The Voters Must Do It: We Can’t Rely On The Career Politicians
As the National Conventions near, the media is focused on the national presidential race. But action promised by Governor Patterson on July 23, 2008, to veto the two bills put forward by the Republican-Controlled Senate and the Democratic-Controlled Assembly — to reduce the powers of the Erie County and Buffalo Control Boards — reminds us that as much is at stake in New York in both the State Senate and State Assembly races. If we voters really believe that our government needs to be changed, then we must be willing to do three things:
First, we voters must be willing to cast votes to remove an incumbent, even a personally likeable — yet career-politician — incumbent.
Second, the voters must be able to recognize that being a “career” politician does not equate to being a “competent” political leader.
Third, and, even more important, voters must not be fooled by the slime politics which permeate our elections.
Voters must recognize that a non-incumbent challenger is likely to have fewer funds to compete in the political arena and less likely to be able to “punch back” from slime politics which all too frequently dominate our elections. For example on the national level, John McCain illustrated all three points recently. He’s likeable [point # 1], but he recently demonstrated that he did not know that Iraq does not border Pakistan [point # 2 - incompetence], and his latest campaign advertisement blatantly fabrics an allegation that his opponent, Democratic Candidate Barak Obama, is the cause of the high price of gasoline [point # 2 - sliming]. The McCain statement on Iraq demonstrates how a career politician’s years of political experience do not translate into “intelligent” understanding of the world and do not make them a competent candidate for voters. The latter false statement about the price of gasoline — an outright lie – demonstrates that we citizens and voters must no longer tolerate such tactics. We can no longer tolerate candidates willing to lie and lying candidates willing to do anything through “slime” campaigns to be elected. We must retire such career politicians from office.
So what questions should be answered in the New York State contests? Let me suggest one or two [I may suggest others in later articles]:
Has the career politician incumbent consistently voted with his or her political party for the “party bloc” voting that has created gridlock in Albany? By always voting along Republican Party lines as a Republican and Democratic Party lines as a Democrat, the minority Republicans in the Assembly have complained that the “Democrats” are the problem and the minority Democrats in the Senate have complained that the Republicans are the problem. Such career incumbents have failed to take responsibility to make hard decisions for the voters and citizens of New York State.
Put another way, “Is the INCUMBENT promising to do in the FUTURE what he or she has failed to accomplish in the past?” If the answer to that question is “Yes”, then voters must have the intelligence, the intestinal fortitude to vote them out of office even if it means voting for a challenger from a party other than that of the voter. Real change will NOT occur if voters do not have the will to so vote. We cannot afford do nothing career politicians in Albany.
