When the number of placard holders was released, we found out how many people were in the deserving “middle class.” About 150,000 people qualified, as I recall. The rest of us are the serfs. Courtesy of this election, we not also know the number of "real people" and who have "real needs." It is 6,743 — Sheldon Silver's vote total. Anyone who has read enough of my posts, and downloaded the data and looked at it themselves, know what our state government has done during the time Mr. Silver was one of those in charge: handed out more and more benefits to those who already have a host of privileges, and passed the cost, usually deferred, onto everyone else, including the less well off. “This campaign was about real people with real needs,” he said. “It was about results.”
It is perhaps unfair to single Mr. Silver out, given that all such deals pass 212 to 0, but not all of us have the benefit of contested elections, so the focus naturally fell on him. Over on Streetsblog, a proud Silver supporter asserted that the Speaker had cut deals that put favors for those in his district ahead of the needs of the rest of the city and state, and that those in his district are the winners and the rest of us the losers. “Ha ha!” Others believe only a minority of those in the district are in on the deal, perhaps just 6,743 — plus those who have died or moved away, taking the booty with them. I wonder what the characteristics of those people are? Either way, most of us aren’t really people in New York State, and not just to Mr. Silver.
When I decided I had to do something about the sell out of our future, I never considered registering as a Democrat and running in a Democratic primary. The only people who show up, I believed, are the people who are in on some deal, so it was hopeless. Paul Newell looked at the primary vote totals, and figured that if a relatively small number of people were concerned enough about the way things were going to show up and vote, say 10,000, things could change. And based on Mr. Silver’s vote total, he was right. But he was apparently wrong in believing that people would bother to show up.
I looked it up, and there are about 45,000 Democrats enrolled in that assembly district, although the actual total is probably about one-third lower, or say 30,000, based on my experience with the rolls four years ago. So only about one-third turned out. It isn’t so hard, in a state of 19 million, to do favors for 6,743 if the rest — and millions of people who aren’t even here yet (and might be better off not coming) are paying. Heck, if most of the Silver voters are or will soon be recipients of pensions, they don’t even pay state and local income taxes.
Rather than join one of the parties to policies I despised I tried running as a minor party candidate in the general election, when everyone shows up. That, or course, didn't work either, as I wrote here. There is a couple of ways to look at this. One is that I only received around 1,000 votes (another minor party candidate got slightly less), whereas Newell received 2,301 votes and Henry 879. On the other hand, whereas all but one of the city's media outlets refused to speak with me, they did at least inform voters of what Newell and Henry had to say. And I was unwilling to go around asking people for money, and spent perhaps a twentieth of what those candidates did, almost all of it on the flyers I handed out.
I believed money was less important than meeting people face to face, and the credibility having the press at least talk about what I had to say would provide. I didn’t get that credibility, but Newell and Henry did, and spent more money, and (I believe) also gave up jobs and income to run against the incumbent, at considerable cost to themselves, as I did. And they actually got endorsed. No matter. But regardless of the outcome, I appreciate their effort. No one can say that whatever happens is their fault, or that they couldn't be bothered, the way most can't be bothered.
Apparently, those 6,743 have just endorsed the policies that Silver has presided over, so expect more of the same. When money gets tight funds will be cut for New York City schools, but member items will make that up for the real people with real needs. Taxes will be jacked up for peons who work, but not the retired. My guess is my marginal tax rate will hit at least 60%, or 69% if I choose to spend it (with the sales tax added on). Which is to say, if I were to take on a freelance job and earn $1,000, I would be able to spend an additional $310.
Pensions will be jacked up for those with seniority; wages and benefits will be reduced for new hires, who will be fewer as services are cut back. Medicaid spending will rise, the more and more young people will be uninsured (unless Local 1199 is defeated at the national level and universal health care comes in 15 years later). The fare will be saved, and supporters will call Silver a hero, but maintenance will be deferred, debts will be increased. When the conditions of the 1970s return, those who drive SUVs to reserved public parking will be unaffected. And if the quality of life suffers and the economy gets worse for most of us in general, in fact, the “real people” with “real needs” will be unaffected. They’ll be better off, in fact. The bigger the gap between them and the rest of us, the more justice is served based on their relative value, it some may believe.
Will everything be completely different than in the last two downturns, when Pataki and Bruno were there too? I’ll believe it when I see it, or after all these years of disillusionment, perhaps not believe it even then. The real people have already taken money off the top; the shortage will be distributed among the peasants, and the “inevitable” result of “circumstances beyond our control.” At least two are gone. Hopefully Skelos will be dumped too, if the State Senate changes hands. But the latest Assemblymember to be indicted once told the press that nothing will ever change, no matter what. It is simply not within the non-people’s power.
P.S. a long time e-acquaintance wrote to point out that the newspapers ripped off my long time assertion that it is no longer the Empire State, it is the Vampire State, which is the e-mail address I use for those I don’t know personally. Vampire in that the dead and undead (due to the fiscal burdens they left behind) suck the life force out of the young and the future here, using state policy. It was actually the Governor who copped the metaphor. Perhaps he should steal another one. The state motto should be changed from Excelsior (ever upward) to Tondere et Auferre (fleece and flee).