Gail, please take it easy on Boughton. A lot of us think he's a good guy who has worked hard for the city of Danbury and has shown he should be honored with a chance for change. I would loved to have seen your expression when you first learned of that pol who strangled his wife. I'd like to hear more about that.
2500 years before Panini was a sandwich, he was an Indian grammarian who anticipated some ideas of Chomsky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāṇini
Perhaps Dominic was claiming to be a grammarian?
6
I'd note two things: a) Boughton's name begins with "bought," which seems a useful warning; b) I miss the days when Democratic pols screwed up as floridly as Republicans still do. I mean, that guy who was Kerry's VP pick was a return to the halcyon days of yesteryear, but generally when Democrats get nabbed doing something, it's about as hilarious as wrapping the loot in aluminum foil amd hiding it in the freezer.
Where are our Spiro T. Agnews, taking envelopes of cash in the VP's office? Where our Applachian Trail hikers, our sobbing preachers, our family values shouters caught with hookers, our snarling crooks threatening to throw reporters off the balcony, our cabinet heads zooming around DC in armored limos with the red lights going, our Education department leaders who are crooks and whose crook brothers shot up a traffic jam in Iraq? Where our insider traders caught on camera at White House picnics?
Come ON guys and gals. I know the talent's there.
Oh, and I've pretty much had it with St. bernie.
80
You don't have to be a clown or convicted felon or named after a sandwich to have a funny or horrible name. If you changed your name to some more common names like Sarah Palin or Rick Perry or Ben Carson I'd have a good idea of your intelligence level. I'd know to hide the silverware if your name was Scott Pruitt. What does George Wallace or Jeff Sessions conjure up for you ?
You definitely have to change your name if it's Alex Jones or Sean Hannity.
13
Loving your "what's in a name" piece, Gail! A little welcome light relief from the bad news of the day, from Donald Trump's summer vac tweet shenanigans to the guy "with a few screws loose" who stole a passenger plane at SeaTac airport in Washington, and crashed it all alone by himself. The madness of Americans these days. And hey, surely there's room to add Avenatti to your lighthearded observation about lighthearted 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, even if he isn't from the Constitution State of CT or IA. How about riffing on Michael Avenatti, Ms. Stephanie Clifford's lawyer from CA, who is starting his run to repeal and replace president Trump in 2020. Anything's possible these days -- look at Ms. Cynthia Nixon, Democratic candidate for NY Gov today. She bears a name that harks back to the 1960s and '70s in America. Yes, Gail, weird things are on the political menu these days and your choir is glad you're back at your post on the NYTimes!
4
Perfect ending to the column titled "What's in a Name?" by having a correction for spelling Malloy's first name wrong....can't make this stuff up!
3
Maybe the name should be Mark Nothingburger.
9
With the CT primary coming up, I needed to check the candidates' platform. Now, I'm a diehard Democrat. Looking at the platforms, I noticed that both were relatively left leaning. I'm also very pro-union. Ganim's platform is also very pro-union, more so than Lamont. Then I realized, Ganim's a crook. Yes, he served his time, buy you never know....after all our good old Governor Roland went to jail twice (?) for his shenannigans. Connecticut has some of the best politicians money can buy.
3
Perhaps I’m way too overwhelmed with this corrupt Trump administration and its ring of horrific criminals.
Sheesh even Wilbur Ross, the 81 yo Secretary of Commerce who REALLY, REALLY wants the question of citizenship on the 2020 census and can’t understand why ANYONE is opposing it, this swamp creature with a net worth of $700 million has now been found to have swindled millions of dollars from his associates.
“I know the best people.” “I’m a stable genius.”
But when I read the sentence about the state legislator who “strangled his wife” I became physically ill. It was a punch to the gut.
Gail did you miss the “MeToo” and “Times Up” movements when you were on leave?
As a family doc who sees domestic violence and as a victim of domestic violence myself I was horrified by your casual comment about this crime against a woman. I am CERTAIN that many people still supported this creep because “She probably had it coming” said by this generation of Neanderthals-both men and women.
Strangling one’s wife should never be in a “humorous” column.
Just my opinion.
4
I am glad I moved from Connecticut. Not only was Joe Lieberman fermenting the idea of "politicians behaving badly" I had also worked with some pretty toxic women! But you continue to make me laugh. So thanks.
3
Candidates that hope to sway potential voters. . . .
. . .by naming themselves after delectable FOODSTUFFS!
Only in America.
I was struck by the guy putting on a CLOWN outfit (hoping to. .um. . .sway potential voters). And someone called the POLICE. . . . .
