We have passed the barrier to the New Year. We are leaving
behind the old year and, with it, an eight year old national Democratic
administration. President Barack Obama has left the stage snapping and growling
– at Israel, among others. The question of the day is: How will things shape up
in the New Year?
An old saying has it, let no man count himself favored by fortune before he is tucked safely into his grave. Time always conceals under its wings
some world-changing surprises. For instance, Russia will be celebrating the 100th
anniversary of the Russian Revolution in the New Year. At the butt end of the 19th
century, very few people could have imagined six decades of Communist rule. The
rule mentioned above – don’t count your chickens before they hatch – applies as
well to the new administration, which will not officially begin until January
14.
The truth is no one knows what will happen, until it
happens. Donald Trump has been comfortable most of his life inventing and
re-inventing himself as he goes along, escaping snares along the way.
Politically, the direction he will take is uncharted territory. But there is little doubt that the Trump
victory puts an end-point on the Obama legacy.
Administrations lucky enough to be succeeded by presidents
of the same party have an after-life in their successors. Had Hillary Clinton
won the presidential election, she might have carried forward President Barack
Obama’s torch. Not now. His flame has gone out. There will be no more additions
to his legacy. Obama likely was as surprised as everyone else at the dimensions
of the Trump victory. He and other progressives sharpening their knives in the
wings fully expected Clinton to win. Losses on this scale have added a shrill note
of vindictiveness to Obama’s last few weeks in office. Always the bull in the
china-shop, he appears determined, in the face of Republican revanchism,
to break as much crockery as possible before he leaves the White House.
Obama’s personal flame may be sputtering, but the
progressive struggle marches on, does it not?
It may be too soon to sing a dirge, but we just don’t
know. You can’t have forward movement
without troops. Republicans have now seized all the political heights: the
presidency, both houses of congress, the judiciary – Trump, not Clinton, will
be making Supreme Court and appellate court placements – state governorships,
state legislatures, and even a left of center media repeatedly derided by Trump
during his rumbustious campaign that may come around in due course. The business of
journalism is reporting on politics. This election has emptied the front row of
the political theater of Democrats. They are all back benchers now, and the
back bench, as we know, does not receive the same kind of media attention as
the front row. From the perspective of a contrarian crank, it is not possible
to view the election other than as a rebuke to progressive policies.
Nationally, the country is broke. The Obama administration added about ten
trillion dollars to his predecessor's ten trillion dollar national deficit. Here
in Connecticut, the state is broke. Who brought it to its present condition, if
not progressive Democrats?
Nationally, Obama laid a progressive plank over shark
infested waters and invited his sometimes mutinous crew to take a walk. They
did. The results we now see before us. Progressive victories have led to
stunning Democratic Party defeats. Here in Connecticut, we’ve seen a similar
drama unfold. A shared government, though dominated for many years by somewhat
moderate General Assembly Democrats, gave way, as soon as Dannel Malloy was
elected Governor, to an ambitious, arrogant and ruthless single party
progressive government. Malloy booted Republicans from budget discussions and
authorized the largest tax increase in state history, followed by, in his
second term, the second largest tax increase in state history. With what result
we now see. Deficits are hardwired into Connecticut’s budgets because the state
– precisely BECAUSE of the tax increases – is now taking in less revenue than
it is spending. Higher taxes have reduced the tax supply lines. During the last election, Malloy appeared to put
the break on spending to discharge deficits that, his economic guru Ben Barnes
said, had become a permanent feature of state budgets. But Malloy alone,
assuming he is serious in his pledge not to raise taxes further, is not driving
the vehicle. State employee unions and “fixed costs” are in the driver’s seat.
It was Chris Powell, Managing Editor of the
Journal Inquirer, who shouted from the roof tops in a hardy, courageous voice
-- well then, unfix them. Powell wrote a column in 2011 titled “Unfix the 'fixed costs' in Connecticut budgets.” Powell has been beating that tocsin
for as long as this writer has known him. In Connecticut, sadly, there are too
many tongues and too few ears.
So then: Whither Connecticut in the New Year?
We’ll see, won’t we? Many of the convenient flower pots
behind which politicians in Connecticut used to hide in order to fool all the
people all the time have been removed by some superb journalists and a
reanimated Republican Party. During the recently concluded elections,
Republicans made gains in the General Assembly; the Senate is now equally
divided between Democrats and Republicans, 18-18, and Republicans have been gaining
steadily in the House. Malloy’s approval rating is around 24 percent. If there
are any remaining moderate Democrats in the General Assembly who, putting party
politics aside, truly want to attack persistent and difficult problems – read:
state unions, Connecticut’s fourth branch of government – it is possible they
may cast off their progressive yokes and make common cause with Republicans who,
for the first time in half a decade, might be successful in introducing right
of center ameliorating legislation.
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