The Golisano factor

I left this comment on the Responsible New York website, in response to Tom Golisano’s statement:

Thank you, Mr. Golisano, for bringing the most transparency we’ve seen in a long time to New York State government. Until now there have still been a handful of people that believed that politicians were elected by the people to do the people’s bidding. What this coup has done is expose once and for all that New York government is really about money, power, and revenge. If there was any doubt, it’s all been erased.

If you want to affect real change in New York, convince the people of the state that now is the time for a Constitutional Convention that will move towards a unicameral legislature. Less government is the first step in fixing New York.

Frankly, Golisano’s statement is full of a lot of bullshit. You don’t create a coalition by swiping two people from the other party. There’s nothing bipartisan about it. Republicans were pissed off about losing their plush offices, staffers, and pork. Golisano was pissed off that even his money couldn’t buy him love. A couple guys who labeled themselves as Democrats were pissed off about their mommies not loving them enough. This was all about revenge and had nothing to do with reform.

So, I stand by my statement. There is no fixing the current government of New York State. Our best option is to cut the number of politicians, and then enact rules that actually favor the people of the state – an end to gerrymandering and enacting the rest of the Brennan Center reforms for a start. The Senate is Humpty Dumpty and had a great fall. Don’t bother putting it back together.