Don't blame me, I voted for Fenty

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

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I want. Link to purchase please!

[Anonymous]

Sick burn, btw.

[Anonymous]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/debonis/2011/03/f..._backs_walker_in_wisc_uni.html?

This is posted in another thread, but this pretty clearly shows what was wrong with Fenty's leadership. It is so easy to govern if you don't have to build consensus. Dictatorship makes for easy government. With views like this, he calls himself a Democrat?

[Anonymous]

It is so easy to govern if you don't have to build consensus. Dictatorship makes for easy government.

Frankly, this is what's wrong with Fenty's detractors. Do I agree with curtailment of union collective bargaining. Nope. Do I think it's a losing political position? Yep. Do I think it's frank idiocy to call someone a "dictator" for holding that position? Yep.

Making a fetish out of "consensus" for consensus' sake is silly. Fenty got a bunch done. Had he managed perceptions slightly better, he'd still be mayor.

Forget easy government. The only way to effectively govern is to win elections, take your mandate, and govern. Not look over your shoulder every 30 seconds asking "mother may I."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Making a fetish out of "consensus" for consensus' sake is silly. Fenty got a bunch done. Had he managed perceptions slightly better, he'd still be mayor.

I agree with this, but pissing people off for no reason is equally silly and Fenty did plenty of that.

I'm starting to wonder if the best thing might have been for the council to reject Nickles, because I think Nickles' arrogance only reinforced Fenty's and if Fenty had had someone warning him more often instead of enabling him then we might all be better off.

[Anonymous]

Here's the thing that people don't know: I work for the city and my agency has accomplished more in the last 2 months, then we did over the last 2 years! We were not allowed to speak to Council, could not speak to members of his office, he was not around. It was really bad. However, he won the PR campaign. Gray has made some major mistakes which really piss me off, but hey, I am getting a ton of work done because he is allowing us to actually get our work done.

I am very bitter about the extremely rich contract that teachers got. Now Fenty's anti-union? Really? The city could not afford the huge pay increase for teachers and now we may have to pay the fired teachers $7.5MM. Any idiot can fire a first year teacher correctly. They are on probation. However, Rhee could not get it right.

I hope things turn around for Gray, but thank god the dictator is gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that people don't know: I work for the city and my agency has accomplished more in the last 2 months, then we did over the last 2 years! We were not allowed to speak to Council, could not speak to members of his office, he was not around. It was really bad. However, he won the PR campaign. Gray has made some major mistakes which really piss me off, but hey, I am getting a ton of work done because he is allowing us to actually get our work done.

I'm curious: Do you work for the arm of DDOT that works to eliminate bike lanes, or the arm of DOES that forces employers to hire unqualified DC residents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It is so easy to govern if you don't have to build consensus. Dictatorship makes for easy government.

Frankly, this is what's wrong with Fenty's detractors. Do I agree with curtailment of union collective bargaining. Nope. Do I think it's a losing political position? Yep. Do I think it's frank idiocy to call someone a "dictator" for holding that position? Yep.

Making a fetish out of "consensus" for consensus' sake is silly. Fenty got a bunch done. Had he managed perceptions slightly better, he'd still be mayor.

Forget easy government. The only way to effectively govern is to win elections, take your mandate, and govern. Not look over your shoulder every 30 seconds asking "mother may I."

Yep, gotta win those elections! Guess he blew point number 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing that people don't know: I work for the city and my agency has accomplished more in the last 2 months, then we did over the last 2 years! We were not allowed to speak to Council, could not speak to members of his office, he was not around. It was really bad. However, he won the PR campaign. Gray has made some major mistakes which really piss me off, but hey, I am getting a ton of work done because he is allowing us to actually get our work done.

I am very bitter about the extremely rich contract that teachers got. Now Fenty's anti-union? Really? The city could not afford the huge pay increase for teachers and now we may have to pay the fired teachers $7.5MM. Any idiot can fire a first year teacher correctly. They are on probation. However, Rhee could not get it right.

I hope things turn around for Gray, but thank god the dictator is gone.

