Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

Happy New Year, Tredyffrin! I hope your holidays were healthy and joyous.

I apologize of the long delay since my last post. Word of crack TTGOP Republican hit squads forced me and my family into the witness protection program, and let me tell you – those Minnesota winters are cold! It’s great to be back in the warmer climes of southeast Pennsylvania, buffeted by the Republican-supplied gentle breezes and uninterrupted internet access.

I’d like to talk a bit about the good, bad, and ugly of the 2007 election and local politics, and then comment about the blog itself. Thankfully, our new year is looking bright, and there is certainly more good than bad!

The Good

Congratulations to Karen Cruickshank for becoming the first Democrat on the TE School Board since… ever! Karen is hitting the ground running, and will certainly be an asset to our community.

Congratulations to Kevin Mahoney for his reelection. In a township where few Republican leaders even give lip service to those who are not Republican, Mr. Mahoney reached across the proverbial aisle to endorse and run with Democrat Art Post.

Congratulations also to Township supervisors Warren Kampf, Bob Lamina, and JD DiBuonaventuro, and Township Auditor Robert Miller. For the most part, you ran clean campaigns and won just as cleanly and graciously. To be sure, immediately after running on a platform of low and stable taxes, you voted in a township-wide tax hike. (Do you think they knew about that while they were campaigning? Hmmm?) Regardless, Tredyffrin looks forward to your dedicated service in the future.

Many thanks to the slate of local Democratic candidates. It takes great courage and immense civic pride to step forward and offer your valuable time and services for the good of the community. Especially when your opponent decides to attack you rather than focus on the issues. Our candidates were Paul Drucker, Ellen Brotman-Austin, Eamon Brazunas, Jerry Henige, Art Post, Karen Cruickshank, and Glenda Yu. We need more like you. Do you think you have what it takes and want to help? Let the TTDems know.

Congratulations and much gratitude to the TTDems for highlighting important issues in our township that have been ignored, dismissed, or concealed by the Republican leadership. Cronyism, strange land deals, much needed changes in emergency response coordination and storm water issues, shenanigans in the library capital campaign, development debates, questionable business deals, our township’s needs for independent review and internal controls. The TTDems have been a fresh new voice for our community. The people can listen or not, but they can no longer plead ignorance when they cast a ballot for politics-as-usual in Tredyffrin. Unfortunately, I have more about this below in the “ugly” section.

And finally, congratulations also to the voters of Tredyffrin, who came out in record numbers to have their voices heard. Let’s face it. The reason why the Democrats made such gains in our oh-so-red township in past years was our ability to turn out our voters in higher proportions to support our superb candidates. The first wins were dismissed as “flukes” by the Republican leadership. Later wins, however, were a wakeup call. They were scared. Very scared. Scared of the very real prospect of losing their majority hold in the township and county. For the first time since… again, ever! … the Tredyffrin Republicans actually had to work to get their candidates into office. And they did a good job at that.

It was simply a matter of numbers that did in the TTDems. Tredyffrin Democrats once again came out in record numbers, surpassing all previous off years. In fact, I think that the total number of votes cast for each township supervisor candidate and each school board candidate would have made them victorious in any past off-year election. But the TTGOP had finally woken up. They wheeled out more Republicans than ever and succeeded in convincing a full 38% of their membership to pull the straight-party lever. In spite of recent gains in Democrat numbers, the Republicans are still the significant majority, and there just isn’t much that the TTDems can do against that math. Next time I hope they work still harder to deprogram some of the TTGOP’s sheeple.

The Bad

Paul Drucker lost. In his two years of service on the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors Paul brought so much to the township. He worked on issues that mattered to many, like striving for sound barriers for our neighbors who live near the turnpike. He was a champion for the typical Tredyffrin citizen, bringing an all-abilities playground to Wilson Park. He reached out to his Republican counterparts to work towards change. He earned the respect of his fellow board members, and they will feel his loss. And he lost by a mere twenty votes. If you and twenty of your friends had decided to vote for Paul Drucker, the Township wouldn’t have lost this great asset. Think about that.

Art Post lost. As I said above, Republican Kevin Mahoney recognized that Art was far more qualified to be on the school board than the other Republican candidate. And Kevin paid for that act of bipartisanship. The TTGOP disavowed his existence in the weeks before the election and basically made his life miserable. The fact that Art Post lost is not so much a failure in Kevin’s brave leadership as it is a testament to the stranglehold the Republicans maintain on their flock. Wake up, folks. Look what your straight-party Republican vote did. Sure, there’s a strong chance that the school board won’t suffer too much from the other Republican’s presence. Probably not. But look what you missed out on, Tredyffrin! The distinction in candidates could not have been more clear.

Ellen Brotman-Austin lost. Here is another huge opportunity for Tredyffrin that was simply missed. And why? Mainly because of the immensely nasty campaign leveled by her Republican opponent, Paul Olson. He served his time – thirty years – and his service was appreciated by the community. In the years since his dismissal, he admirably drove the library campaign. His ideas were not the best, and he took some heat for them. But he was dedicated and ultimately did the job. Then he decided to run again for Supervisor and threw his integrity out the window. He is the only local candidate who went negative, needlessly so, casting baseless or irrelevant allegations at Ms. Brotman. He brazenly decided that anyone who does not donate to the same charitable organization as he does is not worthy of public office, going so far as to plumb the library donation lists, named and anonymous, to determine who had and – more critically and unethically – who had not donated to a specific capital funding campaign. And to top it off, in doing so he endangered the tax exempt status of the library by politicizing the list of donors. Unbelievable. In spite of my detractors’ claims, I have only gotten “personal” once in this blog. I’d like to now do it a second time. Mr. Olson may have won the election, but he lost a lot of respect in the process. He showed that winning the election is more important than character.

