pretty much the same.

But the dems' message is ineffective.  You can't see, hear, smell or touch climate change.  Yet.

Income inequality solved by income "redistribution" won't fly.

People don't hate billionaires, they envy them.  They strive to be one.  They've bought into the myth that it's possible. (It is. But not on a mass scale.)  People don't hate cops who beat up or kill black people unless they're black, much white pretence to the contrary notwithstanding.  

People with drivers' licenses or state photo id s don't care about people who don't and therefore can't vote.  People don't care how much Lockheed or the Kochs give to super pacs.  

Maybe “don't care” is inaccurate.  Maybe it's they care but they don't want or think they can't make an effort to change things.  

People want more money for education, but not if their taxes go up.  People don't care if the next guy doesn't have medical insurance.

People don't want another foreign war.  But they feel they can't do anything to stop one.

Chuck Schumer, influential and likely to be the next Democratic leader of the senate comes out against the Iran deal.  If enough other democrats follow (and they may,) there will be enough votes to override the promised presidential.

Okay, now what?  Is there a way to frame these issues so that people will see a benefit?  The dems appeal to goodwill.   That's idol worship. There IS no good will.  The republicans appeal to greed even while they're pulling a reverse Robin Hood on the people least able to withstand a robbery.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

816 Chickens Come Home to Roost

816 Chickens Come Home to Roost.

Nassau is the richest county in New York. Or the second richest, depending on whose figures you use. It also is in such bad shape that the state has taken over the running of its finances.

Its present form of government was instituted in 1938, and since that time, only two Democrats have served in the office of County Executive, for a total of 15 out of 73 years.

From ‘38 on, legislative functions at the county level were served part time by leaders of the county’s internal municipalities, also almost Republicans. The “Board of Supervisors” as it was called, fought tooth hammer and nail to retain its composition. But ultimately, the courts ruled that six members weren’t enough -- or constitutional and it was replaced by a 19 member legislature.

Not much changed except expenses grew. Nineteen guys with staff and offices and political campaigns and telephones and stationery, computers and fax machines.

Nassau has more Commissioners and assistant and deputy commissioners and other political appointees than a normal human being can count. All with staff and offices and telephones and stationery, computers, fax machines and heaven knows what duties, if any.

It has an antiquated labor system with extraordinarily generous contracts. Starting salary for a new cop is a little over 34-thousand dollars. But in eight years that can grow to more than 108-thousand, excluding overtime and promotions. In neighboring New York City, a starting cop earns a bit more, but eight years later, the money tops out at 78-thousand. Cop retirements come early in many cases, and the payouts are enough to live on.

Town-based sanitation workers are in about the same boat as the county police. So are many other town and county workers, everyone from prison guards to road crews.

And how do you get the (non police) jobs? First by passing a civil service exam, of minimum challenge. And then, by “knowing” “someone.”

This system has been in place for a century. It’s self perpetuating and now it’s shown as self defeating.

The present county executive is, naturally, a Republican. But by this time, party affiliation doesn’t matter. The county has been politics- battered since it gained independence from Queens in 1898.

Going on 113 years of patronage, wild spending, borrowing and the resulting high taxes, waste, corruption, trickery.

The influence of the hoards of city residents, then largely Democrats who turned Republican after World War II, worsened rather than bettered the situation.

So now, the state has the reigns of the horse -- for the second time in recent history. And it had best do something and fast, lest the richest county becomes the least populous. And THEN where does the money come from?

Shrapnel:

--Nassau County is a complex tangle of overlapping jurisdictions. It has three towns, two “cities” 64 villages and at least that many hamlets, plus dozens of districts: Congressional, State Assembly, State Senate, County legislative, school, library, election districts, fire districts, police departments or precincts. It’s a head-spinner.

--For all but a handful of the last 113 years, the true ruling body has been and remains the Nassau County Republican Committee, which has dominated government at all levels through a network of patronage and pressure. One of its past chairmen was jailed for demanding kickbacks for the party from its municipal workers. Another was involved in questionable land dealings.

--Nassau has the most expensive group of governments in the United States. It has the highest combined tax rates in the country. And its residents pay more in electric and public transportation costs in the state, and in some instances, the country.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© 2011 WJR