Reflections, musings, whatever

Happy New Year, people.

New Year's Day feels like a blank canvas waiting for paint. Before you put down the first stroke, you stop: what do you want to create? Do you like last year's picture drying on the wall? New Year's Day is a reset; you have a wide open canvas to fill.

Well, this is a blog about local politics. So on this first day of 2019, here are reflections on the current state of government and why Hoboken will need a wave to self-correct. Starting with a look back...

THEN

Anger has been the driving force in Hoboken politics since I started paying attention (2008).  

Back then, the anger was fueled by moral outrage.  One political faction fought to control City Hall and the Board of Education in order to maintain a culture of patronage jobs, taxpayer freebies (like insurance bennies to retired officials), backdoor profits from litigating against the City of Hoboken (with the intention to settle then split the proceeds), more backdoor profits from sales of cookie-cutter development, lining one's pockets with "5 bucks a tow,"  pumping student enrollment then using education moneys as a slush fund (like $48K on cell phones), and paid votes, to name a few.

The other political faction called itself "Reform." Reform was a weird stew of every political stripe: from Conservatives to Socialists. But we were all on the same page; united to 'clean up' Hoboken's institutions of government.  This reform constituency was generally (not all) 'newcomers' and considered interlopers by the opposing faction, generally (not all) native Hobokenites.   What united this weird stew of people with dramatically different ideologies was our moral outrage at verifiable corruption; corruption in plain sight: $1M in missing quarters, 1,050 employees on the BoE payroll  (most without social security numbers, positions, birth dates or sometimes names and addresses) and so on. Our moral outrage was tremendously effective at the ballot box: the victories of Kids First, Mayor Zimmer, her reform Council allies.  This anger was needed to drive political change. 

It is the American story. Anger based upon moral outrage is how this country has corrected social, civil and political wrongs on the streets in marches, or in our courts.  Hoboken has done it at the ballot box. 

2019

Today, anger is still the driving force in Hoboken government, but it's a different kind of anger.

Today's anger is revenge-based, cruel, has no moral structure, even shatters pre-existing moral outrage that once drove reform in Hoboken government.  

It emerged in 2017, after Mayor Zimmer dropped out of the mayoral race (an event which has been mythologized in different ways--depending on who you speak to).  Reform then split into to two factions supporting two reform candidates. As I predicted (yes), the split became deeply personal but I also believed that whomever won, the greater good would prevail, wounds would heal, and reform folks would go back to a coalition allied against political corruption and abuse of the public trust. 

I was wrong. 

Former allies' anger based on moral outrage against corruption was replaced by revenge-based anger at  the election winner, Ravi Bhalla. 

Angry former Reform champions united with the BFF of Carmelo Garcia & Chris Campos and with a notorious Pay-to-Player for a political coalition-- a Frankencouncil-- that looks the other way when a hospital board seat is stolen for a political crony, that drops complaints about pay-to-play violations. Legislatively, the Frankencouncil trolls the mayor. There are Bills to strip him of staff, to strip nominal funding for a lawsuit, to create an Executive branch "audit" committee (which they sit on), to rescind appointment powers for the Rent Leveling Board.  Debate over forcing his staff to pay for pizza and croissants take up 30 minutes at public meetings. The Frankencouncil are disruptors, bomb-throwers, fueled on revenge. 

From The Atlantic, The Real Roots of American Rage, The untold story of how anger became the dominant emotion in our politics and personal lives—and what we can do about it:

"Researchers call the phenomenon in which anger, rather than making things better, becomes a cycle of recrimination, rumination, and ever-expanding fury the revenge impulse. Though anger and the desire for revenge can feel intertwined, they are two distinct emotions. Simply becoming angry doesn’t prompt a revenge impulse...  Under certain conditions, the emotion can transform from a force that helps keep society knitted together into something that tears it apart... For anger to be productive, at some point, it must stop. Victory often demands compromise."   

"Victory often demands compromise."

Not happening. There are no olive branches to be found on tomorrow's meeting agenda.  The first meeting of 2019 shows a continuation of the revenge-politics that have dominated Hoboken's legislature since January 2018.

The utter lack of introspection about their efforts to create chaos in the Executive Branch, demonstrated animus toward hardworking colleagues, along with turning a blind eye to corruption-- such as the theft of a hospital board seat-- are the clearest signs that Hoboken needs a wave of moral outrage to cleanse this legislative body.

As for this blog, well... stay tuned.