I am ashamed to announce to my progressive friends that the neo – cons won two seats on the Wakefield School Committee last night defeating the only liberal in the race. The scary right – wing legacy of Scott Brown, Richard Tisei and DINOISM ( Democrats in Name Only) wackamole phoenix rose up from the ashes.
I am today announcing the formation of P.O.W.E.R. ( Progressives Organizing Wakefield to Elect Reformers ) whose mission will be to actively recruit , mentor, support and endorse progressive candidates and causes – like the graduated income tax – up and down the ballot; but especially on the local level.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Please share widely!
…be boycotting Wakefield?
Who are you talking about?
What do they believe that is so horrible?
Why are you using the word neocon? Do you mean socon instead?
I was unable to find any election results, or even any mention of the election, on any “news” outlet this morning at 9:15a. There were, of course, numerous stories explaining how nothing happened at the Boston Marathon trial. I did learn that a body was found in Wakefield.
It frustrates me that I can readily find Boston Red Sox On Base Percentage updated daily, but nary a mention that a town election even took place — never mind a summary of the results.
When our media will not even report results of local elections, it is no wonder that we suffer such pervasive voter apathy.
You need a town paper or localized regional for that. I don’t know off hand what’s available in that regard near Wakefield.
Several decades ago, when the Globe viewed itself as “the paper of record” for Boston, it printed the results of state and municipal elections when they happened. It was usually buried in the back of the Metro section, and was little more than a table, but it was usually there for those who cared.
Man those were simple days.
… But beyond that, consider what actually is in the newspaper: stories about cute pets; stories about kindergartners doing just about anything; endless stories about virtually anything that happens in Brookline; and endless stories about the latest health study that requires the reporter to do nothing more then look at the final paragraph or two of a scientific article. And someone reflexively states that we shouldn’t expect to have coverage even if in summary form of various contested elections in the region? It is depressing. Can you imagine a newspaper actually following the various budget line items in their coverage Beyond hot button issues like gambling, or covering controversial outside section items that are being considered by the legislature?
…but I stand by my “reflexive” comment that I would not think to go to the Globe to get results of Wakefield town elections.
I grew up with the Washington Post and Evening Star just outside Washington DC. I moved to Boston in 1974 when the Boston Globe was still a real newspaper. The “local news”, while I was young, was committee assignments and hearings in Congress. We seldom had fire and car-crash stories, the paper was mostly about the back-stories of national events.
Two of my most striking first impressions of Boston news were the utter
unintelligibility of newscasts (my ears were not yet attuned to our local accent) and the preponderance of fires and car crashes in the news. That was before the entire region was infected with its now virulent sports disorder, so that sports was encapsulated in its own section.
Not only can I imagine a newspaper following various budget line items or reporting contested local elections, I expect it. I stopped paying for the hard-copy Globe years ago, and recently terminated my online subscription as well. I will not pay for John Henry’s rubbish.
Looks like we need to run those “neo cons” out of town!
I am wondering what “neocon” can mean in this context. Is Wakefield planning an invasion of Reading to maintain hegemony in the region? Did any of them study with Strauss or graduate from the University of Chicago? Any former Stalinists in the bunch?
n/t
It’s not just a foreign policy ideology. It’s initial genesis was largely on the domestic side, a severe skepticism, initially a healthy one, towards the failures of the Great Society and ‘big government’ solutions.
Both Republicans that got elected are firmly aligned with the neoconservative/libertarian Pioneer Institute on most educational issues. More charters, teachers union bashing, and budget cuts. The Democratic incumbent who lost, Janine Cook, was endorsed by the area’s bipartisan legislative delegation and had great relationships with them to fight for Chapter 70 funding. It is unlikely a bomb thrower like Tiro can do the same.
I usually think of conservatism as having three legs:
NEOCONS – national security hawks
THEOCONS – the Religious Right
ECOCONS – libertarians and supply siders
I agree with James Conway, besides, where does a Pat Buchanan fit in your tripartite analysis? And as for Monday morning quarterbacking asking why there wasn’t a GOTV effort to satisfy the quarterback, instead of criticizing those who are in the arena, maybe we should all ask ourselves why on earth you progressives sit on their hands in these local elections and in these off year elections? no one has ever provided a satisfactory answer to that question. And the answer, the only answer is the answer the president has repeatedly given us: vote! Don’t complain, vote!
…though he joins liberals in not liking free trade. I hope you are not yelling at us for not being involved in local elections; I’m sure we all are.
From the Wakefield Observer:
The 2010 Census indicated that Wakefield had a population of 20,942, of whom 19,154 were twenty years old or older.
Given the low turnout, why was there no GOTV for the progressive candidate?
…if relatively speaking we can get away with calling Scott Brown, Richard Tisei, and DINOs the scary right wing. Frankly it would be healthier for our process if the GOP had more of them and fewer of the absolutely jerks and nutcases that manage to get elected in other parts of the country.