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| Tyson, pugilist philosopher |
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" – Mike Tyson]
When he was 40 years old, way past prime for a fighter,
Tyson was asked how the quote attributed to him originated. "People were
asking me [before a fight], 'What’s going to happen?'" Tyson said. "They were talking
about his style. 'He's going to give you a lot of lateral movement. He's going
to move, he's going to dance. He's going to do this, do that.' I said,
"Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in
fear and freeze.' "
Was that his favorite quote?
No. His favorite quote, unattributed, was this: “A man
that’s a friend of everyone is an enemy to himself.”
Both quotes have political applications and, in fact,
politics and boxing are euphemistic twins.
Is Governor Ned Lamont a political lightweight or a heavyweight?
Likely a lightweight; his background in politics is slight. We would call
President Pro Tem of the State Senate Martin Looney a heavyweight. Years in
politics weigh heavily upon him. The troop of progressives, mostly young Turks,
swept into the General Assembly after the 2018 elections are lightweights.
Their nominal boss, incoming Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, is a
heavyweight. Following the recently concluded elections in Connecticut,
Democrats gained two seats in the Senate and seven in the House. Majority party
Democrats, 24-12 in the Senate and 98-53 in the House, are heavyweights.
Republicans, always more interested in governing than campaigning, are
lightweights. Before getting hit in the mouth, two Republican heavyweights,
Senate leader Len Fasano and House leader Themis Klaradis, announced they were
throwing in the towel.
What is it, precisely, that makes a politician a
heavyweight? Important are: the years that experience and practical training in
the field make; an ability to read the minds of constituents; a degree of
modesty that puts the prosperity and wellbeing of others above selfish
political considerations; a proper understanding of the limited role of
government in the lives of the governed; an ability to dodge with agility and
humor the punch in the face that makes lesser politicians stop in fear and
freeze; and a certain philosophical coolness towards the notion that one must
be a friend towards everyone and consequently, an enemy to oneself.
Who knew Mike Tyson, pugilist, was also a philosopher?
Lamont is largely untested. A year and a couple of months
after he was sworn into office, Coronavirus made its way from China to the
United States. And Coronavirus, a political steroid for governors, has put
muscles on many northeast governors who, in the absence of two co-equal
branches of government, the legislature and judiciary – both palsied by fear
after Coronavirus had punched them in the face -- became plenary chief
executives like, well, Louis XIV of France, the king who boasted ““L'état, c'est moi” (“I am the state”). Lamont has been the state for nearly a year.
But, under the
surface, politics, the unending scramble for status and power, is roiling. A
coming vaccine will likely knock the Coronavirus crowns from the heads of northeast
governors, including Lamont and his political tutor, Governor Andrew Cuomo of
New York. The herd immunity produced by the vaccine likely will turn the herd
back in the direction of republican -- note the small “r” -- governance.
At this point, Lamont
must handle Republicans, in the most recent past very easy to eject from a
budgetary conference table; his predecessor former Governor Dannel Malloy used
to separate Republican tares from Democrat wheat whenever an important decision
was at hand. But Lamont also must handle a Democrat Party riven by ideological
strife. The crown sits dangerously on the head of the sovereign when he finds
himself closeted in a room full of plotters every faction of which thinks it is
the state.
Thomas Breen of the New
Haven Independent has given
us a perfect snapshot of the coming struggle for the soul of the Democrat Party
in Connecticut. No longer content to remain on the outside looking in, the
sizable progressive contingent within the General Assembly has released a manifesto
that calls for a steeply progressive income tax. The group was addressed by New
Haven progressive Looney, who reminded progressives that the progressive movement
in Connecticut has made considerable advances through cautious baby steps. The
Weicker flat rate income tax has been made much more progressive over the
years, Looney said. The state legislature, fast in the hands of Democrats, “was
able to pass a bill in 2011 that provided in-state tuition eligibility for
undocumented immigrants. In 2012, state Democrats successfully pushed for the
repeal of the death penalty. And in 2019, the state legislature passed an
increase in the minimum wage as well as a paid family and medical leave bill.”
“There are significant ways that we can make our tax
structure more progressive still,” Looney advised. The top rate of the income
tax could be increased, or progressive might want to throw their weight behind
a move to impose “a separate tax on very high-level income from capital gains,
dividends, and interest.”
Then Looney delivered his punch line: “Having a Democratic
governor aligned with the legislature makes all the difference when trying to
enact progressive policy.”
The punch line was an invitation to punch anti-progressive
opposition in the mouth. It is not at all certain that Lamont, receiving the
blow, will stop in fear and freeze.
Looney walked away from the gathering with an award, a
clock, the progressive’s equivalent of a well-deserved Oscar in appreciation of
Looney’s past service to the progressive cause.
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