Not so long ago, savvy politicians were fond of describing election campaigns as “the silly season.” They saw it as a scripted ritual where every promise made, every charge leveled, came with a sly wink that meant nothing was to be taken at face value.
Even the worst understood that governing was hard and that, once the votes were counted, the winners would have to get off their high horses and do actual work. They tempered expectations because they knew reality would be their check and balance.
Ah, the good old days. Now every day is “the silly season” as the permanent campaign swallows governing and good sense. There is no respite from the hyperventilating baloney of promise politics.
Take the holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. It has deteriorated into just another day of partisan jousts, his storied legacy reduced to a stamp of approval to be usurped for any and all causes of the moment. The pilferers pretend to pay their respects, but in truth aim to puff themselves up by declaring that he would support whatever they do.
Theirs is the audacity of audacity.
“I have no doubt . . . he would believe that these are the things our society requires,” Mayor de Blasio told a Brooklyn audience. “Now is the time to reform a broken stop-and-frisk policy. Now is the time to make sure that every child gets full-day pre-K.”
What a coincidence — those are the same things de Blasio campaigned on, though he didn’t mention whether King would also go for the tax hike the mayor wants.
A later speaker, former Black Panther Angela Davis, got a standing ovation for ranting about “Israeli apartheid” and demanding justice for Palestinians.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman used the holiday to take aim at big banks and home foreclosures, while City comptroller Scott Stringer invoked the homeless. Rep. Charles Rangel demanded an extension of unemployment benefits.
A union boss was honored in Washington for advocating on behalf of federal workers during the government shutdown, as if this wasn’t his job. His connection to King’s commitment to fair wages is a stretch, since his union workers got paid for not working during the shutdown.
Not to be outdone, the zealous secretary of the Environmental Protection Administration coined a phrase when she vowed to deliver “climate justice.” Perhaps she plans to direct all blizzards and tornados to Republican states? She also announced a partnership with the “hip-hop caucus,” leaving unsaid whether she believes King would embrace the thug culture many rappers champion.
Vice President Joe Biden, after talking about how many black friends he had, promised changes on immigration and pay equity, and denounced the Supreme Court ruling that eliminated parts of the Voting Rights Act. He should have used the teleprompter so he could meander with coherence.
Much of Monday’s promises were made as professions of commitment to Al Sharpton, or “Rev,” as Biden kept calling him in that down-home Delaware way.
Somewhere, somehow, Sharpton has become the living surrogate for King. As the day’s top ringmaster, he attracted supplicants and granted absolutions in two cities.
His National Action Network breakfast in Washington drew Biden and many of the others cited, then he accepted the tribute of city officials at his Harlem headquarters in the afternoon.
That’s where de Blasio announced that a Sharpton associate would be chief of staff to his wife, Chirlane McCray. A City Hall release put it a little differently, with de Blasio and McCray jointly announcing that Rachel Noerdlinger would be joining the team.
“Rachel shares my commitment to bringing social justice to the forefront in this city,” McCray was quoted as saying.
She didn’t mention it, but Noerdlinger’s salary will be a whopping $170,000.
Nobody claimed King would approve of that bonanza, but of course he would. That’s the whole point of his holiday.
Bad NJ car-ma
In larding its latest poll results with car and road puns, Quinnipiac finds that Bridgegate is taking a “toll” on Chris Christie’s presidential hopes. A poll director says the Jersey gov’s campaign “is stuck in traffic” and has been “sideswiped” by the scandal.
OK, let that be the last cheap play on words. Honk if you agree.
Advice from a wise man
Lou Dobbs has done it again. The Fox Business anchor’s new book, “Upheaval,” is full of insight about what ails America.
In characteristically blunt fashion, Dobbs warns that, under the Obama administration, the nation is on course to “roll back the standard of living for all Americans and make the lowest common denominator the standard for education and media.”
An independent voter, he rails against big business, and urges the GOP to break from its corporate sponsors and declare that “government is not intended to be the handmaiden of bankers.”
Lobbyists, unions and green wing nuts all get a spanking, but my favorite insight involves his view on what is causing the growing gaps in income and wealth. “They are gaps in education, in lifestyle choices, in environment, in strength of the family and ultimately in achievement,” he writes.
Bingo.
Lots of NY is ‘left’ out by Cuomo
Did you see the new TV spot that aims to lure out-of-state companies to New York?
“We’re open for business, so set up shop here and pay no taxes,” the ad says over sunny-side up music.
But the narrator’s voice suddenly turns menacing as he adds, “Offer valid to liberals only.”
OK, I jest, but Gov. Cuomo is dead serious. His recent attack on “extreme conservatives,” which he defined as “right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay,” was, well, extreme.
His defense, that he was talking only about political candidates and not individual New Yorkers, makes his comments slightly less offensive but doesn’t clean up the mess.
Whatever Cuomo’s intent in the radio interview, his extended remarks display a sneering contempt for “the other,” as when he says “extreme conservatives have no place in the state.”
And while he cites poll numbers showing 70 percent support for gun control, gay marriage and abortion, that still means one out of three New Yorkers is left out of the governor’s vision of required conformity.
Don’t they have a right to vote for candidates they support? If not, let’s cancel elections.
The bizarre breach is especially disappointing because Cuomo has worked hard to put a more moderate face on Albany. His tax cuts, including ones he proposed yesterday, and his bold determination to root out corruption have earned him high marks from most voters. That progress is the basis of the real TV ads’ claim of a “new New York.”
Or it was, before Cuomo muddied his message.
Jaywalk it back
Upper West Siders are furious about the police ticket-blitz for jaywalking. They say it’s overkill. I agree, and suggest we let those cops get back to real police work. You know, like doing stop-and-frisk, which has been proven to save lives.