Californication

Back in the 1970s, Jerry Brown swept to power in California with a new-agey challenge to traditional Democratic liberalism that repackaged fiscal moderation with environmentalism and some “small is beautiful” rhetoric, and then sold it as innovative, even radical change.

San Francisco punk rockers The Dead Kennedys saw right through the malarkey, but overreacted with a song called “California Uber Alles.”

Then came 1980 and the election of Ronald Reagan, and suddenly the DK’s realized they made a slight error in the object of their fury. They took the tune and chorus, but added new lyrics about President Bonzo and called the re-written song “We’ve got a Bigger Problem Now.“

Today I was reminded of the two DK’s songs.

I yield to no one in my anathema towards the Working Families Party, but opposing them still requires limits of decency.

Today Liz Benjamin reported that the State Independence Party has been mailing on behalf of at least four City Council candidates in what a consultant called a "test run" of its effort to become a counterweight to the Working Families Party

This reminds me of anti-communists who thought Hitler would be a useful counterweight to Stalin.

Actually, in many ways these parties are mirror images of one another. For instance, both parties have failed to file two required pre-primary reports with the State Board of Elections.

It has also been reported that the IP has been working with real estate interests dismayed by the WFP's clout with the Democratic Party. How lovely; the counterweight to one money laundering operation is now another one. These efforts are said to involve the Mayor’s consigliore, Kevin Sheekey, Golisano's advisor Steve Pigeon, now working for Pedro Espada, and state of the art Republican scumbag Roger Stone.

This is a cure that may be worse than the disease.

For more detail, see the rest of my “Fuck the Independence Party” series: