For a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with American politics, look no further than New York City and its Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

In that city, voters expressed their desire for term limits–twice. In 1993, the vote was 59-41% in favor of a two-term limit. In 1996, it was 54-46%. Two referendums, both with clear majorities. Percentage of New Yorkers who believe any change in the existing law should be decided by the voting public? Eighty nine. The reaction of the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg?

Screw the public, we’ll do as we please.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done. By a vote of 29-22, the City Council has told New Yorkers democracy no longer matters, and is allowing Mike Bloomberg to run for a third term.

What’s the essential ingredient here? Arrogance, plain and simple. The arrogance of a City Council which believes it can over-ride the will of the public–and the breath-taking arrogance of a Mayor who believes his leadership is “indispensable” during the fiscal crisis afflicting the city and the nation.

Memo number one to Mayor Mike: NO politician is indispensable. Memo number two: if you’re the financial genius you think you are, how is it New York City is up to its eyeballs in debt in the first place?

Everyone knows the answer to that one, because it’s the same all over the country: the expansion of government far beyond the limits of fiscal sanity–in direct proportion to an increasing lust for power and control among public officials.

Memo to Americans: EVERY economic problem this country faces can be traced directly back to out-of-control spending by government at every level. There isn’t an individual taxpayer or any privately run business that wouldn’t be completely bankrupt running their affairs exactly like our government officials do.

Until we the people demand fiscal responsibility from this collection of self-aggrandizing do-gooders, the specter of economic devastation will hang over our heads like the Sword of Damocles. What they have done–and continue to do–is economically unsustainable.

How arrogant are they? When the future of the country ostensibly necessitated a seven hundred billion dollar bailout of the banking system, the hacks in Washington D.C. had the unmitigated gall to tack on another hundred-plus billion dollars in EARMARKS.

Michael Bloomberg, “Savior of New York City?” Such a notion ought to be comic. Unfortunately, the hijacking of democracy in broad daylight is anything but.

Food for thought: since most trends that become popular throughout the country usually originate in either Los Angeles or New York, is this the tip of a power-grabbing iceberg?

How many other politicians across the country consider themselves “indispensable?”

atahlert@comcast.net

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