Is Marzilli now the biggest lefty in the senate? Or does that honor reside with his Middlesex neighbor Pat Jehlen? Other nominees?
Well gosh, there's an open-ended question. What are your definitions, David? Do you mean someone who has a broad, global view of environmental issues? Or who thinks that government should be transparent and efficient? One who is for or against gambling? One who supports the earned income tax credit? One who understands the iron law of arithmetic when it comes to budgeting? One who supports or opposes police details? One who looks for ways to control the spiraling costs of health care?
Right vs. left is a pretty arid way of describing politics these days — particularly in this state. Bernstein wants us to slap a label on Marzilli so that Marzilli can be mocked for the label itself, not what he actually believes or does.
I'm confident that Marzilli will be not just one of the “most progressive” voices in the Senate (whatever that means), but one of the most effective, genuinely populist, and visionary. I hope and anticipate that he and Sen. President Murray will have a lot they can work on together.
UPDATE: To the Phoenix webmaster: The logos above both Adam Reilly's and David Bernstein's blogs link to “On the Download”, not their own recent postings. You have to know about this, since that's been the case for months. And you have to just be ignoring it. It's extremely annoying. Would you fix it already? Many thanks.
Charley: I know Jim Marzilli a bit, having interviewed him a few times. He’s a great guy and a true reformer. He’s also as far to the left as anyone elected to office in Massachusetts. Maybe David used the label because it is demonstrably true.
If it’s demonstrably true, I wish he’d demonstrate it. It would be a lot more interesting to talk about exactly what that means, rather than simply labeling him as such and going off to the next thing.
I’m not using that in the Jay Severin sense of the term. I’m using it precisely.
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p>Marzilli chaired the Boston Democratic Socialists of America in the 1980s (PDF here, scroll to page 6.)
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p>In 2002, he served on a committee for an awards committee for the Boston DSA, named in honor of Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas, and Julius Bernstein.
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p>In 2003 the Boston DSA hailed Marzilli as one of only four legislators who supported a campaign called the Working Family Agenda — a very left-liberal agenda consisting of new spending, “fair” taxes and the like. One aspect of fair taxes: bring a progressive income tax to Massachusetts, something that has been defeated repeatedly over the years by voters. By the way, there is good stuff in the Working Family Agenda, and his support for that alone does not make him a socialist. But it did make him one of the four most left-leaning members of the Legislature at that time in terms of his support for spending and higher taxes.
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p>So what do you think, Charley?
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he sounds like my kind of guy. Wish we had more folks in the legislature who would get behind that agenda.
Jim Marzilli is a very good guy. I’m not pointing out any of this to be critical of him.
that a lot of states, if not most, have progressive income taxes, as does the federal gov’t. It’s hardly a radical idea. In fact, I hope the issue can be revived and sold as a middle-class tax cut.
Marzilli may or may not be accurately described as a “socialist” (btw, DSA, with which I have some experience, is a pretty tame bunch – not exactly the Workers World crowd), but in light of the graduated federal income tax, his support for a graduated income tax in MA cannot possibly be deemed evidence of socialist tendencies. That is, unless the entire United States is in fact a socialist paradise.
Because he believes in being nice to kids and pets, he can’t be a socialist, because non-socialists believe in that, too. Jim Marzilli is a socialist of the European-style, social-democratic variety. Not all of his views may be attributed to said socialism.
that was 20-25 years ago. Is he still a socialist? At what point does one go from progressive/populist to socialist anyway?
stomv: Marzilli continued to be active with the Boston Democratic Socialists of America into the current decade. You did read past the first paragraph of my post, didn’t you?
There is an organization of legislators from left-leaning, progressive political parties in stable democracies. The names are all different, be they Labour, Social Democrats, New Democrats, and in the US just plain Democrats. I met some Irish MPs involved in this organization, and its nothing more than a group of like-minded left-leaning but mainstream legislators sharing ideas across national boundaries.
I agree with Charley. Dan’s description is much more informative and useful. Just calling someone a, “lefty,” isn’t really very informative. I suspect even the esteemed Commenter Bernstein would agree.
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p>On the other hand, note that this comment was posted as a quick one-paragraph note on the Phoenix blog. Therefore, one might imagine that the normally rigorous journalistic standards that mediate everything published by the standard-setting Phoenix newspaper have been relaxed a bit in the interest of provoking discussion, badinage and … raillery.
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p>Of course, if there really is not any difference between blogging and journalism my nice dualistic argument will be severely stressed. Oh dear …
Marzilli was not the most left-leaning candidate in the senate primary. Ken Donnelly was an out and out socialist, from single payer health care to an agenda for a workers’ paradise.
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p>Also, please check your maps. Arlington is located slightly to the left of Cambridge.
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