In an earlier post, I stated that, in contemporary America, the road to the center runs to the left. Which is why it's worth following the national news to determine which way Americans are running.
Two recent election stories paint competing pictures of that direction. First, the recall elections in Colorado, in which two Democratic state senators were driven out of office via NRA-fueled campaigns opposing them for their role in supporting state gun-control legislation. Second, the Democratic primary outcome in the race to be the next Mayor of New York City, in which a Democrat who focused on wealth inequality won with enough of a margin to avoid a run-off.
In some ways, the Colorado elections might seem to offer the more significant clue, as Colorado is a "purple state"--a formerly solid-red state that has trended toward the Democratic column in the past elections. And too, the issue at state--gun regulation--is as hot-button an issue as any right now in the nation, and certainly one with a very sharp partisan divide.
Well, gun regulation lost. But did it?
It's easy to read too much into the outcome of the Colorado recall elections. Certainly, the NRA jumped all over the outcome, attempting to use the senators' defeat as a means by which to put the fear of God, or re-election, into the hearts of legislators everywhere.
But the NRA's take-away doesn't really hold up under a closer inspection of the results. To begin with, the gun-nut movement in Colorado attempted to recall four senators--and only got enough petition signatures for two. This effectively guaranteed that the outcome, in terms of their initial targets, would be draw at best, and leave the Colorado Senate in the hands of the Democrats. And the two that lost? One of them lost by a margin of two percent, with record-low turnout that was dampened in no small part by thuggish Election Day activities by the gun-nut movement.
This is the bottom line of what we should learn from Colorado: turnout is absolutely essential, even in what are considered to be safely Democratic races. This should be a wake-up call for Democrats in 2014: if you don't show up at the polls, and don't show up at the polls, you have no right to complain when a fascist minority takes over. And you can count on the fascist minority to not give you a chance or an outlet for complaining.
What about New York, then? Why should that matter? It's New York, after all, a safely blue state. And it's a primary election. Why should it matter which Democrat wins, so long as it's not the unfortunately-names Anthony Weiner?
Because invincibly Democratic New York City has been governed by Republicans for 20 years, with Republicans running hard to the right on crime and tax breaks for the wealthy. In that climate, it seemed like only a tough-on-crime, soft-on-Wall-Street Democrat could stand a chance on becoming Mayor. And there was a candidate who fit that bill: Christine Quinn, the City Council President. And, if her policy positions offended any Democrats (and they did, including yours truly), she offered some demographic consolations: the possibility of giving New York City its first female Mayor, and its first openly gay one as well.
But Quinn didn't win. She didn't even come in second. She, and the rest of a crowded Democratic field, lost decisively to Bill de Blasio, the city's Public Advocate. More than any other candidate, he used the current condition of New York to point out the obvious: in a city where everyone works together to produce more wealth than any other metropolis, the rewards are not merely unequally shared, but are "shared" in a way that guarantees opulence for a few without ensuring survival for everyone else. That message did not cost him votes. It gained him enough votes to avoid a runoff election that everyone else thought was a foregone conclusion. And it has him polling with a double-digit lead over his Republican counterpart.
The message of de Blasio's campaign is one that, sadly, has deep and devastating relevance for the entire nation. It overpowered the "safer" messaging of Quinn and the other candidates, and it has him running ahead of the candidate for the party that has run the city for two decades.
Are you listening to what New York is telling you, Democrats? It's safe to talk about the elephant in the room, and call him out for what he is: a monster that cares more about holding on to wealth and power than about making a great nation greater.
Follow his lead. And lead America back toward the center, by turning to the left.
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