Dear America,
I don't know whether my mind works differently from everyone else's or our politicians just know something that I don't about the mental processes of the voting public. But here in Connecticut, where the Democratic governor, Dan Malloy, is up for reelection and he is being opposed by the Republican business man, a Mitt Romney clone named Tom Foley, whom he beat four years ago in order to become governor, all of the campaigning in print, by mailing and on television is not just negative, it is appalling. But while I would think that the course to take would be to put the lie to the negative stuff, neither of them actually rebuts what the other says. They just reiterate all of the same accusations about each other over and over again. Many of them seem to lack credibility, but since neither cares to respond to the other...to defend himself...we are left to believe the worst about each of them and the process of deciding for whom to vote devolves to a decision about who is the lesser evil rather than who is the potentially better governor. Sometimes in this political melee, the accusation is effectively true, but is really a prevarication, that is, it's enough of the truth not to be an outright lie, but just enough truth to lead anyone who hears it to the wrong conclusion. Such was the case with a mailing I received from the Foley campaign yesterday.
In the mailing, Foley accuses Malloy--and it is Foley rather than some PAC that doesn't consult with him--of, among other things, "tax[ing] Social Security!" That's what the single layer, oversized post card says at the bottom of the front side: "Malloy even taxes Social Security!"...Social Security in red, no less. I didn't remember seeing Social Security on my Connecticut tax return...ever...but I tool last year's out just to be sure, and I was right. The only mention of Social Security on the return was when the form asked for my wife's and my Social Security numbers. It is the case however that I receive Social Security, and on our federal return, I was required to calculate how much, if any, of the amount I received was taxable, and Connecticut income taxes are calculated on the basis of the federal AGI ( Adjusted Gross Income), which as I said, included some of my Social Security. Technically then, Connecticut personified by Governor Malloy, did assess me for taxes on my Social Security, which it has done ever since the federal government did so, starting in 1984 in consequence of a bill signed into law with much fanfare by conservative saint Ronald Reagan. And it is also true that when Newt Gingrich was in power as speaker of the federal House of Representatives, he forced Bill Clinton to sign a bill increasing that tax for the richest of us. Notably, both Reagan's and Clinton's laws were touted by them, in Reagan's case as "a new American Revolution" and in Clinton's as "the end of welfare as we know it." Both laws were boons for the most wealthy of us and a further burden on the rest of us, but that is fodder for another cannon. So, if Foley were telling the whole truth, he would have said, "Folley's government assesses your taxes based on a federal calculation of income that includes your Social Security, and Connecticut always has since income taxes started being paid here." But who would get upset about that. In fact, most people wouldn't even try to figure out what the significance of what he was saying, but that's how the truth is sometimes. It doesn't justify prevarication though. So, when I received Molloy's tract on Foley the same day, I expected to see an explanation that exculpated him from something that he never really did, but all I got was more criticism of Foley.
Malloy's mailing did come from some PAC, and it was accurate in that it was just about Foley's positions on things, with footnotes providing the sources at which the allegations could be checked. But still, I would have thought that Malloy would have responded by characterizing Foley's claims as half truths, and self-serving ones at that given that a Republican patron saint created the taxes Foley decried and Foley is a Republican. It would be natural lead-in to the vituperative litany that has been Malloy's mainstay thus far: that Foley did the same things that Romney did with companies that his "private equity" investment firm did by buying companies, eviscerating them, suppressing their employee's wages and ultimately exporting their jobs, then selling off the assets at multi-million dollar profits. It's all true, as it is that Foley, a multi-millionaire, paid only $675 in federal taxes last year despite the fact that he had $10 million to spend on his last campaign, but they we've all heard that one already...and it should be enough. Add to that Foley's claims that he would stop including Social Security in Connecticut's taxable income and reduce taxes on cars, seniors' real estate and electricity while he freezes spending, which he would pay for by cutting nothing but education and those are ideas that the voters of Connecticut should consider if Malloy wants to be reelected. But that argument, simple as it is, only now is getting made.
In the final analysis, Connecticut's gubernatorial campaign seems to be today's typical stand-off between a Democrat and a Republican. These days, as they do with President Obama, the Republicans tell less than all the truth, like about "Obamacare," and then offer nothing credible as an alternative, letting their negative claims go unchallenged as the Democrats try to respond in kind. The problem is that since the Republicans haven't done anything lately, there isn't much to say about them, not even much that's negative. Instead of touting their achievements, the Democrats just point fingers back at their conservative foes and run away from what they have done because the Republican strategy has been so successful. I guess if you are a politician, morality doesn't enter into the process, so the Republicans can't be blamed for what they have become. But there's no excuse for the Democrats. If they are afraid to run on their record, they should stop making one. That's why I think that the best thing that could happen to the national Democratic Party would be for the Republicans to take the Senate. Let them take the blame for awhile.
Your friend,
Mike
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