Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

‘My input wanted’

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He’s certainly light years ahead of our previous governor, and I still believe he was the best choice of the Democratic candidates. There have been achievements to be proud of, and he does seem to be listening to the various committees and commissions he’s appointed.

But I expected more. And I’m hoping as the governor gets still more experience under his belt, he’ll improve in the nuts and bolts of governing Massachusetts (that is, if he’s not whisked off to do something for an Obama administration).

However, an e-mail with the subject line ‘your input needed’ with the sole request to tell the administration the greatest things they’ve done, is not only politically tone deaf, but managerially so. Yes, if you need and want to, ask that question. But ALSO ask something like ‘and what are the three greatest challenges still to address in the next two years?”

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Comments

  1. I supported Patrick too (and do not regret it, as I see no evidence any other would be better). But other than not asking for any honest opinions on whether the actions of the administrations have been decent, it is also completely useless information for the administration to have.

  2. Round up the usual suspects!

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    p>David, you could just restore my post that you deleted.

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    p>Rule No. 1: No criticism of Deval permitted!

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    p>Rule No. 2:  If you are honest about Governor Deluxe your post will be deleted!

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    p>Note: Open re-education cmaps!

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    p>Message: Deval is great!

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    p>

      • <

        p>Ameriquest.  Preditory lending. Rhetoric. Drapes.  Lease of a Cadillac.  Imperial governor.  more rhetoric.

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        p>Proposed casinos. Legislative failures.  Attesting to success by an ‘experienced and accomplished’ Massachusetts governor to the voters of South Carolina.

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        p>Deal on a book that declares you an incredible leader and politician. Marginal legislative accomplishments.

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        p>Mediocre governor, a.k.a. Governor Deluxe.

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        p>Prediction:  Passenger on 12:20  a.m. Amtrack train from South Station to D.C. on January 20, 2009.  Forget to say “goodbye.”

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        p>Note to File:  Eric Holder wants to be AG.

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        p>Future:  Deval comes up short.  Hopefully does better than an ambassadorship.  

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        p>Note:  Ray Flynn says it ain’t what it’s cut out to be.

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        p>How’s this for memory?

        • It’s really a very simple request.  If you can’t abide by it, we’ll have to give you a time-out.

          • You should have a special section for the cheering section?  Objective thinkers need not apply, kind of thing, because that was essentially the message I got from it.

          • David, thank you for allowing my cynical view on your Web site.  Also, thank you for  encouraging civic involvement, with restrictions (Thou shall not criticize Deval on certain posts in response to restrictive discussion points.)

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            p>I willingly accept my time-out as a badge of honor.  You said you would delete any post that did not comply.  I looked at Deval’s ‘accomplishments’ objectively and failed to come to the conclusions you find acceptable.

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            p>Doug Rubin posting here demonstrates a true desire for dialogue.  He must be a courageous person by willingly subjecting himself to the likes of me.

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            p>Again,  thank you and I really enjoy participating in BMG!

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            p>

  3. the same reaction and almost picked up the phone to call Liz Morningstar to tell her how not to deal with grassroots supporters.  I still want to know why Deval is supporting an increase in H1B visas, but the only invitation in that email was to contribute to the applause.  

  4. I saw it and thought, “Great! input”, but when it went onto say, we wanted to ask you how great we were, I just stopped reading.

    • They basically said: “Please hurry to respond to this because, even though this is very, very important to everything we do and everyting we are, we only thought of it at the very last minute.”

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      p>This is another–albeit very minor–example of soemthing that makes people wonder if the administration doesn’t get it or doesn’t mean it.

  5. I received the same email and looked at it from a completely different perspective –  They have a list of what they think is important but realized that may not line up with everyone else. Hence the request for “input”.

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    p>As far as providing other types of input are concerned – when’s the last time a Governor’s chief of staff posted and responded to comments in a blog like Doug Rubin has? The Governor has a radio show where he takes calls. The Governor’s staff have come to community meetings to discuss the budget and other issues. As soon as he was elected he created a group of committees that went around the state to solicit input and there are many many more examples.

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    p>If you want to criticize the Governor for not soliciting input, OK let’s do that, but lets first acknowledge the work he has done so far and turn it into a conversation that does provide input on how that may be improved -I’ll follow up  soon with my suggestions although as I said I think he is doing a pretty good job.

