"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "
--Edmund Burke
Did you know that most people don't care if their democracy works? Most people don't care if their judges are qualified or unqualified, honest or corrupt, purple aliens from Mars or deep sea squids. People don't care. I think two things define American Democracy: Apathy and a desire to complain.
Do you know what was the voter turnout in yesterday’s election to determine who would be the new judges in Brooklyn? I'll tell you: abysmally low, piss poor and just plain embarrassing.
All around the Borough I know people who voted. But that's because people I know are the people who vote. Some reported that at around 3 PM they were the first person to vote at their ED. One reported that at their polling place only 11 people had voted one hour before the polls closed. Another person reported only 14 people. People complain and complain and complain about "the system." Then they don't vote. Gee...wonder if there is a connection there. If all you do is whine but don't do anything, I say you are a chump.
Abysmal voter turnout means a sick democracy. Abysmal voter turnout in a judicial election means lousy judges. Funny thing is that the people who complain most are often the ones who are least likely to vote in a low turnout, judicial election like the one yesterday. Makes me figure they prefer complaining than actually do anything.
The "Judge Noach Dear effect"...this is the new phrase we can use for Edmund Burke's axiom:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
or, "the Judge Noach Dear Effect."
"Judge Noach Dear" will become the code word for what is wrong with Brooklyn...what is wrong with American democracy. Low voter turnout and voter apathy means you get homophobic, abysmally unqualified judges who get to be judges for purely political reasons: the "Judge Noach Dear" effect. The "Judge Noach Dear" effect means the leadership of the Brooklyn Democrats, Vito Lopez and Marty Markowitz, can give a judgeship to someone who never practiced law and who is known to be anti-gay and the voters will do nothing about it. Extrapolated further, the "Noach Dear Effect" is what gives us "Presidents" like the little Bush and Congressmen like Mark Foley.
The "Judge Noach Dear" effect is this:
Abysmal Voter Turnout = Abysmal Democracy
After months of being bombarded with emails from all sides, months of hearing I spend too much time on the minutiae of Brooklyn politics, months of being attacked for trying to fight a machine that counts on the "Judge Noach Dear effect" to hold power, here are my comments on yesterday's judicial election.
To Vito Lopez and his defenders: you want to claim you are better than the Clarence Norman machine, then don't give us Judge Noach Dear. Stop counting on and encouraging the Noach Dear effect. By giving us Judge Noach Dear you have proven beyond reasonable doubt that you are just as uncaring about quality governing as Clarence Norman ever was. People want to believe Vito is better. Hell, I wanted to believe Vito was better. Well, Judge Noach Dear comes to us thanks to Vito Lopez. Enough said, I should think. Hope Vito's supporters are proud to have given us yet another abysmal judge.
To Marty Markowitz: you want to be mayor? Judge Noach Dear will haunt you. You have lost the gay vote, a voting bloc you probably would have done well with before this. You have proven to all who pay attention that you are just as uncaring about quality governing as Vito Lopez or Clarence Norman. Endorse homophobic, unqualified judges and people aren't going to thank you for it. The clown of Brooklyn has helped to give us yet another abysmal judge.
Now let's turn to some criticism for my allies. Yeah...here is where I prove I am no politician because I criticize even my allies.
To Diana Johnson: Congratulations. I am happy you won because I do think you were the better candidate. But I will say that I don't appreciate that you played the reformer but still associated yourself with members of a political machine that have been indicted. People can come from the machine and become reformers. It has happened before, and, we all hope, it will happen again. And I do hope you have indeed thrown off the machine, old and new, and are a reformer. But I find it worrisome that you maintained ties with corrupt people even as you took on the reform mantle. It worked for you. You won. There really is no accountability from here, but do me a favor. Show us that our efforts for you were justified.
To Shawndya Simpson: Vito Lopez's backing didn't work for Diana Johnson last time around. It didn't work for you. Johnson finally won when she at least partly took on a reform mantle. Perhaps you should consider the same...care to make a clean break? I think you are better than Vito. The best way to show it is to break with the people who gave us Judge Noach Dear.