Only in America.
A cartoon appeared years ago in The Saturday Evening Post. (A magazine long defunct.)
It showed a political rally. Huge crowds. Flags--banners. Candidate in front, standing behind a podium. . .
. .IN THE ACT OF BEING OBLITERATED BY LIGHTNING.
Woman at the back addressing her husband:
"And he seemed so nice!"
Imagine, Ms. Collins, if such things really happened. Imagine if a whole ROSTER of candidates--all flaunting their culinary nicknames.. . . ..
. . .HARRY THE OMELETTE. . . ..
. . ..M-M-M-M-M GOOD GOODELL. . . .
. . .CHEESECAKE CHARLIE . . . . .
. ..WILLIE "EGGS OVER EASY" MCDOODLE . . .
. .imagine if they were all suddenly . . . . ..
You know, I had better not go there. Let him among you that is without guilt . . . ..
. . .and it may really be: we GET the leaders we deserve.
"Cause my stars! this gaggle of crooks and incompetents you have herded before us . . .
. . .and then I think of our federal government. . . .
. . and I think of the White House. . . .
. .and I think, maybe, I've said enough.
Too much, maybe.
Or maybe not.
2
Names do matter, Gail. I had to quit playing bridge because the word "trump" was used too often. Though getting to bid " no trump" had its merits.
10
Connecticut has a lot of rich people living there, right? Put you money on the guy promising the tax cut.
1
Not as amusing as used to be. Clearly the will is there, but it's the times.
1
Gail, one your best, thank you. Someone mentioned "The Distinguished Gentleman." I'd like to point out "Being There," where, in Jerzy Kosinski's brilliant script, Peter Sellers plays Chance, the Gardener, an actual gardener, a man of uncertain mental abilities who is perceived to be a genius. Louise, the cook said he was "stuffed with rice puddin' between the ears." When asked about economic growth - "As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden...there will be growth in the spring.” Many of these politicians remind me of Chance the Gardener. These fellows (the women seem much brighter) seem to have mashed potatoes between their ears. If anyone who reads Gail Collins' column regularly has somehow missed this film, it's a must.
6
Suburbanites coaching Little League? That was not my take on Connecticut. Let me put it this way: You can learn a lot about a state from their sidewalks. Good luck finding a sidewalk in Connecticut. That pretty well summarizes the political concern for sustainable governance in a marginally New England area.
Speaking of New England, I really don't mind Sanders maintaining a perpetual insider/outsider status. Someone other than a Republican needs to yell at Democrats. Those Clinton-minded centerists are all too eager to keep their earmuffs on and ignore criticism. "What? We lost the election?" Yes you did. Someone needs to shout that message high and loud. If Sanders is the only one, so be it.
30
On my many trips between Boston and New York City over the past 45 years, I have passed through Connecticut using its interstates. I am always impressed at how well maintained they are and do not recall every encountering a pothole of any size. I can only assume that Ms. Collins' claim of the plague of potholes in CT must refer to local roads, as I have had occasion to use secondary roads in CT and again, never encountered a single pothole.
This is sharp contrast to my experience in New York State and Massachusetts where potholes are just part of life.
1
@Barbara
It's not that Malloy may have mismanaged the budget. The reason CT has this budget crisis goes back 40 years when the politicians raided the state workers' and teachers' pension funds, and didn't fully fund them. Had the pension funds been funded, we probably would not be in this situation.
10
These examples surely show problems in our politic. If there is one political wish that the public should ask to be granted it is to ensure the sanctity of the vote. The party system can and does allow unqualified candidates to run for small offices that may have a bigger impact on every day lives. Why? Suppose a candidate in the northeast is so anti-government as to cut services like snow removal? No sane person would vote for that candidate but there are those extremists in government. How? Why do we suddenly have such competitive races, with single digit differences in the vote count? Why are so many races affected? Rather than roll our eyes at these terrible candidates, the public should ask two questions: Why are these people being nominated (a question still to ask about DT), and how is it that so many races are so close, all of a sudden, so often, when they never were before?
3
So, a Republican named Rapini is running for the Senate and listed his last name as “Panini.”
This is no sandwich imitation. It is an anti-vegetable failure to admit your last name means broccoli rabe.
1
wouldn't that be "little broccoli rabe"? If the panino (just one) were a panino con proscuitto, he would be risking getting indicted by a grand jury.
4
Come to think of it, Mark Muffinburger would have been much a more appropriate alias than David Dennison in the Stormy Daniels settlement.
