Loyal Democrats and Republicans would prefer to look at the goings on in Albany these days as an aberration, one that doesn’t reflect the deeply held values of their particular tribe. I don’t see it that way.
Among those active in politics in New York, it seems, you have the getting paid Democrats, and the getting laid Democrats, the getting paid Republicans, and the “you’d better not get laid” Republicans. So you get symbolic fights over abortion and gay marriage, and real fights over who gets the bigger office and who gets to hand out more little grants. Grants used to make them appear to be good guys to people wondering why they must pay so much with so little in return.
Some editorial writers are evidently worried about what will happen with the state government paralyzed. I have been worried for years, but not because of what doesn’t get done, but because of what has gotten done. I worry about the future (now present) effects of past non-decisions and deals that speeded through Albany without a hint of drama, because all the right people carried out winnings while the costs were deferred. Deferred so the losers wouldn’t know who they were until late, when they wouldn’t know who was on the winning end of their losses, and those losses could be blamed on “circumstances beyond our control.”
The MTA’s situation is an indication of what is coming, and will keep coming for years. And these are the people who did it, at least on the public sector side. This little spat has merely lifted up the rock for a moment.