“There’s no
hope.”
— Jerry Williams, WRKO talk radio host”
From 1989 to 1995,
I spent two hours a week on Jerry Williams’ radio talk show,
first with Howie Carr, then with Bob Katzen. It was fun until the
last few months, when the above quote became Jerry’s mantra. It was
really annoying to an optimistic activist like me.
I now realize our
difference was due to his superior age and experience. He died in
2003, or I’d have called him election night and told him he was
right.
Avi Nelson, still on
WRKO on Saturdays from 3 to 5 p.m., talked last weekend about the
stages of electoral grief: “foreboding, denial (maybe Ohio called
too soon, voter fraud in Florida), shock, depression, disgust,
anger, leading to resolve or drop out.”
I started with heavy
“foreboding,” therefore avoided too much “shock,” except for the
congressional race. “Depression” isn’t in my DNA; I went straight to
“disgust,” then “anger,” which lasted for three full days. It was
focused on the Libertarian candidate Dan Fishman, who got 16,668
votes; Tisei lost to Tierney by 3,650 votes.
Now I seriously doubt
that there are 16,000 Libertarians in the 6th Congressional
District. Someone “offended” by Tisei’s position on social issues
posted on a Facebook page that, “Maybe we social-conservatives
deserve some credit for Tisei’s loss. Maybe that’s where the protest
vote for Fishman came from.” No doubt. But I have to believe that
most social conservatives, as well as most Libertarians, wouldn’t
vote for a third-party candidate if it could mean re-electing John
Tierney, which is what happened.
At least those foolish
Libertarians who did vote for Fishman were voting for someone who
shared their values, no matter how futile the campaign. The soc-cons
who voted for Fishman re-elected Tierney, one of the biggest fiscal
and social liberals in Congress. How dumb is that? Perhaps their
motivation wasn’t so much ideological as bigoted against Tisei, who
is not just in favor of gay marriage, but gay himself. So
ideological prissiness, stupidity or bigotry: Take your pick, but
you still can’t have reached the number 16,668.
Many of Fishman’s votes
most likely came from NOTA voters. Massachusetts doesn’t offer the
“none of the above” ballot choice, so Democrats who couldn’t bring
themselves to vote for Tierney, yet were uncomfortable voting
Republican, chose the third name on the ballot, whoever he was.
Casual independents who didn’t like the negative television ads, and
couldn’t be bothered studying the differences between the two
major-party candidates, went there, too. I’m convinced that a large
majority of those 16,000 voters would have preferred Tisei, if
they’d had to choose between two.
I’d asked Dan Fishman
to please not risk re-electing Tierney; on election night, I was so
disgusted that I vowed never to call myself a Libertarian again.
Starting now, I’m just an independent who wants to save America but
knows that spouting Libertarian platitudes and acting as if
pragmatic voters don’t have “principles” isn’t going to accomplish
anything.
Not that Tisei didn’t
have other problems, as the Massachusetts Democratic Party and the
Massachusetts Teachers Association sent me 22 fliers associating
reform-minded, pro-choice Tisei with the most radical members of the
Republican Party and tea party.
A few days after the
election, John Walsh, chairman of the Democratic Party, was asked by
WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller what the Massachusetts Republicans did wrong.
Walsh replied
[watch Part 2 at 0:54/03/20] that they’re “jerks”
and “pretty soon they’ll have to have candidates that don’t think
rape is a good thing.”
This vicious “lies for
silly women” strategy is what Republicans are up against: How can
they win? A new push by a few Massachusetts social conservatives, to
adopt the national Republican platform denying abortion even to save
the life of the mother, isn’t going to help. I’m sure these
fundamentalists won’t prevail, any more than fundamentalist
Libertarians will ever win anything, but nevertheless, they make me
angry.
I did have to laugh,
though, when Keith Lucy sent me a paraphrase of Edmund Burke: “All
that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that foolish men do
something stupid.”
So I was moving into
the final-phase choice, “drop out” (another Jerry Williams mantra:
“I’m getting out of the business”) when I remembered a poster sent
to me after a tough, losing ballot campaign in 1990. It showed a
stork trying to swallow a frog, which had its little hands tightly
around the stork’s throat. The caption read, “Don’t EVER give up.”
My partner, Chip, just
ordered us bumper
stickers.
So now it was Veterans
Day, and I set aside Jerry’s mantras for a quote from our nation’s
No. 1 veteran:
“We should never
despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has
changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new
difficulties arise, we must only put forth New Exertions and
proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.”
— Gen. George
Washington, letter to Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, July 15, 1777
Thank you, Gen.
Washington. You moved me into the final-phase choice of “Resolve.” I
actually have a proposed plan for election 2014 in Massachusetts,
will get to the national problem later.
Bill Weld is moving
back, some say to run for U.S. Senate again. This works for me, if
that’s what he wants, but Barbara’s Plan reflects the year he became
governor, when Ray Shamie was a strong chairman of the state
Republican Party and presided over substantial victories. I would
ask Bill Weld to become chairman, giving the GOP the face of a
fiscal conservative/social liberal like Scott Brown and Richard
Tisei, both of whom would run again. Since we know Bill likes to
delegate details, he sets the campaign themes and works with the
media, while Peter Torkildsen moves into the job of political
director.
So on the 2014 ballot,
we have Scott Brown for U.S. Senate, Richard Tisei for Congress in
the 6th, other Weld-Republicans running in other congressional
districts. Charlie Baker runs for governor again, with Karyn Polito
for lieutenant governor. The best of this year’s Republican
legislative candidates give it another try, now part of a
coordinated Weld-Republican effort. Social conservatives will be
encouraged only if they stop beating the dead election issues of
abortion/gay marriage and get serious about the national debt and
the fiscal problems of Massachusetts, more serious than presently
admitted.
Jerry, look, there’s
hope!