Great political slogan - "Next time you hear something's a "nothing burger", just think Muffinburger - a candidate with substance."
2
A cousin once lorded it over me by correcting my pronunciation of "Featherstonehaugh." Spellcheck wants to make that Featherweight. But not my cousin. It's Fanshaw, he crowed. But that's in a dialect that turned "waistcoat" into "weskit," and "forehead}" into "forr-ed" (Ah, my furrowed forr-ed!) Spellcheck changes my name to Despond, which may be perspicacious in these doleful days. But Gail's funny bone gives me an opening to muse on odd pairings of adjectives and nouns in important organizations. "Catholic" still means "universal," so what is "Roman Catholic?" What is a "national socialist"--workers of the world, NIMBY? Is a democratic socialist something that we used to call "smoked-salmon socialist"? And Irish people know too well what a Unionist is--the Neanderthal that threatens Brexit, the EU, and the Irish Republic--all because of an imperial experiment in social engineering back in the early 17th C. It's almost as bad as a hot-water bottle and a bottle of bovril uttered underwater.
4
@Des Johnson: But the biggest party in Northern Ireland is now the Democratic Unionist Party. Democratic? Open to voting for a republic? Democratic Socialist? Open to voting for tax cuts?
The "sound of crickets chirping." Ha! I pray that one day that is all there is to hear at any given Trump event. On second thought, that is too kind. I like the sound of crickets. I'm sitting here on a lovely Saturday morning listening to them right now. Ah, summer...
6
Gail, the skill you display here, as always, is your ability to hook readers with an “Only In America” story, here one about how weird American candidates for office are willing to be. Rapini, Connecticut wannabee without a chance, becomes Panini, sandwich man. Readers in far off countries like Sweden wonder, what is this, a NYT column devoted to something so trivial? Hmmm.
You entertain us with a few more stories to show that CT is not a one-off, politicians are like this all over America. As an American I am still reading, as a Swede maybe not.
Then, you open the trap door: “… let’s go back to Connecticut” to become the deadly serious Gail that I admire most laying out terrible truths about Connecticut, ending by admonishing readers:
“Guys, please stop doing this. Nobody wants this craziness.”
I wrote that after reading today’s Times story about NPR (no comment section) giving white nationalist Jason Kessler a forum to state that the “races” NAMED by the US Census Bureau can be ranked by intelligence, white at the top, black at the bottom.
Only in America, where a system created by racists is someone NAMED as "white" given the chance to present such a belief shared by the nation’s president.
Discussion of this USCB naming system is off limits in the serious Times. Perhaps you can use your method to open a door to enter this this room
Donald Trump brandishing the German genes that make him so smart? And then? Up to you,
Citizen US SE
4
They just never learn. One of my favorite early/mid 80's punk bands, The Decendents had an excellent song that describes all the alchemistic plans the GOP puts forward. It was called On Paper. Here are the lyrics:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/descendents/onpaper.html
Enjoy, and all you folks in CT be pleased with yourselves when you schools close for 2 days a week and a pot hole as big as a 20 foot fence trench doesn't get fixed.
1
Well, there is that saying that “politics makes strange bedfellows.” Guess you proved the case here Gail. Well done!
1
Gail, you don't have to go as far as Connecticut to find theater in a political name.What about Staten Island's own Michael Grimm who just months ago tried to escape his grim past as a convicted felon by trying to get his seat back in Congress.Now there is Chris Collins who has a fine name, you can cheer that, but he has made questionable trades and has been indicted in New York.You could probably write an entire column on New York.
5
True, but for sheer hilarity you cannot beat Little Rhody's own Buddy Cianci, who once (tigether with his State Trooper limo driver) kidnapped his wife's boyfriend, drove him to the mayor's mansion, tied him to a chair, urinated on him, whacked him with a hot poker, then dropped the man off home.
I met Buddy a couple times, once at a party on the Fourth; city chopper came over Narragansett Bay, hovered over the house next door whose people were away, landed in their back yard, and Buddy got out, ran over, started shaking hands.
I think Kellyanne was chosen for her name, Con Way.
15
Actually Gail we don't want any lightheartedness while Trump and friends continue to commit treason.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
4
We have a system in Maryland where someone can get to be a state representative (delegate) by getting 25 to 35% of the vote. Slick.
Here's how it works. We have four delegates representing our legislative district in the capital, Annapolis. Since we are overwhelmingly a Democratic state, the top four vote getters in the general election win. You go into the polls, select four candidates. Since many voters treat the state legislature as little above the school board, most don't bother to even vote for delegate, so someone getting 35% of the total votes cast on election day gets the job. Plus, there are only four Democrats nominated. Why bother?