To Bob Miller: (remember him?) Truth is you may well have been the best candidate to have floated a candidacy for Surrogate. But it was abortive for similar reasons that Simpson lost. If associate with criminals like Clarence Norman, you have to be prepared that people will assume you are tied to those criminals. And if you want to run as a reformer, a clean break would help. Miller didn't make a clean break. Instead he made unsatisfactory excuses when asked about his ties to the machine and became offended when people like me called him on it. Truth is I was rather gentle. You should have heard some of the comments people made during the endorsement discussions at the clubs.
To the reform Democrats and progressives of Brooklyn: If I was an investor and Brooklyn politics was a stock market, I wouldn't be investing in your stock. Sure you can celebrate Johnson's win, but Johnson's ties to people like Diane Gordon kind of soured the enthusiasm of most reformers I know. Many of us felt we needed to wash our hands after every time we engaged in the Surrogate race because of how both candidates had machine ties. Essentially, reform and progressive Democrats alike are still ineffective when push comes to shove. I don't see focus, I don't see the effort needed, I don't see success, though Johnson's victory can be billed as a reform victory of sorts. I see random shots in the dark, misfires and an inability to actually rally foot soldiers. I saw IND barely able to get anyone but certain core members to do anything on election day. I saw better from CBID but still not enough.
Truth is, when push came to shove, every progressive and reform minded Brooklynite should have focused on supporting Karen Yellen and preventing Judge Noach Dear. And you know who got me realizing this? Gatemouth, a blogger who is hardly a reformer, hardly a progressive, yet he saw way before I did that we all were missing the real chance to be progressives and reformers. All of us, myself included, acted too little, too late to have an effect. You had a blatantly unqualified loser (Noach had lost every race he aimed for since leaving the City Council until yesterday) who, despite being an orthodox Jew, couldn't even get the endorsement of the Jewish Press and had appeal in no other group, running against a fully qualified woman, endorsed by the NY Times, who already had 10 years judicial experience. If you ever had a clear cut chance to prove yourself, it was that race. All it would take is a big push to inform the public and you could have hugely embarassed the Noach Dear Democrats Vito Lopez and Marty Markowitz.
I give credit where credit is due. I almost never agree with Gatemouth. But he told me early on that Yellen should be the reform hero of the year. CBID backed her. Who else did? Even if as organizations we had limitations on getting involved with that race, shouldn't we as individuals pretty much focused as much as we could on that race? Kathy Levine and Diana Johnson needed our help, and I don't regret helping them. But Karen Yellen needed our help more and the stakes were higher and I do regret being too little too late for Yellen.
Sure it would have taken work, but the 5th district isn't just Borough Park! Everyone threw up their hands in despair because of an assumption that Borough Park was all that needed to be said. And even in Borough Park the support for Noach was less than resounding, so with creativity and care, a wedge could even be placed there. I mean he WAS unqualified, that is something that is going to make people think twice in Borough Park. If you wanted a chance to prove yourself, to take a hard race where all reformers and progressives could agree, and you could even bring to bear the NY Times, and defeat uber-hacks Marty Markowitz and Vito Lopez to boot, THIS WAS THE RACE. Yet we all, myself included, carried out our usual slipshod, random, half-assed effort and Judge Noach Dear is our reward...that and the fact that, right or wrong (and I stand by my support for Johnson) we spent most of our effort for a candidate who never made a clean break from the machine.
Fellow reformers and progressives, once again we proved we don't have a clue how to run an effective campaign even in an election with a voter turnout that just might equal the number of poll workers at the polls. We did help Diana Johnson win. We won an important battle. But on the larger front we were outflanked and lost what might have been an even more important battle.
To Brooklyn voters: if you ever wonder why Brooklyn politics is a byword for sleaze and lousy governing, ask yourself if you voted in the last judicial election. That will probably tell you what is wrong with Brooklyn politics.
The "Judge Noach Dear effect:" This is our new term for Brooklyn dysfunction.
