Your editorial of last week, asserts that “now is a particularly bad time for the leadership in Albany to be fighting.”
A strong demurral.
In 1890, Lord Randolph Spenser Churchill rose from the Tory Bench in Commons, in response to a plea for support from Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone.
He argued (in paraphrase) that “The duty of the Opposition is to oppose and oppose we shall, w/vigor so that when we again stand before the voters, they will have a clear choice of visions.”
Those words were uttered during the zenith of the British Empire. No goober politics for them, marked by consensus, coalitions, power sharing and bipartisan blather; rather stark contrasts and bold colors was the temperament of their time.
So where are we, a little more than a century later?
Obviously the Rodney King mantra of “Can’t we all just get along, please?” is the temperament of our time; and the result has been plain to see for many decades.
Indeed voters get the governance they deserve led by the incompetent politicians they tolerate.
Lord Churchill lived in an era that included the likes of Disraeli, Gladstone, Robert Peel, Palmerston, Lord John Russell and the Marquis of Salisbury, among others.
Our sad sack political clowns of today, at the local, state and federal level, will never, ever be confused with any of these.
What we have today is a republicrat duopoly of charlatans, frauds and hustlers.
The only distinction is that the R’s insist they can deliver the current political orthodoxy of big government, high taxes and political correctness more cheaply that the D’s; sort of like Woody Allen’s explanation of wholesale versus retail.
Nothing could be further from the truth than your assertion that; “it would be a shame to see power sharing come to an end.”
In fact, I assert it would be an undisguised blessing by exposing the faux glad handing and cronyism endemic in today’s politics which invariably leaves the voting taxpayer eternally carrying the can.
Tom Coffey
Herricks