One such elected office holder is now running unopposed for the state Senate, having been appointed to the job by the Democratic Central Committee when our senator retired. What a deal! Get elected by the minority, appointed the the Senate and elected to a full term without opposition. This is representative government?
We have some factors on our side. After corruption in the state government decades ago, Maryland is now, mainly, a good government state where all levels of government are expected to perform, be transparent and highly responsive to citizens. It is also a "work your way up" state where those holding lower offices have a shot to move up and where someone like Trump wouldn't have stood a chance, unless he had been willing to spend a few years in the House of Delegates, toiling away.
3
No honorable mention for John Rowland? In Connecticut, politicians with jail time wear hash marks on their sleeves for years in the pokey. It’s considered a prequisite for future campaigns. The opportunity to serve and serve again is a tried and true path for career minded elected and ejected officials. Matter of fact, in Connecticut the FCPA and RICO club is a members only exclusive where the elite meet to eat.
The Hartford Courant journalist in all of us Nutmeger’s.
4
When she was still in high school, my niece, a CT resident described the estate as "Louisiana with trees."
13
People all over the country are asking, "Is this the best we can do? Doesn't anyone honorable want to serve anymore?"
6
Thank you, Gail, for your taste treat. Politics can be funny, but mostly not. You keep me from crying!
3
The way Bernie Sanders uses the Democratic party then attacks it is disgusting.
14
Problem: The wrong people are in charge of our government, esp. these days with Trump, his cabinet, and the GOP in charge.
Clearly, the wrong kind of people self-select themselves into politics. Our politicians are no Mr. Smiths trotting off to Washington to clean up the corruption. Au contraire: they (most esp. GOP; we are looking at you Betsy DeVos, et al.) who are there to benefit themselves and their free-market capitalist cronies by legalizing corruption (e.g., Citizens United, our campaign finance laws, etc.), pollution, and malfeasance--as they are very well paid to do by the likes of the Kochs, corporate contributors, and other big donors.
Solution: We need to recruit ethical people to run for political office, but what we have in political office are people from some of the most unethical professions.
For example, according to the annual Gallup poll on professions and jobs perceived as ethical: Nurses rank #1 with 85% of those polls saying nurses are high or very high on ethics. Military officers are #2, and (drum roll) Grade school teachers rank #3. Note: If we like them so much, why don't we pay them better?
At the other end: Lobbyists are perceived as least ethical (ranked low or very low by 58% of respondents and only 8% saying high or very high). Next worst are Car Salespeople (39% low/very low; 10% saying high/very high). Third worst are Members of Congress (60% low/very low; 11% high/very high).
The real "creepy people" are our politicians. Ask why?
6
Blessings on you Gail for starting my day with laughter! Today's column is right up there with Shamus on the car roof.
2
What a selection to vote for - criminals, clowns, and the faux Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. Gee, Sanders must be so proud of helping put Trump in the White House. How's that been working out for us?
It would seem that the whole of politics is just one big swamp and all the political strategists have had some connection with the Ukraine and Russian oligarchs. How do you assess anyone anymore? The one with the lesser criminal offenses? The one who didn't help hand this country a president who leaves us breathless with every tweet and twitter and has left a path of destruction wherever he treads or whenever he speaks?
Who do you trust anymore, and how do you trust anyone anymore? Loss of trust is the real legacy of the 2016 election. Loss of trust in politicians to have the best interests of this country in their heart and mind, and loss of trust in our elections not being tampered with by political adversaries outside this country.
2
The weirder it is, the weirder it gets. I guess astounded by all this would be putting too fine a point on the oddity of all observed by you, Ms. Collins. The fine men running for office, clowns or funny names aside, have no shame. And that includes Bernie, for coat-tailing/riding on the Democratic ticket and then taking votes away from other Dems when he decides to push his independent side. Aw Bernie that ain't right. You can think what you may about the Democratic Party, but you use us. Levity helps. Thanks as always.
2
"Try talking about something sensible."
If only...if only...
If Sensible actually ran for Office, it would lose because of the lack of voter recognition...
4
Here what could been a very interesting contest for a seat in the House of representative. Cookie Monster (blue fur) against Elmo (red fur). To that line-up, you may add Oscar the Grouch (green fur). Any other suggestions are welcome.
3
First off, Gail, don't worry about that "Daniel" versus "Dannel" mistake. He was in office three years before it dawned on me that the local NPR station wasn't mispronouncing his name.