    • that governor Patrick has certainly made his office far more open to the people than any other governor of recent history. But when push comes to shove, has this been anything more than you guys talking, him listening, and then him doing what he wants anyways?  Are the things you pushed for that he did anything other than what he was going to do anyways?  

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      p>It’s important that he’s having these conversations, but it’s even more important that he comes away from them with some sense of a mandate from the people because of them.  If we are going to provide him an element of pubic opinion, he needs to be more clear about how this opinion is shaping his governorship.  Backing off the casinos after much of the backlash would have been a phenomenal show of this, but it didn’t happen.  

      • I disagree with you on casinos. Not that we should have them, I oppose bringing casinos to Massachusetts, but that he should back down from them. He believes that they are the right solution and I give him credit for continuing to work for what he believes even though I disagree with him.

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        p>I didn’t vote Governor Patrick because I agreed with everything he stands for. I voted for him knowing I would oppose some of his agenda but that the agenda he pursued was based on what he thought was best for us and not based on some personal power grab.

      • Perhaps you view the role of the Governor differently but, as I see it, the Governor is supposed to be more than just a rubber stamp for the wishes of his political supporters.

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        p>It’s the Governor’s job to take into account the wishes of the electorate (including the folks who didn’t vote for him) and then make what he or she believes is the best decision based upon all the information at hand.

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        p>Lest we forget and get overly swelled heads, we’re all just Monday morning quarterbacks here. Any one of us may be an expert in one or two or even a half dozen fields, but that doesn’t mean that our idea of the proper policy decision is necessarily the right one when you further take into account all the other decisions on other matters that need to be made at or around the same time.

  6. to the commonly asked question “what is elitism?”  

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    p>There’s no silver spoons, passion fruit mousse, or $300 hair cuts.

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    p>It’s “I think I’m great, but I want you to tell me I’m great too.  3 examples to boot.”  

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    p>This isn’t harmless elitism either.  You can brush off someone who hasn’t had chili before or doesn’t know prominent sports figures — that isn’t everyones cup of tea.  

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    p>Pardon my foul, college-aged mouth, but Deval’s administration going to its grassroots for what is essentially a circle-jerk is one of the most disconnected moves I’ve seen them do.  This is the dangerous kind of disconnect when the Governors office fails to relate to the people they work for.  

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    p>I’m not just blowing smoke out of my ass either.  This is another example of that same behavior, along with blowing money on a car and drapes…oh, and that casino thing he pushed for but blew off for a book deal.  

  7. The guy can’t even toot his own horn without help.

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    p>Why not just form a “How great am I?” working group?

  8. I find it massively disappointing that this is the Gov’s way of trying to get us to “check back in”.

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    p>There’s a fast growing crowd across the state who’s largely checked out due to the greviously bad decisions of our Gov r/t the Caddy, the drapes, Ameriquest, and the 3 casinos thing–too bad Patrick didn’t tell us that resort casinos were what he had in mind with the slogan “together we can”. I know many people who’ve not only checked out of supporting Patrick but who are organizing to launch a grassroots political backlash for his misleading us, including his propping up of the fake health reform law.

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    p>Patrick said recently on WAMC FM, the NPR station in western MA, that it would NOT be good if even one person was harmed by the new Chapter 58 law with it’s threat of tax fines for not buying expensive private health insurance.

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    p>Well, almost 100,000 people were fined to the tune of $7.9Mil by the state tax dept b/c they could not afford the high price of an individual insurance policy.  Not a peep from Patrick.  Shame on him. While these same folks line up at food pantries and to apply for fuel assistance…

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    p>The MA Mandated Insurance plan is part of the insurance Industry’s master plan to shove false choices down our throats, all the while raping our economy and killing thousands of people annually by denying them needed healthcare.  Them’s the facts, folks, not my personal opinion. See http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-…
    as just a beginning source on this reality.

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    p>It’s quite pathetic–and infuriating–how “journalists” in the MSM are spoon fed false rhetoric (aka half-truths and lies) by the insurance industry then simply turn around and regurgitate it as “news” to the public. Case in point is the recent coverage in The Boston Globe, NYTs, WaPo, and Kaiser’s Daily Policy Briefing about the Massachusetts Mandated Purchase of Private Insurance Law known as Chapter 58. This law is yet one more poster-child of the false choices campaign being waged on the American people by the insurance industry.

