{"id":2158,"date":"2009-11-01T18:54:23","date_gmt":"2009-11-01T18:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2009-11-01T18:54:23","modified_gmt":"2009-11-01T18:54:23","slug":"weve_got_ours_i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2158","title":{"rendered":"We’ve Got Ours In NY-23"},"content":{"rendered":"

The special election congressional race for New York’s 23rd District has gathered a lot of attention; with the liberal Republican (a New England stereotype) withdrawing in the face of a widely-supported Conservative candidate.<\/p>\n

I have no dog in this fight; I don’t live there and can’t speak to the qualities of the candidates (Iowahawk made his judgement based on wheel wells and secondarily, ideology<\/a>). I have a mild predisposition to seeing Democrats win, but that has been badly eroded over the last decade.<\/p>\n

So why am I writing about this, you ask?<\/p>\n

Because a local editorial encapsulated what has me so furious at our political classes that I do think we simply need to turn our statehouses over and shake them very hard.<\/p>\n

Here’s quote, from the editorial in the ‘Watertown Daily Times<\/a>‘:<\/p>\n

The Democratic candidate has demonstrated a willingness to listen to people about ways in which he could help the district as their representative in Washington. Mr. Owens has remained focused on the economy and job creation throughout his campaign. At the same time, he has shown an understanding of the military, a keen desire to help dairy farmers, an ability to work with labor unions and an eagerness to learn more about the vast, 11-county district that he hopes to represent.<\/p>\n

Mr. Owens seems to approach politics and challenges with an open mind, a generous spirit and a can-do attitude. He has conducted a dignified campaign in comparison to Doug Hoffman.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue. If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer. This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support. Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.<\/p>\n

For a member of Congress, there may be a time to promote reform in Washington, but there is also a time to work within a system that best serves the people you represent<\/b>.<\/p>\n

(emphasis added)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I read this, in other words – “yeah, there are fatal problems with the overall system, but as long as we get ours, we’re OK with that.<\/i>“<\/p>\n

And if that doesn’t make you feel like hoisting the jolly roger and sharpening your cutlass, I’m not sure what will.<\/p>\n

At the Press Club event where I felt I was too harsh on the LA Times guy<\/a>, what I said was:<\/p>\n

“Are you really saying that the LA Times offers quality journalism? Really? I don’t agree, and have evidence. Because if the LA Times was a good newspaper over the last 20 years, how is it – exactly – that they were so silent as Los Angeles and California managed to become so f***ed up?<\/i>“<\/p>\n

The attitude it the Watertown Daily Times? – that’s exactly how.<\/p>\n

If we’re going to get out of this, we need to kick that attitude to the curb, and quickly.
\n–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The special election congressional race for New York’s 23rd District has gathered a lot of attention; with the liberal Republican (a New England stereotype) withdrawing in the face of a widely-supported Conservative candidate. I have no dog in this fight; I don’t live there and can’t speak to the qualities of the candidates (Iowahawk made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}