OT and the politics of nothing much

Adrastos hits the OT nail on the head in demonstrating that there was not much.. you know.. there there.

Okay, so he's a nice guy and doesn't organize dog fights ala Michael Vick. He's still a crook, y'all. I met Edwin Edwards and he was a nice guy crook too. EWE was also an effective Governor in his first two terms whereas Oliver the Actor was too busy schmoozing and betting on the ponies to get anything done other than blocking the return of recycling to Debrisville.

Amidst the dross of Donze's article there were some tidbits that illustrate *why* Oliver would have been a lousy Mayor: "But veteran City Hall observers often noted that Thomas rarely seemed to have a clear policy agenda, picking and choosing issues as they arose.

His interests were unpredictable and sometimes even off-the-wall, shown in the sometimes bizarre resolutions he would introduce endorsing causes as obscure as humaculture, described in his resolution as "a study of the self with 'how to' tools for realigning the self to live at one's maximum potential."

No clear agenda? Off the wall? Sounds like C Ray to me. And like C Ray, Oliver the Actor was known for making bold statements and then crawfishing when the shit hit the fan. Remember when he said post-K that "soap opera watchers" weren't welcome back to public housing? He spent months backpedaling on that one out of fear of losing the all important All My Children vote..

But I thought that "no clear agenda" and "picking and choosing issues" was exactly the kind of "good government" that all the "reformers" on the Yuppie Left have always wanted.

This is exactly why eliminating "corruption" alone does not lead to more effective and responsive government. Of course pols, need to be held accountable to the law. But if they aren't also held accountable to a well articulated political mandate then the result is just as worthless as if they had stolen the whole "cow" or whatever Bernazzani said they're stealing.

I'm, of course, pleased to see so many on the Yuppie Left taking an interest in civic affairs. I think it's very cute. But it would be more pleasing to see them work to affect changes more useful than consolidating boards and picking up litter.

Such things are usually the political agenda of those who have little actual interest in politics. Politics in a democracy is ugly and brutal and it should be. There are real material things at stake. Atrios put it very well last week in a post about rebuilding the Minnesota bridge.

There appears to be genuine disagreement about how to rebuild the bridge. That disagreement has to be resolved somehow. One way to resolve it would be for everyone to drop the David Broder special acid, at which point their third eye would open up and they'd magically have access to the "bipartisan unity consensus" that God demands. Another way is to just defer to the governor, no matter how bad his plan is. A third way is to hash out some compromise behind closed doors without any public disagreement... or public scrutiny or input. Or, fourth, they can do their damn jobs and fight it out.

Politics is about power and who wields power in who's interest. Otherwise you're just sitting around popping rubber bands with Buddy Roemer.. and what's the point of that?