Boughton has actually been a pretty good mayor, and I might even vote for him if I hadn't long ago (1994) vowed never to vote for anyone with an (R) after their name. Still, his main claim to fame before this year was being one of the first mayors in the country to try to get the INS to deputize the Danbury police department to enforce immigration laws, a move that got him onto Bill O'Reilly's TV show. His income-tax craziness will be a good thing if it gets him off his immigration craziness. What both policies have in common is that they would be economically devastating if enacted. Boughton makes me nostalgic for the days when Republicans were economically responsible, even though I can't exactly remember when that was.
89
What Connecticut needs is a sensible Democrat not another ridiculous Republican. Washington is full of ridiculous Republicans and you can see where that's got us. Someone should tell these guys that having a screwball in the White House and trying to turn the clock back to 1920 is unlikely to have a good outcome.
4
Does anyone else remember the Eddie Murphy comedy "The Distinguished Gentleman"?
In the movie Murphy plays a conman who runs for Congress using the name of a recently deceased incumbent. His slogan was ".... the name you know'. Of course he wins election and soon realizes that compared to the politicians around him he is actually a (gasp) honest man.
Life imitates art?
50
Cutting taxes, which make up roughly 50% of the State's revenues. I guess he wants to compensate for the increase in taxes on blue states under the Republicans' latest tax travesty. The reasoning seems to be that because deductions for state taxes are now frozen at a ceiling of $10,000 blue states have to compensate by lowering state taxes, thus effectively shutting down any effective state government. This is the Republicans' hope for neutering blue states. I vote for neutering the Republicans.
18
Welcome back, Gail. We've missed you and your humor and we surely need it in the weeks and months ahead.
14
I do believe changing a politician's name can be a wonderful thing.
Were I in charge, perhaps as the political equivalent of ICANN which governs IANA who grants internet domain name management, I would make one change:
Donald John Trump becomes Prisoner 1048345.
22
Trump's strongly disliked by independents and women. His foreign policy's downright embarrassing: G7, NATO Summit, Singapore Summit and Helsinki all rank as dismal failures.
The more Trump talks and tweets, the guiltier he sounds on Russia: Mueller’s investigation indicted 12 Russian officials for interfering in the 2016 election.
Nearly 70% of us oppose Trump's cruel family separations. The party's done nothing but an unpopular tax heist--- and it lives in fear of Trump's angry tweets.
At his rallies for GOP candidates, he veers into disastrous topics and pathetic remarks. Trump keeps talking? Voters start walking--away from Republicans.
17
Gail, let's not jump to conclusions based on an n of 1. Yes, a legislator in Connecticut strangled his wife, but here in Minnesota we have witnessed a wife shooting her abusive husband. We all know that's far better than the spousal abuse in CT. But, let's not jump to any conclusions on the Wacky Scale. These tragic acts do not a trend make. Well, maybe some of them do, but it has far less to do with politics and more to do with induced, unbridled hate and anger. Look, we all have to deal with a pool of errant politicians. Trump and Hillary are among the worst. Bernie makes some sense in the swamp of politicking, but he will gather nowhere near the support he needs.The good news, if there is any anymore, is that our Ship of State, riddled with holes in her hull, sails on ceaselessly into the past.
3
@Lake Woebegoner Forgot to add the closer: "Here's hoping we disembark into the good things passed. Howere naive, it is far better than where we have gone.
2
Criticizing ex-convicts who run for political office: Sad. These folks can't get real jobs because of their criminal convictions. Yet prison experience means they're less likely to engage in criminal corruption (or even collusion) while in office, right? Give them a chance to prove they've found Jesus and will follow the Ten Commandments.
@Richard
And if they're Jewish?
Unfortunately some people don't learn. Recidivism: People sent to prison are highly likely to be charged again and sent back to prison, which good for the boopming private prison business. If you put people in an environment with hardened criminals and only punish everyone, what do you expect?
Gail gives the impression that Connecticut is mounting a serious challenge to Louisiana for the rights to The State With the Most and the Most Corrupt Political Officeholders and Wannabes. Agreed, that people who've paid the time for their crime(s) should be allowed and encouraged to perform productive work, which, taking the word "productive" literally, would seem to pretty much put politics off limits. But in America, as it has been proven, anyone can become President.
15
what is it with saturday's on the op ed?
first, comic smarty larry david gets lost in his own fog, now the esteemed sardonic, gail collins, runs into the weeds with a couple of puzzlers: "the BEST possible WAY TO REFORM the Democrats is probably NOT to yell at them from outside," (caps mine); and, after a fair litany of political sins, especially solid in the connecticut items, she throws up her hands, "Guys, please stop doing this," (these things), "Try talking about something sensible," but, alas, not a shred of suggestion, much less a counter-litany
of "sensibilities" leaving us with more of the same, "the sound of crickets chirping."
