“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold – lest the marrow of your bones runs cold,” an English Fairytale reminds the bold hero of the tale. That is excellent advice for politicians who wish to succeed in attaining and holding office.
In primary elections, we find, bold
politicians may be as bold as they wish.
General elections, however, are horses of a different color.
In a general election, the election deciders
are far less narrow-minded than are the more energetic electors in primaries
because the election field is wider. The danger always is that bold primary messaging
may leech into general elections and undermine the gent who has proposed the
abolition of police departments and prisons. The wiser, more Machiavellian
option is to draw a veil of ambiguity around the abolition of police
departments in primary elections and then – after you have been elected to office -- abolish the police
department.
Kevin Rennie -- once a moderate Republican
legislator in Connecticut’s General Assembly, now a moderate commentator
writing for the Hartford Courant -- mentioned the abolition of police
departments in connection with Josh Elliot’s primary gubernatorial campaign.
In his column -- “Only
one candidate for Connecticut governor wants to abolish the police: It’s state Rep. Josh Elliott” -- Rennie focuses on a 10 paragraph notice Elliot
wrote on Facebook in 2020.
“The Hamden Democrat challenging Gov. Ned
Lamont in the August 11 primary,” Rennie wrote, “was all-in for abolishing the
police … In Elliott’s Connecticut, the governor would send a busload of stern
but compassionate counselors to protect workers hiding in their office where a
gunman lurks. A holder of a Master of Social Work would be assigned to find a
driver who struck a pedestrian and fled the scene. Welcome to the Nutmeg State
Hunger Games, where the law abiding are the defenseless prey of the violent
lawless, a place where the mob rioting to overturn a free and fair election are
asked politely, ‘And how do you feel about that?’”
Even American
Democrat Socialist Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani was not quite so bold:
“Mamdani assured New Yorkers he had evolved. He no longer believed what he
trumpeted on X, ‘We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is
racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to
#DefundTheNYPD.’ As mayor, Mamdani has not defunded the police, but he did
eliminate the plan to fill 5,000 vacancies on the force in his first budget.”
Rennie noted, “In his
declaration to abolish the police, Elliott shared his philosophy of governing,
He explained, ‘It is my consistent belief that my role as a white legislator,
representing a majority white district, that my priority cannot simply be
getting re-elected or saving myself from difficult conversations–and then
sometimes voting right. It is my priority to lead with the advocates and
activists and push my constituency in difficult ways–in the same way that I
push myself.’” Rennie hoped that such entertaining appeals to left wing
demagoguery might be closely examined during a one-time primary debate between
Lamont and Elliott.
And, Rennie observed
further, “The debate will provide opportunities for Lamont to do some
explaining of his own. He is the first governor required to participate in
training on how the state’s Freedom of Information Act, once a model for the
world, works. The Greenwich Democrat could tell viewers what he learned and
what improvements he has made in his administration’s startling disdain for the
public’s right to know how government conducts the people’s business.”
It is perhaps a
hopeful sign that not every political commentator in Connecticut has fallen
asleep at the keyboard. Commentators
have yet to turn their occasionally selective attention to U.S. Representative
Jahana Hayes of Connecticut’s 4th District, once considered a political
playground shared between liberal Democrats and fiscally conservative but socially liberal Republicans. Republican Chris
Shea, held the District from
1987-2009 before he was ousted by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes. Shea was the last
fiscally conservative socially liberal Republican in the state’s U.S.
Congressional Delegation.
Progressivism in New
England, we now know, differs substantially from the liberalism of former
Governor Ella Grasso and former U.S. President
John Kennedy. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has little in
common with Kennedy and appears to be a
pale reflection of socialist Eugene
Debs, a brash American socialist whose run for president was derailed after he
was jailed in 1918 for delivering a speech in Canton, Ohio, that directly
challenged U.S. involvement in World War I.
Lisa Hagen tells us
in a piece written for CTMirror -- Jahana
Hayes splits with CT delegation on U.S. aid to Israel – “U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, was the
only member of Connecticut’s congressional delegation to vote Wednesday for an
amendment that would have cut off more aid to Israel as public opinion shifts
on the issue and Democratic voters have grown critical of the country’s war in
Gaza. The four other Connecticut representatives, John Larson, D-1st District,
Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District and Jim Himes, D-4th
District, joined nearly half of the Democratic caucus and all but one
Republican in defeating the amendment to a government spending bill that would
have eliminated an additional $3.3 billion in assistance for Israel.”
Remembering her
Machiavelli, Hayes temporized just a bit, according to Hagen: “’I absolutely
support Israel’s right to exist, but I’m horrified with what’s happening to
these kids in Gaza,’ Hayes said in an interview outside of the House chamber
after Wednesday’s vote series. And while I hate the amendment, we need to open
the door for some discussion on what aid looks like… I wish we had put forth an
amendment that was more precise and talked about supporting humanitarian aid
and then put the scrutiny on defense aid that needed to be there but not take
it completely away,’ she continued. ‘We just have to have a different
conversation, and it doesn’t mean that I think aid should be off the table,
because that’s not where I am.’”
Israel has been
battered by Iranian supported terrorists, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the
Gaza Strip in Israel, during Hayes’ entire term in office, according to Hamas
documents captured by IDF forces during the Gaza Strip War.
And
Sanders? Hagan tells us: "U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,
has forced multiple votes on his disapproval resolution to block U.S. arms
sales to Israel. The measure failed each time it was brought up for a vote, but
more Democratic senators got on board during the latest vote in April. Sanders’
disapproval resolution split Connecticut’s two U.S. senators: Chris Murphy supported the measure (emphasis mine), while Richard Blumenthal opposed it. Only seven Senate
Democrats voted against the resolution in April."
As always, Israel was
in the past and will be in the future the canary in the U.S. political and
cultural mineshaft.
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