the sad sad state of the New York Democratic Party

       Ah New York, the progressive leader of the nation.  We gave you FDR, Bella Abzug, John Lindsay, Senator Robert Kennedy and Mario Cuomo's soaring speech at the 1984 Democratic convention.  If only the lofty words of those iconic figures had translated into a truly motivated push for progressive policy in the Empire State.  Instead we have the bizarre spectacle of five (wait actually six) elected Democrats joining in a coalition to keep Republicans in power in the State Senate and block major goals of liberals and progressives.  Even more depressing, this power arrangement has the tacit support of the Democratic majority in the State Assembly and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

      New York gave Barack Obama one of his largest majorities in any state and yet we have a Republican State Senate where liberal hopes go to die.  Yes they did pass marriage equality last year and that was a huge victory.   But while that was allowed to go through, public financing of elections, stronger tenant protections, higher minimum wage, stronger gun regulations, a reproductive rights bill, legislation addressing stop and frisk abuses, an NYS DREAM act and more equitable school funding could have been passed, but all of this has been blocked by the Republican State Senate.

  There is no reason this needs to be happening.  If district lines were drawn at all fairly, there would be a solid Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature (as there already is in the Assembly).  But every ten years the lines are drawn in such a screwy way that the GOP ends up winning (even when their candidates get less vote overall, as in 2010 & this year).  It didn't need to be this way.  The Democratic majority in the Assembly didn't need to agree to these lines, the Governor didn't need to sign them into law.  At any point, these district lines that keep the State Senate from reflecting the will of the voters could have been blocked, the courts would have drawn fairer districts and right now we could be talking about all the above mentioned initiatives being signed into law.

  But they didn't do that, and four dissident "independent democrats" in the Senate even supported the gerrymander.  Which leads one to wonder, do all of these Democratic elected officials in the Assembly (and some in the Senate) who actively enabled Republican control of the upper house of the legislature really want any of these progressive goals they say they are for to actually happen?   It's a valid question considering that by one simple action (opposing the redistricting bill that creates the only viable chance Republicans have of controlling the Senate) they could have ensured a Democratic majority large enough to withstand any possible defections and able to pass the goals listed above.  Instead, because of the actions of top Democrats in New York State, (Sheldon Silver and Jeff Klein being at the top of that list), tenants are still being priced out of their homes, campaign financing is a disgrace and NY's minimum wage is the lowest in the region.  It's embarrassing.  But even more so, it's infuriating and leads to the feeling among voters that it wont matter what they do, the power arrangements in Albany are already worked out beforehand.