My cousin Dan asks:
I was wondering if you had any comments/insight on Philadelphia's recent re-election of yet another corrupt mayor. John Street is currently a subject, not target (semantics) of a federal probe.
Insight? No. But that never stopped me before.
It seems to me that incumbency in the dominant factor here--corrupt or criminal politicians routinely get re-elected, viz., that guy in Cleveland who got kicked out of the House, Marion Berry in D.C., many Chicago politicians.
In a geographically small area with strong political organizations, it is the enthusiasm of the political hierarchy for the candidate that matters, not the candidate's character or, necessarily, policies.
(This is true on a larger scale of President Bush, as well.)
It is also a factor that government investigation is often a positive factor in heavily-black areas--it helped Street in Philly, it re-elected Barry in D.C. Having the Man try to keep you down is in your favor if your constituency believes, right or wrong, that the Man is trying to keep them down, too.
And the Bush administration has done just about everything short of repealing the VRA to convince blacks that if there's a Man, they're him.
I'm almost tempted to vote against Bush by voting for folks he's investigating.
Posted by Greg at November 5, 2003 12:17 PM