Bernie Sanders couldn't pull it off in mid-America primaries, even with help from newly crowned NY'er Alexandria Orcasia-Cortez. But he seems ready and willing to divide the Democratic vote in 2020. If we're naming pols for food, he rates a plain old baloney sandwich on stale white bread.
38
On Sanders: "but the best possible way to reform the Democrats is probably not to yell at them from outside, while still maintaining a stranglehold on a safe Democratic Senate seat." As has been clearly demonstrated.
The man is clearly an opportunist, not a reformer. He corrupted the 2016 Presidential campaign with his 60's radical persona and his sputtering arm waving harangues along with his criticisms of Hillary.
He just reminds me of a male programmer who doesn't comb the back of his head because he can't see it.
28
You nailed Sanders exactly. Thank you!
21
First, thanks to the Times for the so generously suggesting that it needs my voice. Here it is.
Two observations here. In today's political climate (like the real thing it, too, seems to be changing steadily for the worse), never underestimate the value of a campaign tag line that proclaims, "released from a halfway house in 2010." It could be silver. Pure gold would be "still resident in a halfway house in 2018" from where, as a convicted felon, he could run for governor but neither vote for himself nor anyone else.
Ms. Collins writes, "some voters are going to the polls to choose between a longtime pol and a longtime ex-convict." This sounds like a distinction between Ron Estes and Ron 'Merica Estes. It's virtually impossible to tell them apart. At least, Ron M. could spell 'Merica correctly. It's "Murka."
You're welcome!
11
Gail, you missed the big one.
A world super-power elected a president called John Miller. Or was it John Barron? One or the other. Turned out it was actually a rapacious huckster named Donald Trump, whose specialty is selling himself.
Unfortunately, that's his only marketable skill.
18
@KJ that "skill" has been bankrupted several times over.
4
In our current corrupt political system all the politicians are criminals, being in jail is just an apprenticeship for them.
10
And all my life I thought Connecticut was a genteel State.
Its good to know, they actually have corruption there and crazy politicians. Just like everywhere else.
8
You do wonder how long a Republic can last with years and years of governmental officials who are clearly either incompetent or morally and ethically challenged.
15
Bernie should keep quiet and the Green Party should just go away.
39
Happily I was raised to vote the straight Democratic line. No matter how bad that person may be, the other one is in all probability worse.
Primaries are a little more challenging, but the only agonizing decision I ever had to make was whether to vote for Clinton or Obama. For that one I had to get out of the long line, go outside, and walk around the block a couple of times. Twice!
4
Connecticut was started by two types of groups leaving Mass. One group left because they found the Puritans too easy and the others left because they found the Puritans too strict. Each group started their own colony. Then the Crown made them combine into one colony. We've had a crazy split personality since that day.
70
Now I know why the crickets were chirping so loudly earlier, and the cat brought one in as a gift, as distressed as a mini copter, the cause of opening the door and releasing his wings.
Ms. Collins reminded this reader in her mentioning Dominic Rapini of a delicious recipe of Panini with scrambled eggs and spices.
There was a time where I voted on my perception of the merit of the politician but Trump and his presidency has made crumpets out of this concept. It's going to be Democrat all the way across the names, regardless of whether the politician is known 'officially' as Barton Funk, or Undine Johnnywalker.
The Republican Party may be in the drowning pool of corruption and deceit, and there is a renewal of affinity for decency and a will to do better. When having an exchange with a conservative widow, whose great father-in law was known as a brilliant orator, we might not be the most enlightened, but neither of us enjoy the shoddy and shabby behavior, witnessed in the last few years and subjected on our country.
Listening to the hubby of a long-time acquaintance declare with pride that he was 'the most hated man in his county', caused my spirits to go blue and during these weeping times, sending Ms. Collins the blue bird of happiness. Please keep writing.
42
@Miss Ley
Beautiful. Your comments always lift my spirits. I thank you.
9
The thing about sandwich names for candidates is, regardless of brand, they're trapped between the bread. The "bread as money" metaphor explains our dejection over the candidate crop. Hedge fund managers, payday lenders, directors of boards, and millionaires aplenty, leave fingerprints all over the cash they touch. A wiser nation would have candidates who can actually call themselves "public servants".
