All of New York is astir over Governor Paterson's comments yesterday that his declining approval ratings (and those of Deval Patrick and Barack Obama) are due to racism. Well, nice try, I guess. It's like Obama blaming his free-falling poll numbers on those dirty Republicans...
Anyway, New York Daily News grievance columnist and token angry liberal black Errol Louis is trotted out to tell the governor that no, it's not about race. But in doing so, he reveals his true blindness to Paterson's woes as well as his ignorance of what is driving voter revolt these days:
... it's up to Paterson alone to decide if, when and whether he'll step aside - and it's premature to write him off.
Paterson is the most progressive governor in decades. He raised taxes on the wealthy, has championed same-sex marriage and raised the basic welfare grant for the first time in 18 years.
He also reformed the Rockefeller drug laws, began a historic reworking of the penal laws, and made good use of federal stimulus dollars for programs such as the $200 back-to-school grants for low-income families.
The political attacks on Paterson, gleefully magnified by the media, rarely acknowledge the good he has done...
Well, the wealthy wouldn't agree. Nor the middle-class taxpayer, who saw welfare moms getting "raises" and withdrawing $200 per kid at ATMs while bragging about receiving "free" money - paid for with their tax dollars. Not sure if these same folks are pleased that Paterson gone soft on crime either, or consider a budget this year that hiked taxes by $8 billion -- and spending by $11 billion - to be part of the "good" that Paterson has done.
There's a huge chasm these days in the way "progressives" view the world, and the way everyone else in America seems to (can someone say oddly detached from reality?). Recent polls show that only around 20% of Americans identify with the far-left label, but unfortunately, they currently hold 100% of the nation's political power.
And these same folks wonder why it's so hot in the town hall meetings....man, they are never going to see the truck that hits them...
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