Our Democratic party leaders are failing the test. But I’m willing to make this an open book exam with this post. Action scores an A; Fundraising cops an F. Need more test prep? Let me help by telling my experience as someone who first voted for McGovern in 1972 and has supported Democratic candidates with money and action ever since even when the candidate was the lesser of two evils; speak nothing but good of the dead but Joe Lieberman? Sheesh.
Any way… The requests for donations from prospective gubernatorial candidates here in New Jersey started even before election day 2024. At first, I felt offended at such selfish short-sightedness like the catcher on my baseball team calling for a Lyft home when our team is still batting in the bottom of the ninth. Then I realized that my mindset as a non-politician gives primacy to wanting the world to be better for myself, my wife, my three kids and especially now my grandchildren. And for my Democratic Party representatives including this gaggle of opportunistic would-be Jersey govs, the number one priority is getting elected or reelected. Oh, sure, they claim that goal is so they can make the world better, but only one of them is going to be the governor if you beat the Republican candidate so the money for the others does nothing to make the world better. They focus less on doing than soliciting. Fact of political life here.
Yes, after living in New Jersey for over 20 years now I am singling out the politicians here who seem incapable of doing truly significant things. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to meet with Governor Murphy briefly. Perhaps rudely, I took the photo up chance to say to him while we shook hands for the camera, ‘Pensions, trains, marijuana.’ He told me that I should look at the camera and smile. Pot is now sold legally in New Jersey and that is a good thing for both an increase in revenues and a decrease in hypocrisy. The trains are no better than they were and their infrastructure continues to follow the 2nd rule of thermodynamics by crumbling and crashing. Fitch ratings at the end of last year ranked New Jersey 47th out of the 50 states in terms of long-term indebtedness, which is primarily a result of pension funding. Yes, the same report said that Jersey had done better since 2016 when Murphy took over those responsibilities according to Fitch’s long-term liability to personal income metric, but the progress is insufficient. On his final exam, the grade is incomplete and he will not get the accommodation of extra time or a wife who is a US Senator. And I think the problem is that politicians just keep focusing on the next election rather than making a difference. Without a next election, why make a difference? To be fair, there are points in Phil’s favor: he hasn’t asked me for any spare cash and marijuana .
It’s not just in the Garden State that this monomania for more money occurs. After the loss in the presidential election, the requests for funding came from various sources — the Democratic National Committee, Act Blue, Indivisible, and existing or hopeful senators and representatives. The cluelessness of these requests shouldn’t astonish me at this point, but the way they clash with my priority upsets me. Why? The more this misguided behavior continues the further voters distance themselves from the Democratic Party. Folks: let’s review the scorecard:
- You didn’t take the White House.
- You didn’t take the House of Representatives.
- You didn’t take the Senate.
- You seems hypnotized by DJT and his minions.
- You try to sound big on social media but accomplsh no changes in the current status.
But now you would like more money? Without any change in the model followed by the rulers of the Democratic Party, this represents a fine example of what economists call the sunk cost phenomenon: our tendency to follow through with supporting an effort in which we’ve already invested heavily via money, time, and/or passion.
Now we have the Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who is an honorable man with the magnetism of a pet squirrel, deciding in effect to vote for Trump priorities through the approval of a continuing resolution last Friday. The reasoning offered may come in different words, but the clear message underneath all of the sophistry is that Schumer fears that the public would blame the effects of a government shutdown on the Democrats and, therefore, that would make it harder for politicians to get elected or reelected. We don’t care if you are elected or not. We care right now whether you stop the depredation of our government.
When some of these requests for money to support electoral efforts have hit me on social media, I whimsically have offered replies in the comments section requesting some sort of accounting of how these various Democratic Party entities managed to spend $1.5 billion in the recent presidential campaign and not only lose, but fail in the stated and hyped goal of securing the turnout of large swaths of registered Democrats as well. So far, no replies have appeared from those seeking more money from me; not even a confused smiley emoji. Unless you count continuing to ask me for more money.
And while all of this panhandling is occurring, those of us who are non-politicians also have to endure the consultants telling us what they think went wrong. It requires a bit of head spinning to vaunt during the campaign how potent a candidate Kamala Harris was and then after November 6 blame her for losing. (I thought she was just fine but Americans stupidly make electing a woman President more difficult than electing a felon), Did any consultant or campaign official give back their money because they botched the job? Quit as a gesture of honor for failing to understand the mood of the electorate?
I am on the record as saying that everything in life is a test; that is an ongoing concern of this blog. The pop quiz now for all of us on the Democratic side is figure out how to delay, dismantle, and defeat Donald Trump’s initiatives. It’s simple. Not a trick question. But Democratic representatives are not only failing this current test that nonpoliticians and loyal members of their base are posing but have been failing our tests for a long time. We want them to prove to us that they understand that we do not give a shit about whether they get elected or reelected except as a means to an end. We are exhausted from giving you the means again and again without ever you giving us the end. What we care about is whether we have a government that works for the people, that throws off corruption, that lives up to the ideals for which so many have sacrificed. Dem rep: you’re failing the test every time you send me your request for money because that shows you have not learned anything from the past eight years. Take a break from fundraising and figure out how you’re going to counter a presidential administration that laughs at the legislative and ignores the judiciary in its extraordinarily illegal and in human activities.
And I don’t want to see you posting on Twitter or Facebook or Threads about your outrage. That does nothing. Spare us your virtual morality on TikTok. We want to see action. And that brings us back to NJ, Princeton, in fact where I reside most of the time when not on a lark in Asbury Park. We are very aware here of F Scott Fitzgerald who attended the university here and wrote about that time in This Side of Paradise. The last words that he ever wrote, were ‘ACTION IS CHARACTER’ in block letters in his notebook. With that insight, the quintessential American novelist saw through the BS at the last and then sadly died of a heart attack. But his wisdom lives. Action is required to pass the current test. Not words. And certainly not fundraising appeals. Make a difference then ask for money. ACTION IS CHARACTER
ACTION IS CHARACTER