"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Are we really down to just a few political dynasties -- and that's it?
Posted by Jill | 4:35 AM
I used to work with a guy who told me that he'd had a frat house roommate in college who would lock himself alone in his room every time there was a party at the house. You see, he wanted a career in politics and he wanted to make sure that he wasn't exposed to anything that could come back and bite him later on as he sought higher office.

Perhaps there are fewer people who want to hold office these days than they used to, for various reasons. For some people it's having less time. I can certainly understand that; I'm sitting here at 4:30 AM because I have a 7 AM conference call and have to be out of the house by 6:15. For others, running for even local office is daunting for a variety of reasons. My reason is fear.

I live in a town that has been run by Republican thugs for nearly three decades. Even the highly corrupt Democratic Party organization doesn't field candidates in my town. When there's an opening on the council, someone on the council names a successor, usually one of his cronies, to run in the next unopposed election. I would love to run for council here in this town in which they spend money like drunken sailors, usually on sports fields and other things that benefit youth sports and nothing else. Now they want to renovate a municipal building that was just renovated 10 years ago. Maybe a contractor friend of someone on the council is down on his luck.

Last year I ran for Democratic County Committee. I didn't campaign much; I didn't have time. And I still got 10 votes out of only 37 cast. If I'd put forth some effort, I might even have won. I would love to run for council. I think I could win, too. People in this town don't complain about those who run it because what's the point, when the current council members run unopposed year after year. But I don't dare. I don't dare because I'm afraid. If I dare to buck these guys, there are many ways I can be harassed. All the cops in town know someone; that's how you get a job as a cop in my town. If I drive 36mph in a 35 mile zone, I could be ticketed. There is now a "code enforcement" official in town whose job it is to "enforce codes" about things like how you keep up your property, and whether you got a permit for work on your house. In my town, you need to get a permit even if your old water heater is spewing water all over your basement floor. So as much as I'd like to help clean things up and help keep property taxes from skyrocketing, I really don't need the hassle.

Perhaps this is an example of why we seen to be in an age of dynastic politics. The Clintons. The Bushes. The Kennedys. The Cuomos. When I first heard that Caroline Kennedy was interested in Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, I too had a little frisson of Camelotian inevitability, as if it were the natural order of things. Then I got to thinking: Why? Why on earth should someone who has paid absolutely no dues in politics whatsoever until this year be able to just jump into the Senate after being largely out of public life?

I've always respected Caroline Kennedy for this, actually. It can't have been easy to quietly go about your business, doing some philanthropy and raising your kids when you are the Last Heir to Camelot. It was clear when he died that John Jr. was headed for a political career; someone with that pedigree and that face couldn't NOT go into politics. But even after her brother's death, Caroline ignored the siren song of politics, until now.

Perhaps she really has been waiting for someone who inspires her the way her father inspired people. Usually girls with highly charismatic fathers are like this about finding someone to marry, not about a reason to go into politics. But perhaps this really is about wanting to work with Barack Obama. Still, there's something even more bothersome about Caroline Kennedy suddenly coming out of the woodwork demanding a Senate appointment than there was about Hillary Clinton's Senate run. For one thing, Clinton actually obtained her seat by being elected. If New Yorkers didn't want her, they didn't have to vote for her. For another, you can't say that Hillary had no political background, even if this was her first elected office. But Caroline Kennedy would waltz into a vacant Senate seat for two years before having to run again. Is this really how we want politics to work -- dominated by a few political families? To grease the path of a Kennedy now means that someone will grease the path of a Bush two, four, six, or eight years from now. Or even this year, if Jeb Bush takes over the vacant Senate seat in Florida. And then there's George P. Bush, and the many other scions of the most horrible political family in history. But is this really all we have in this country?

My earliest memories are of the Kennedy years. Jackie Kennedy may have fostered the whole Camelot thing, but it's always seemed to me that what this country has really wanted was not a President but a king. This is one reason so many Americans believe that a president should be able to do whatever he wants -- as long as he's a Republican. But we love our trappings of royalty, especially when we can wrap them up in a veneer of regular-guyness. The Reagans understood this, juxtaposing glamorous state dinners with photo-ops of Reagan on his fake California ranch. When the Clintons came to town, it was as if the peasants had taken over the castle -- and Sally Quinn was appropriately outraged, as if she feared the Clintons might install an outhouse with a moon cutout in the door on the White House lawn. The Washington party circuit was relieved when the Texas Plantagenets came back into power, because it was a return to an ordered universe, not realizing that the Clintons were now an aspiring dynasty of their own. And they have absolutely no idea what to make of the Obamas, who not only came out of nowhere but are unseemly of pigmentation for an American royal family.

But here in New York, all we're hearing about for this Senate seat is people named Kennedy and Cuomo and even Bill Clinton was mentioned for a while. Is there really no one else in all of New York Democratic politics who is worthy of this seat?

Labels: ,

2 comments
Bookmark and Share
2 Comments:
Blogger Charles D said...
As a New Yorker, I thoroughly agree with you. Instead of some "big-name" member of a political dynasty with no relevant experience, why not pick someone from our excellent Congressional delegation? We have lots of Democrats in Congress with ratings of 95% or higher with the ADA: Arcuri, Bishop, Crowley, Gillibrand, Hall, Higgins, Hinchey, Lowey, Meeks, Nadler, Rangel, Serrano, Slaughter and Velazquez -- why not one of them?
12/16/08, 2:20 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
Three good reasons not to go into local politics:

1. Constituents
2. Paperwork
3. Party meetings, fund-raisers, & parties

Local politics is an all-consuming hobby, & the first thing I notice about most local politicians is how boring they are if they have to talk about anything other than politics.
12/16/08, 4:12 PM  
Post a Comment
<< Home