Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Incoming Speaker of the State House of Representatives Chris Donovan, “resisting a radical tag,” says about himself, “I’m a mainstream politician now.” Indeed, a truer word was never spoken. For there is nothing Donovan would need to reform to bring the state in line with his paradisiacal notions of state government. His train has arrived. His eagle has landed. Progressive Democrats in the state have become the status quo, and a reformer is someone who sets his heart against the present system. The present system has been very good to Donovan; that is why he is the Speaker of the House. But the state needs reformers. More, it needs radicals. A radical is someone who “goes to the root of things” in order to effect beneficial change. What would a radical do in Connecticut? What would the radical be saying? He might be saying that the accumulated budgets of the last two decades have bought the state -- at a dear price -- a $6 billion deficit. During this time, the state has used successiv...