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    p>* DEFINITION OF reform:

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    p>http://www.merriam-webster.com…

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    p>Function: noun (as in Healthcare Reform)
    Date: 1663

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    p>1: amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved

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    p>2: a removal or correction of an abuse, a wrong, or errors

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    p>—

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    p>Please think independently about the situation that we’re struggling with for real healthcare reform in MA b/c it’s a dress rehearsal for what’s to come on the national stage.

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    p>Does anyone else, after applying the critical thinking process, conclude that the MA Chapter 58 law that mandates the purchase of commercial insurance products would be more aptly described as state-sponsored extortion to benefit the insurance industry?

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    p>Visit http://www.defendhealth and take a look at 2 excellent articles on the homepage if you’re interested in learning the truth and not just the VERY SLICK and well-manufactured spin on this law:

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    p>”Lost in the Labryinth”, the first, and only, MA mainstream media piece to take a critical look at details of MA law, Boston Globe, Page A2, by Sam Allis, March 30, 2008

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    p>”Fraud in the Guise of Health Reform”, a western MA Attorney speaks truth to power in his article published in Feb. 2008 in the Greenfield Recorder.

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    p>These articles and other health reform materials are at http://www.defendhealth.org

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    p>——

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    p>Gov. Patrick was quoted in the Berkshire Eagle as saying that maybe it’s time for Washington to look at enacting a national single payer health care system, b/c we’ll never break the pattern of the cost crisis with the private insurance companies in existence.  I sure wish he’d say that  when it would actually make a difference in moving in that direction, such as this past Tuesday at the health access forum…
    http://www.necn.com/Boston/Hea…

  9. Two simple themes clarify much of this administration’s communications problem.

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    p>1. They think — and measure themselves — in terms of perception, not accomplishment.

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    p>If people like them, they are doing a good job. Even if they are snoozing at their desks all day. They know that the grassroots is disenchanted with them, but they are trying to solve the problem with outreach and dialogue. They have not realized — yet — that actual accomplishment, and nothing else, will renew their support.

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    p>2. Their devotion to Massachusetts is shallow at best.

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    p>For example, while Patrick’s casinos proposal may have been rooted in a real struggle to find a fiscal solution for the state, the commitment required to get the plan to pass — much less actually make it work — was non-existent. What the infamous NY book trip really showed was the lack of commitment. If Patrick had really been pushing that casino effort hard, he would have stayed in town that day to make statements, both public and private, to rally the troops and recover the momentum. His engagement with the state legislature is, from all reports, non-existent.

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    p>I would urge Deval supporters — and that once included me — to take a close, unemotional look at the governor. What has he done in office to deserve our support? What has he done to deserve our opposition? It may be time to re-evaluate the relationship.

  10. I think to achieve a scenario where we can govern as we campaign – grassroots – we need to make sure there’s a role for everyone. Willing to be a super volunteer, work hours upon hours every week, calling, knocking and doing the hard stuff? Or are you only willing to sign a petition, send a few bucks or read a few headlines? We need a situation where everyone can take ownership in what we have.

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    p>Part of me feels that while some of that can exist in a gubernatorial administration, there are some aspects of it that can only come from outside government and the sphere of politicians. It’s difficult for a politician to overtly campaign against another, even if it’s on the issues, when they’re of the same party.

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    p>That’s why, nationally, we have organizations like MoveOn. They fight for both candidates and issues. More importantly, though, is the fact that they give roles as big or small as anyone would like. Just willing to sign the occasional petition? Fine. Willing to send in $15 bucks for your favorite candidate? Great. Willing to spend 4 hours this week IDing voters in a crucial swing state? Fantastic. Each contribution is as valued as the next; MoveOn members each feel as though they have ownership in the entire process.

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    p>I’ve long since felt we need something like that, but locally. We need a state-wide, grassroots group that can elect candidates… but keep people involved in between elections, helping as much or as little as they’re willing. That’s how we, as a movement, could truly take ownership in an administration… helping elect them, and helping push them to do the right thing. And helping their priorities become the priorities of Beacon Hill.

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    p>What would be even more transcendent about it is that because it’s a statewide enterprise, it would neither have to be as big (per capita) nor as broad. Because it would be statewide, it could utilize personal visits to Beacon Hill. If you could get 200 people willing to show up to support a particular set of issues in person, that’s as effective as getting 2,000 people to sign an online petition. Maybe 200,000 for some politicians. As a movement progressive interested in state politics, this is my #1 longterm goal. I truly think that to make the kind of changes we truly want as a society, we’re going to need organizations like that in all 50 states of this country.  

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