18
This column points up a persistent problem in our democracy: it seems to attract as candidates for public office a large proportion of, shall we say, abnormal personalities. Largely, I suspect, this is due to the fact that very few people of sound mind, modest, self-effacing personality and actual ability would ever want to expose themselves to the madness of elective politics. The result is often a choice between the slightly off, the blindly narcissist, and the complete nut case.
Let’s hope that the increasing interest by women of running for office is a salutary glimpse of better things to come. Yes, women can be just as unhinged as men, but by and large, the proportion of looney tunes to responsible, clear-headed adults among females seems to be much smaller.
And there is this: we often say to ourselves that a barking dog would be better than candidate so-and-so. So, too, would be a panini.
105
I was hopeful that the Rs would have put forth a viable alternative with a plan to fix the fiscal mess, but all I heard was shouts of tax cuts and inaudible mumbles about where to cut spending.
Then came the Republican debate at which all five agreed that our president’s tariffs were a terrific idea.
End of delusion.
28
I heard a historian interviewed by Bill Maher recently and, with a great deal of background information, he made a startling and, I'm afraid believable statement about the upcoming elections. "If we lose this one, it will most likely be the last legitimate election in this country for a very long time."
Get out there and vote, guys. And, Ms. Collins, thank you for keeping things in perspective with your humor and keeping them just as serious as they are with your knowledge.
91
Actually here in Connecticut we have been seeing TV ads for Bob Stefanowski, the payday loan guy, for months. He didn't try to get nominated at the Republican State Convention, instead getting enough signatures of registered Republicans to get on the primary ballot.
He also pledges to have a "plan" to eliminate the state income tax. His latest commercials inform us that he's a businessman like President Trump, not a strong selling point in CT. Another commercial touts Arthur "Trickle Down" Laffer as an advisor. Oh boy Sam Brownback redux.
I don't believe he'll win the primary but who knows, I was at Burgerfi yesterday and there was a man there with a Make America Great Again shirt.
6
In Connecticut we're looking at an independent candidacy by a man who's given name is R. Nelson Griebel, but who has been known since college as "Oz." Can't figure out which I find more comforting: the notion of electing the namesake of America's 1950s popular TV patriarch, Ozzie Nelson, or the possibility that we'll have a governor who turns Hartford into the Emerald City. (We really could us a wizard up here.)
7
I would say that we all need to vote, but most readers here will vote. Midterms largely revolve around deciding who the best candidates are at the state and local levels. Many voters don't want to spend the time to try to figure that out. These are the same people who often complain about national politics but don't understand that many of the problems there have roots at the state and local levels.
We need to get voters registered and ensure that their ballots are counted. Consider tithing some of your time to these efforts. Knock on doors and make phone calls from your local party office. Multiplying yourself through others will make all the difference.
Of all the things Trump has said and done, we cannot forget that he is the one who has promulgated “fake news,” and he is the one who has instigated a metastasis of that term calling those who oppose him in the free press “enemies of the people.” Such behavior from the president potentially puts the lives of those in the media at risk.
Any candidate who fails to denounce Trump needs to be voted out of office immediately. Do what you can to make that happen.
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Curiously, Ms. Collins omits the most common of name games. As of 2007, according to CBS, 23 women in Congress used the names of former husbands and 19 used their maiden names although they were married. The most prominent of name games was played by Mary Bono, who kept the name of her former husband Sonny -- who served in Congress after his Sonny and Cher years -- even after she remarried.
And, as CBS noted, the "trend among married women in politics is preserving names with political legacies. Rep. Kathy Castor (D), whose parents are Don and Betty Castor, both big names in her part of Florida, did not change a letter when she wed. Nor did Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), the daughter of longtime Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski. " Others who used last names to political advantage included Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
"Guys stop doing this" Ms. Collins says -- a curious statement with respect to a game where women are professionals and men dabble only occasionally.
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@michjas Not quite the same history when it comes to changing names, though.
3
Rapini's name change to Panini was most likely due to the ever-present spellcheck. I've had my last name changed to Fetuccini. At least spellcheck likes chow.
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@democritic –
I would certainly have preferred that to the name it gave me: 'bushmeat' – that took a lot of 'splainin'.
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Please don’t forget the contender from Illinois for most hated governor.
Let’s hear it for Bruce Rauner.
Not even the crickets are chirping for him.
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You have to go some ways in dedication to an objective, such as getting elected to a lousy city council seat, to legally change your name to “Pat Payaso”. Now, a congressman and a REAL license to steal, that’s different. You could almost justify putting a “GL” in front of Adolf Hitler in the hopes that voters would see “Gladolf” and conclude that all the unpleasantness just goes away … but still benefit from superior name recognition, as Cynthia Nixon has.
