O.O.C Character of the Week#3
O. O. C. Charater of the Week [3rd Posting]
Michael Rubens Bloomberg
Mayor Bloomberg is considered the 8th richest American, and a wonderful mayor. He inherited New York shortly after 9/11, and the City didn’t fall to ruins. Or rather tourists didn’t get mugged in Times Square, and the street sweepers kept on sweeping. 2 Apple Stores opened in the city. All is great in the powerful land of Oz.
And then suddenly, it all went Out of Control.
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| Mayor Bloomberg has decided that he wants to run for a 3rd city term in office. Despite there being an “economic crisis” affecting not only NYC, the USA, but the entire GLOBAL community, Bloomberg and our city council felt that changing the terms limits were worth the amount of extra money spent to have the special sections. (Again, I reiterate that this comes right after the economic stimulus package that holds us in a waiting pattern.) What I find is slightly despicable about this that our elected “representatives” decided to use city law to allow Mayor Bloomberg the chance, instead of allowing a referendum vote of their constituents. How much money did New Yorkers lose to meetings on congestion pricing. or to the re-vamping of the 311 system? Everyone wants to hear about the “fat” being cut, or cuts in unnecessary government expenditure, yet time and money was spent on this distractor from real issues. | ||
| Source: NY Times Reporting | ||
While others may point out that other branches of government don’t have set term limits; Congress (the Senators and the House) don’t have term limits- most (if not all) states have term limits for governors and other legislatures. I reckon this is to further the idea that the “little” person can feel as if he actually affects his government. Term limits are both a shield and sword. Supreme Court Justices don’t have term limits to keep their decisions honest and free of potential outside influence. After FDR’s elongated presidency, Congress passed term limits for the President to keep the US President from looking like a monarch or a dictator.
The latin term “Exitus acta proba” means that the “Outcome justifies the Deed”, which in this case is the argument that our legislatures are using to justify the 3rd term vote. To sum things up, basically it’s been suggested that Bloomberg (and others) should have the chance to run again for an extended consecutive term because “the people” should have a steady government during the fragile state of the economy. Which seems myopic in regards to the fact that perhaps we shouldn’t let our officials run again, because well that would be contrary to changing the weak economy that flourished underneath them.
I can think of at least 5 more arguments that follow along the line of “slippery slope” thinking. Most of them end with completely dismantling checks and balances and allowing our nation to run into chaos. The idea that there is a limit on the number of terms is so that new and “fresh” (I use the term lightly though…) voices can come in and use their prospective to shape the cities municipal future. Policies, politics, etc.
In theory this could all be a moot point come election time. Voters have the chance to actually vote someone else into office. However, what I fear is that Bloomberg will be able to take his own independent wealth and crush any local politician that dares to challenge him. It’s very hard to challenge the incumbent when the incumbent has spent the previous years attempting to prove how normal or average like his citizens. I kind of cringed when I watched the news reports of Bloomberg taking the subway to work. I mean, you’re the fucking mayor of NYC, you don’t need to take the subway.
So I guess the moral of the story is “Qui tacet consentit,” or “Silence is not consent.”
[Sidenote: I find it very odd that McCain's age is consistently brought up in the media, but noone has remarked that Bloomberg is pushing 67 this coming year.]
[Chester Kent - Comments greatly appreciated.]
