Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
18 Tremont St., #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
The Commonwealth Activist Network *
Visit our homepage at: http://cltg.org
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*** CLT&G Update ***
Sunday, April 27, 1997
Greetings;
Barbara's bi-weekly (Quincy) Patriot Ledger column follows, but if you want to read a truly scathing column by Barbara, pick up today's Boston Sunday Herald (page 33) and see her square off one-on-one against House Speaker Thomas Finneran in a Pro-Con op-ed skirmish (“Are state pols kings or cronies?”). And wait till you see the accompanying cartoon of Finneran as the King of Siam!
“Separated at birth in the Bay State: Speaker of the House Tom Finneran (D-Mattapan) and Yul Brenner (King-Siam). It's not just the dark eyes flashing beneath the smooth head: it's the stance. The attitude. The benevolent despotism,” Barbara opens with, putting a shot right across his bow.
“A new era of openness dawns on Beacon Hill” is Finneran's pathetic response.
This exchange will likely be the talk of Beacon Hill tomorrow and for days to come.
Chip Ford
Co-director
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Occasionally after giving a speech I am accused by someone in the audience of dividing the people and politicians into “Us vs. Them”. I cheerfully admit it. The reason my attitude is politically incorrect is that They, the Politicians, benefit mightily when They can convince Us, the People, to be correctly kind and gentle so they can push us around with impunity.
The New Age of Enlightened Co-operation began when Republicans took over Congress and a Democrat won the White House. After decades of intense debate, in which Ronald Reagan was accused, for starters, of starving babies and killing people with AIDS, we were told it was time for Congress to be nice to the President and for the Republican majority to share power with the unfortunate minority. This was an understandable political ploy, one which Republican minorities had tried themselves in the past. The difference was that this time gullible voters took up the cry: can't they all just get along?
Let's sincerely hope not. At least when they're fighting with each other, they can't do too much damage to us.
But can't we all just get along? The terminally naive want to know. No we can't. Grow up.
They want our money. They want to use our money to buy themselves power. They want to get re-elected forever until it is time to retire with fat pensions. Then some of them want to get jobs as lobbyists with special interests which they served when they were “public servants”.
Those, like Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), who remain Us even after elected, are rare. One Congressman of the people, Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio), lives on his boat in the Potomac to keep himself separated from Them. “Beam me up, Mr. Speaker!” he cries from the House floor, when everyone starts getting along at our expense.
On Beacon Hill last June, I was testifying against a constitutional amendment to give legislators automatic payraises. So when, out of the blue, a state senator asked me if there are any legislators I respect, my mind froze on blank. If I had glanced to my left I might have seen Reps. Ron Gauch (R-Shrewsbury) or Mike Ruane (D-Salem), but I was looking right at the new Ways and Means Chairman Paul Haley, whom I didn't know, so I told the truth as I saw it at the moment, which was No. I don't do much lobbying anymore.
When I had time to think about it, I came up with Gauch, Ruane, Bob Hedlund and a few others, but in general the word “respect” doesn't often apply, or it doesn't apply for long. For too many years I've seen Beacon Hill legislators follow their leadership, instead of leading as independent representatives of Us.
A member of the House leadership once tried to explain to me how the system works, how it is important for the “leadership team” to vote with the Speaker. But, I wondered, if the Speaker is from Cambridge, doesn't that give Cambridge roughly 60 votes? Who is representing the leadership team's communities?
In state government, it is usually the role of the minority party to take the people's side and fight for the taxpayer. In the past, Massachusetts Republicans would often team up with conservative Democrats on tax issues and liberal Democrats on good-government issues to do battle. When House Republicans last year fell in line, if not in love, with Speaker Tom Finneran, most of the House was suddenly Them. However, Finneran and Haley went too far when they attempted to forbid debate on tax cuts during the budget discussion; it's one thing to control the membership, and another to publicly embarrass it. So after Republicans threatened public revolt, the debate was allowed, but manipulated; one tiny leadership-supported tax credit passed, the others were sent to a study committee to die. The study committee pretense is just a ploy to fool Us into thinking that they're thinking; this is why They deserve no respect.
Someone once stated that “our society is in trouble not because we passionately disagree, but because we feebly agree”. The biggest ploy of all is the new game of non-partisan non-bickering, which is used by those in power to get their own way without resistance. As long as politicians have unlimited power to tax, we cannot indulge ourselves in “all getting along”—because They have everything to gain from our kindness and gentleness, and We have everything to lose.
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