What's missing?

By AL DIAMON  |  January 19, 2011

The reason Democrats and other losers aren't paying attention to those big, bloody issues is because they're pre-programmed not to take Republicans seriously. For decades, the GOP made silly little noises about axing state services and reducing taxes, but because Republicans lacked the numbers to make those things happen, there was no point in debating their ideas, unless you were really bored or suffering from gluten-induced delusions. Even on those rare occasions when the GOP seized a measure of power (such as in 1994, when it took control of the state Senate for one brief term), Republican legislators were so obsessed with obstructing Democratic initiatives that they had no time to advance their own agenda. A lot of them didn't even seem to realize they had an agenda.

What's missing from LePage's approach to governing isn't diversity. The number of ovaries, the subcutaneous levels of melanin, and the genetic predispositions toward intolerance of certain wheat byproducts aren't among the political considerations that will eventually render up a new administration. What the governor lacks is a certain finesse, a comfortable acquaintance with the rules of etiquette established by his predecessors.

He's an outsider, a commoner, a prole.

In other words, he's the type of guy who used to make up the bulk of the Democratic Party.

I wonder when all that went missing.

If I missed something else, e-mail me ataldiamon@herniahill.net.

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