Danehy

A man for whom I have great respect sorta sideways called me a
Republican the other day. I get this every now and then, as the
Democratic Party to which I have belonged for decades continues to
drift—not just to the left, but also sometimes in a yz direction on the coordinates, toward a place where the air is thin, and
it’s easy to become disoriented.

It’s trite to say, “I haven’t changed; my party has.” I still
believe in the things that most Democrats fought for during my
formative years—civil rights, people before profits, the power of
unions, equality for women and the vital importance of a strong and
healthy middle class to a free and democratic society. But to claim
that I have stood firm upon a pedestal of rightness while the
Democratic Party floated on by is disingenuous. Change is inevitable,
and those who resist it at all costs relegate themselves to the
scrapheap of history.

Certainly, Lyndon Johnson, one of the two or three most important
Democrats of all time, changed, transforming himself from a rural Texas
clod-kicker into an irresistible force who, through verbal persuasion
and a whole lot of arm-twisting, ramrodded civil rights legislation
through Congress, knowing full well that he would lose the South to the
Republicans in the process.

I have changed (or, perhaps more correctly, grown) politically over
the years. For example, I (and most others) now have an understanding
of the need for equal rights for gay Americans, a platform item that
wasn’t part of any Democratic agenda back when I was a kid. However, at
the same time, I readily admit that I haven’t signed on to every
crackpot notion that has come down the pike, and for this, my
Democratic purity has been called into question on several different
occasions over the years.

I watched in horror as my party ceded (without even a whimper) the
concepts of personal responsibility and “family values” to the GOP, an
insane abdication that saddled us with Ronald Reagan, two George Bushes
and decades of Republican Senates and/or Houses. It basically cost
America a generation of progressive and prudent leadership. It got so
bad that for a while, there were only a handful of us who would even
own up to the label “liberal.”

The national GOP is currently waging a very public internal battle
over what constitutes a “real” Republican, and how many boxes on the
checklist must be marked to establish one’s bona fides. Apparently,
some nominal Dems think I need to do the same.

I asked the guy why he said what he had said, and his reply was that
I had been going after the Tucson City Council pretty hard for the past
couple of months. This struck me as odd, because where (and when) I
came from, you always held your friends to higher standards than you
did your opposition. Likewise, I expect members of my own party to do
things better, smarter and more efficiently than the Republicans would
do.

Imagine having been a lifelong Republican and swimming upstream for
so many years, until getting to the early 2000s, when your party
controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. Then imagine
watching your fellow Republicans squander a budget surplus,
wander into a dumb war and then turn a blind eye as the economy is
gutted through a concerted effort of runaway greed and a willful lack
of any oversight whatsoever. I’d be livid.

Likewise, when I see a City Council consisting of nothing but
Democrats, I expect at the very least high competence, and I hope for
greatness. Instead, we get $800,000 videos that my son could have done
for a hundred bucks, and near-million-dollar payouts to developers,
because nobody on either side felt like doing anything for six
months.

It’s pretty embarrassing. If you Google “screwups,” the Tucson City
Council would be the third search result, right behind the Italian Army
and Mark Sanford’s travel agent.

As for writing about the council’s misadventures, I asked the guy,
“What would Chris Limberis be doing with this council?” Chris, who’s
been gone for more than three years, was one of the all-time-great
investigative journalists. I never knew Chris’ politics, or if he even
had any. All I knew was that he went after the story and got it.

If he were alive today, he’d be having a field day. We’d know about
the council member who got his credit card cancelled. We’d have insight
into the wink-and-nod recusals that stave off charges of conflict of
interest. And we’d have a clear picture of the inner workings of the
bumblefest that has led Tucson to its current predicament(s).

It’s all pretty much moot now. The dolts in the state Legislature
bullied through a measure that will change the way Tucson elects its
City Council. Assuming the measure is signed by the governor, there
won’t be any 6-0 breakdowns by party, or any party breakdowns at all.
Voter turnout will be abysmal, and money will rule the day.

But on the bright side, if I ever again go after someone on the
council, it will be for strictly nonpartisan incompetence, and my
Democratic pedigree will be unassailable.

This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.