Ideology vs. Reality

Good Government Above All

JUNE 2016

THE CHOICE
In the day to day practicalities of life should we look at government as we do one of those old Chinese restaurant menus – one from Column A and one from Column B? Should we think Ideology, Column A or Reality, Column B when we focus on government, choose candidates, talk to the public?

For 73 years the Liberal Party of New York has been just that “of New York”. We have focused on the State even as our policies and programs influenced Presidential elections and made America liberal for an entire generation.

Growth of unions, the middle class, superior education, fair housing practices, civil rights legislation all emanating from published Liberal Party policies and programs. Working locally and nationally with then liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans in Washington and Albany with Liberal Party legislative ‘blue-prints’ in their hands.

Through it all the Liberal Party maintained that it was trying first to change the dynamics of a long-term corrupt Democratic Party and a greedy, people-controlling Republican Party. Despite the influence of ideology, our true regard was for good, clean government, effective because it worked for fairness, equality and opportunity over party labels and ideology.

In a rarely known fact, our very existence was due to the work of a concerned President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, running for a fourth term and fighting off the words and policies of a Henry Wallace, his former Vice President, who had strong support from powerful leftist forces in New York State.

So it was then – good government over ideology. And so it has been.

John Lindsay, liberal Republican Congressman over a Democratic machine candidate for Mayor.

Rudy Giuliani, newly registered Republican over a good man David Dinkins with liberal beliefs and no ability to actually govern the city. The city told us no and gave him a chance. He failed. The second time, with Liberal Party support, Giuliani got his chance. Personality and personal ambition aside, the city ran much better. No one is perfect. New York is New York.

TODAY

And so it is that we listen to Bernie Sanders with admiration as he vigorously reiterates what we have been promoting for the past two years: controlled government, the power of money over the people, a system based on grabbing and maintaining power whether it actually works as good government – or any government.

And then we learn that Bernie’s plans for free public higher education, breaking up the banks, pulling corporations – and the lost jobs – back to the States through tax manipulations and changes in trade policies, trying to turn income inequality around – haven’t been thought through to their logical, working conclusions.

He said so. And his true-believing followers seem not to be aware of his honesty.

We hope he steps back with a grand gesture knowing the potential consequences of so many millennials and young college kids deciding not to vote at all. He is not a classic Democrat and owes the party nothing. But he owes his people a great, great deal. They made a Don Quixotic candidacy into a powerhouse of reality – the broken system must change. Enough is enough.

Wonderful stuff. Valuable. Forceful. But steps in the right direction must be taken. We are not a revolutionary country. This is not the 1700’s. But we are evolutionary.

And Hillary will begin that evolution using the forces of power and money to take us down the right road to changes we need. She is not transformative, she is transitional. She will make government work. She will work with the very forces who have stopped government, starved government, shut government down and get them to remember who they are working for. It won’t be easy and it won’t be pretty or fast. But it will be.

We believe that the force of white, working men who voted for an experienced Ronald Reagan will ignore their true feelings about having a Woman as President and know the difference between a man who knew government and a man who knows so little about government that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

And we believe that women who ‘don’t trust’ an ambitious, do-what-you- have- to- do woman will remember the true meaning of sisterhood and step up to the voting booth in November and take one more crack at that damn glass-ceiling and do the right thing.

…AND NEW YORK
Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio come from a liberal base…no question. But neither runs a good clean government that is working for the people.

Nothing good comes from corruption – though there are many forces who believe otherwise. The ‘trains may run on time’ but that is an illusion.

The Governor and Mayor believe they are illusionists. Cuomo does it better. His training is extraordinary. And his impulses are much more refined and carry some history and humanity.

The Mayor is turning out to be quite a bit less. It is impossible to ignore. Nobody voted for him (only 17% of eligible voters) but everybody in New York is a judge…and the verdict is clearly spelled out day after day after day. “What’s the matter with this guy…” is how it starts.

But gentlemen, the public is seeing right through you. The ideology is wonderful. The reality very bad. Could that ideology be nothing more than a mask for personal ambition? Is that really a question?

Is there nothing behind it but more words even as city services shrink, the real estate power-brokers prosper (Bill trying to prove he can do it better than Mike and get them to love him), the Police Department rife with corruption (if the politicians do it why can’t they? ) the back-room deals are purely corrupt in the pay to play manner that is New York, New York with full orchestration and Frank belting out the lyrics. And make headlines, too.

So as corrupt government rules and Andrew and Bill turn and twist to avoid hangman Preet, the Liberal Party says what it has always said: first good clean government..then we’ll worry about the ideology.

There is only one column on our menu.