Interesting reflection. Thanks for sharing, pp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is so easy to govern if you don't have to build consensus. Dictatorship makes for easy government.

Frankly, this is what's wrong with Fenty's detractors. Do I agree with curtailment of union collective bargaining. Nope. Do I think it's a losing political position? Yep. Do I think it's frank idiocy to call someone a "dictator" for holding that position? Yep.

Making a fetish out of "consensus" for consensus' sake is silly. Fenty got a bunch done. Had he managed perceptions slightly better, he'd still be mayor.

Forget easy government. The only way to effectively govern is to win elections, take your mandate, and govern. Not look over your shoulder every 30 seconds asking "mother may I."

Yep, gotta win those elections! Guess he blew point number 1.

Precisely. He won the first one by going out and shaking hands. He could've won a second term by visiting The Churches and taking a few hand-dancing classes. Unfortunately, the uneducated are particularly susceptible to demagoguery. DC has a *lot* of uneducated voters.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Precisely. He won the first one by going out and shaking hands. He could've won a second term by visiting The Churches and taking a few hand-dancing classes. Unfortunately, the uneducated are particularly susceptible to demagoguery. DC has a *lot* of uneducated voters.

So, voting for a guy whose hand you shook is okay, despite the fact that you know nothing more about him. But, voting for a guy that came to your church or you saw hand-dancing is an act of an uneducated person?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Precisely. He won the first one by going out and shaking hands. He could've won a second term by visiting The Churches and taking a few hand-dancing classes. Unfortunately, the uneducated are particularly susceptible to demagoguery. DC has a *lot* of uneducated voters.

So, voting for a guy whose hand you shook is okay, despite the fact that you know nothing more about him. But, voting for a guy that came to your church or you saw hand-dancing is an act of an uneducated person?

Guess I'm an uneducated person. Damn! How did I get that Phd???!!!
I didn't know that valid criticism of Michelle Rhee for her genuine mistakes was demagoguery either. Boy am I stupid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Precisely. He won the first one by going out and shaking hands. He could've won a second term by visiting The Churches and taking a few hand-dancing classes. Unfortunately, the uneducated are particularly susceptible to demagoguery. DC has a *lot* of uneducated voters.

So, voting for a guy whose hand you shook is okay, despite the fact that you know nothing more about him. But, voting for a guy that came to your church or you saw hand-dancing is an act of an uneducated person?

Guess I'm an uneducated person. Damn! How did I get that Phd???!!!
I didn't know that valid criticism of Michelle Rhee for her genuine mistakes was demagoguery either. Boy am I stupid!

Not stupid, but a bit slow in catching Jeff's irony, perhaps?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Precisely. He won the first one by going out and shaking hands. He could've won a second term by visiting The Churches and taking a few hand-dancing classes. Unfortunately, the uneducated are particularly susceptible to demagoguery. DC has a *lot* of uneducated voters.

So, voting for a guy whose hand you shook is okay, despite the fact that you know nothing more about him. But, voting for a guy that came to your church or you saw hand-dancing is an act of an uneducated person?

No. Voting for a guy because he shook your hand is idiotic. So is voting for someone because they show up to The Churches every weekend. The difference between Fenty's first campaign and his second was that he was *everywhere* pressing the flesh in his first campaign. He did practically zero retail politicking in his second. Gray sped the Sunday before the election making the rounds of the mega-churches. Fenty did a triathalon.

The greater point is that not every DC resident spends their time on GGW or Twitter or reading various local news blogs. They vote based on their gut reaction to how a candidate makes them feel. For better or worse (ok, worse) that's how American democracy works. At the national, state, and local level.

I'm not a media figure, or a politician, and this is an anonymous forum, so I don't have to bray the usual platitudes about the "noble judgement of the American voter." Most voters know nothing about the issues. In fact, they have trouble identifying any particular issue. Most can't define what an "issue" is. Generally speaking, the American electorate reacts like an aomeba to political stimulus. Uneducated voters more so than others. Sorry if that seems pessimistic.