Representative Jerry Nadler on the attempted (yet to be seen as successful) coup:
“[T]his is an unqualified disaster for progressive policies in housing, and civil rights, and everything, and social services and budgeting,” he said. “I mean we have been waiting for a Democratic Senate for 40 years to do things.”
Nadler said that gay marriage will now probably be set aside (though it was unclear if it ever had the votes to pass), and that hopes for tenant landlord-reforms will probably be dashed.
Asked if anything good could come of this, Nadler said that his father told him about a rabbi in ancient times who always told his followers “this too is for the best,” no matter how terrible a calamity befell them.
“He said, ‘Look for the silver lining.’ So I’ll spend all night looking for the silver lining. I don’t know if I’ll find it.”
So let’s just remind ourselves in the days and months ahead, and as we look to the 2010 elections, that the people of NY voted for a progressive agenda in 2008 and that has been taken away from us. No matter how this whole thing shakes out, let’s make damn sure this sort of thing can’t happen again–and that means we as the electorate must start paying more attention to the quality, caliber, and actions of our electeds, and keep them honest about what we voted them in to do.
The only silver lining I can see at this point is if this whole ugly mess makes NYers realize that democracy is a two-way street.