The Ugly

A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I am a Democrat, but I live in a community where Republicans are in the majority. Because of that, I realize that my government will not reflect my Democratic thinking. That’s understandable and the way it should be (for now!). But I think, as an American, I should be able to expect my government to reflect its people. As it stands right now, Tredyffrin is 53% Republican and 30% Democratic. The rest are independents and other parties. But tally up all our local elected officials. That’s right, among the 12 elected positions in Tredyffrin we’ve got only one non-Republican Township Supervisor and one non-Republican School Board Director (and that one is brand new). Why is that?

All moderates would agree that there is a need for different voices in our government, especially when the electorate has such strong and capable minority candidates. We need a government that is inclusive of our whole population, not just the 53% majority. The sad part is 38% of the Republican voters thought that it was more important to vote for the party than vote for the candidate. Moderate Republicans and Independents alike need to wake up and recognize what results from single-party politics in our Township. I can’t believe the Republicans are running things this way. It goes to show that TTDems offer something different, something better. They didn’t fill empty slots with underqualified candidates. And they even supported one of the Republican candidates. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe we Democrats should be just as partisan as the Republicans? Is that the kind of community we want?

Nothing is wrong with Tredyffrin? One would hope that even if you lose an election, the thoughts and ideas that you bring to the table would be remembered and considered by the victors. There are some who run for public office for that reason only – to see their ideas get some attention by way of the political campaign spotlight. So it is with great frustration that I see the Tredyffrin Republican Party ignore and deny each and every important issue raised by their Democratic counterparts. They take their 2007 victory as proof that there is absolutely nothing wrong in Tredyffrin. In their arrogance and ignorance, the TTGOP fail to acknowledge any viewpoint but their own, and would not even credit the Democrats with a “fight well fought". Tredyffrin Democrats are beneath their gaze, and only worthy enough as to be lumped together with Philadelphia in contempt. Such is the current condition of Tredyffrin Republican Politics.

Petty politics – No where more clear than the attacks on this blog. The problem is that 90% of the people who scream and complain about Mister Tredyffrin have never even read the source material itself. Instead, they rely on the TTGOP leadership to tell them their opinion. Like Limbaugh listeners, they are happy to be told what to think and how to act. And they are just as deceived. Disagree with me? Go back and read what I said about Your Favorite Issue. There’s a little search box to the right. Go ahead, use it. Are my words really what you were led to believe? I didn’t think so.

On election day, a lot of Tredyffrin committeepeople wore “I am Mr T”
buttons. In contrast to an opinion piece on the subject, this was not to protect my anonymity. No, this was to show solidarity with the message of this blog. My heartfelt thanks for that demonstration, and I look forward to your continued support as this blog continues. But unfortunately, many of those button-wearers apparently forgot how “Spartacus” ended. You’ll recall that those who cried “I am Spartacus” were crucified, too; Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas last of all… A local story reported that those buttons were in some demand after the election. I am told by the original supplier that anyone wanting one can get it for donating a mere $10.00. It will go towards the new and improved blog web site.

I’ve been through this before, but I’ll do it again. This blog is about issues, not people. Except for one (and now two) occasions, I have not gotten “personal". That’s a pretty damn good track record as far as political blogging goes. My posts are not “hateful” – they come from a love and hope for our community. Sometime the truth has to be told with a hammer and chisel. The issues themselves can be “mean-spirited", and not necessarily the blog itself. And I resent any attribution of dishonesty. I have been exceptionally careful to provide support for allegations on this blog, and have been quick to correct (with attribution) any mistakes as they arise. Find a lie in here. Go ahead. Couldn’t do it, could you?

So here’s a special note to all the local Bush/Santorum Republicans. First, please note that this little message is not to all Republican readers. Many of the Republicans I speak with are thoughtful, civic-minded, educated, moderate and forward thinking. And they can get a good joke. Those are the Republicans who ran things a while back when the local Democrats were all sleepy. And, in fact, that may be a main reason why the Democrats were so sleepy; their view of local government just wasn’t that different from that of the local moderate Republicans. But in past years our local moderate Republicans have been overwhelmed by these Bush/Santorum Republican types (hmmm… maybe we should call them BS Republicans for short?). You know who I’m talking about. For example, contrast Carol Aichele and Guy Ciarrocchi with Carole Rubley and Judy DiFilippo. Right? Anyway, these are the folks who just don’t get it, or who are just not willing to get it. So, to reiterate the goals of this site to those folks: they are humor, education, provocation, and entertainment. If this stuff doesn’t interest you, if you are intensely offended, if the jokes go over your head – please just don’t read it. No one is making you, okay? As ugly as this Democratic web site might be to you, lord knows there are plenty more ugly Republican web sites where you can spend your time. Thank you.

Coming soon: An expanded blog for you, the Democrat in Tredyffrin. Please write to me if you would like to be a part.