by Gena Michael
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
When a person has been in a career for 37 years, it’s expected that they know all the ins and outs of that field. They should know what’s effective and what’s not. What’s expected, and what’s not. And of course, what they can get away with, and what they can’t. Flying under the radar in a career is great for underachievers because well, nobody notices you. You don’t stick out or excel at anything, and nobody is questioning your decisions or your integrity.
Ed Markey (D-MA) has mastered the art of flying under the radar in Massachusetts, using public service as self-service. Markey has managed to stay in office since 1976 despite a pathetic voting record that includes increasing his salary six times, supporting higher taxes, and having questionable residency status in Maryland and Massachusetts. Markey reminds me of Milton from the movie Office Space — he just “shows up”, contributes nothing, and no one says anything.
If you’re familiar with Massachusetts politics, you know the state has a longstanding tradition of voting Democratic. If you read my last column about this destructive pattern, you would understand the frustration of living amongst this chaos. Politicians are not held responsible, accountable, nor do they attempt to introduce new ideas or solutions to problems other than say that with a Republican, it would be worse.
The state is still faced with many longstanding problems that have not been addressed by the politicians who claim to serve the people. Welfare and government assistance is out of control, taxes are sky high (they don’t call it Taxachusetts for nothing) and we are slowly but surely headed to a state of debt and decline. Clearly the liberal agenda isn’t working in Massachusetts, or the United States. I find it ironic (and hypocritical) that the party who claims to be “progressive” and for the people has shown little interest in real solutions. With such a large population of Kennedy era Democrats and the college-age far-left Liberal radicals, the liberal machine stays in office and the vicious cycle continues. They have done nothing to allow this state to prosper.
It is this same vicious cycle that Massachusetts politicians like Ed Markey rely on to stay employed. Markey hasn’t aggressively campaigned for John Kerry’s Senate seat because, quite frankly, he doesn’t have to. He knows that with minimal effort, lots o’ money, a few endorsements from an inept Vice President, his buddy Obama and has-beens like Bill Clinton are all he needs to secure the vote. He also knows that simply by being a liberal, he will win by default because of Massachusetts’ baseless hatred of conservatives.
Once elected, he’ll be able to throw the needs of Massachusetts in the backseat, and let Obama’s agenda take the lead on the priority scale. It’s no secret either — Obama recently proclaimed, “I need Ed Markey in the US Senate” Of course Markey made a TV ad out of the endorsement, despite an 8% decline in Obama’s approval rating. Maybe Obama needs Markey, but does Massachusetts need him?
