As many of you know, I ran for Massachusetts State Representative in the 2nd Franklin District in 2008. Miss Kim joked on Monday that maybe I ran two years too early.
Apparently not.
In the six towns that make up the 2nd Franklin, Democrat Martha Coakley beat Republican Scott Brown 6776 to 6070. It’s even more clear my home district is as dysfunctional as the black community, and my saying this is going to really irk them.
The truth hurts.
Let’s say you notice something feels very wrong with your car and you take it to the shop. You tell the mechanic what feels wrong and he tells you to leave it with him. He later calls, you pay him and begin to drive off, when you feel the same thing wrong with your car.
You take it back to the mechanic, tell him he didn’t fix the problem, describe the symptoms, and leave it again. You get another call later, pick up the car and when you’re driving away feel the same problem with the car.
The question is, would you ever take your car back to that mechanic again?
Blacks would, and so would the majority of voters in my home district.
In the black community (and most of the 2nd Franklin), Democrats hold almost every elected office from clerk to congressman. According to the hype, both communities should be utopias on Earth. However, both suffer from a chronic lack of economic development, questionable or outright failing schools, lackluster home sales, high foreclosure rates, and no end to that pattern in sight.
Despite what many of you may think, I’m not looking for everyone to become Republicans tomorrow. That’s quite unrealistic. But I look forward to a day of political competitiveness and accountability, because when politicians know they don’t have to produce to keep their jobs, they get lazy and don’t. I invite any of you living in either area to think of ONE meaningful thing that an entrenched Democrat has done to put one meal on your table (not including welfare or unemployment benefits).
Texas is a state that’s weathered the recession storm better than almost any other. What do they have that others don’t? A politically competitive climate. If a politician doesn’t deliver, next election the people give someone else a try.
I’ve talked to people in the 2nd Franklin who tell me their representation hasn’t done anything for them in the many terms they’ve been returned to office, yet they keep getting reelected. This is not the politicians’ fault. It’s the fault of those who refuse to hold them accountable, and both my district and the black community will not. For that, your complaining will continue to fall on deaf ears.
While the rest of the state issued a clear warning to Washington, D.C. after the special election, most of the 2nd Franklin District of Massachusetts chose continued unemployment, almost non-existent economic development, and a political class that’s been given a pass so they don’t have to work to improve anything.
As much as I love that area, you can lead a horse to water….
As I said during the campaign, “If you like the way things are, by all means, vote for the incumbent… and don’t complain.”
They did, so don’t.