Gail’s focus on Connecticut reminds me of one of its fairly recent governors, Lowell P. Weicker Jr., a Republican by courtesy, who always was far more a Democrat than a Republican but who remained true to elephants rather than asses because he believed to his dying day (4 Jan., 1995) that despite being occasionally icky, we Republicans remained more “intellectually honest” than Democrats. Connecticut is that kind of state.
But you could have predicted CT’s financial woes. For years they were among the holdouts without a state income tax. As soon as they narrowly voted one in, their eyes got bigger than their stomachs, they started spending on all sorts of boondoggles, and today we have what we have. And New Jersey is looking to rationalize its own income tax as a “charity”, so as to maintain deductibility in the teeth of the feds’ repeal of state and local tax deductibility. This is an object lesson to my own birth-state, Washington, still a holdout and these days reliably blue.
Bridgeport is a little like …
4
… Atlantic City and Niagara Falls in that mayors have been jailed for corruption. It’s not surprising: all three cities are armpits. CT is a funny state that way, as well – it’s a wealthy state, but all the wealth is concentrated in the burbs, while ALL the cities are dystopian cesspools of vastly ignored poverty.
The whole world looks at our elections, many with some form of wistfulness. But the truth is that our elections are their version of “Survivor”, and the global multitudes do insist on being entertained.
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@Richard Luettgen Your seeming citation of Washington State as a paragon of tax reasonablenesss is way off - the state has the most regressive tax system in the country. It may be "reliably blue" but that shows how hollow that moniker is - the 1% has it made here, and the poor and middle class pay an egregiously disproportionate share of their income in total taxes. "Blue" has some benefits, but not all in a system of two-party corruption.
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@Rocky:
Didn't suggest that Washington was "reasonable" in its tax policies, but merely that it still didn't have a state income tax. I still have family in Tacoma, and when I visit and buy something there, I pay a 10.1% state plus city sales tax. That might be "reasonable" on Mars, but nowhere else.
Just went to a wedding in Warwick Rhode Island, while there we took a day trip to New Haven to see the Peabody Museum at Yale. It has an amazing collection of fossil's, mostly from Montana,I was thinking while looking at them there are many more left there, we call the Republicans.
No being from a place where the summer cottages do not have 20 bathrooms like the Breakers, I know little of Connecticut, except I used to drive through there in 1953 when stationed in Chicopee Falls just up the road, but I would say it seems as if some of those fossils had escaped to run the state there.
We are provincial out here, not as bad as the New Englander's I met then, they thought we still slept in teepees, and hunted with Bows and arrows. They all had ancestors that arrived on some leaky sail boat, that was supposed to have something pure about it, or it made them pure, something like that.
Well Connecticut seems nice enough and we did see a lot of old bones there. It was nice to see the display of some ancestors, Australopithecus or Zinjanthropicus, also reminded me of Republicans, something about living in the Neolithic. Vote for enough of them, and we can return to those days.
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@David Underwood
FYI, the average Democratic Congressperson is 11 years older than the average Republican. If Republicans are Neolithic, Democrats are dinosaurs.
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@David Underwood
Just to be clear, Australopithecus and Zinjanthropicus lived looooonnnnngggg before the Neolithic. Also, the Neolithic represents a time of a significanat technological leap for humans. I would liken Republicans more to some of the extinct human species recently found in caves in South Africa. A nice experiment, but died out in the end. Our own fate will be similar if we don’t rid ourselves of these cretins
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@David Underwood - Er, the Breakers is in RI. I guess from CA all the tiny eastern states are are to distinguish. RI is the one that is mostly underwater.
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Here’s what the crickets are chirping: ";;;; tax cuts :::: you're screwed ;;;; corporate overloads ;;;; you're screwed ;;;; Trump ;;;; we're screwed ;;;; sigh.
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Welcome back Gail! Thanks for the chuckle. I suspect many Americans have quietly toyed with the thought of entering a political race of some sort or another. The thought quickly passes when the reality of potential full exposure is weighed.
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“Mark Muffinburger,” “Dominic Panini” ? I don’t care if Republican candidates change their names to “Hot Fudge Sundae” or “Pepperoni Pizza with extra Cheese,” they’re all empty calories and in November I will vote straight Democrat. Period.
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@Susan: Straight?
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@Susan
Can someone consider Avocado Toast? A healthier proposition and likely a Democrat.
I’m just hoping that all republican candidates will be plain old toast come November.
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Dear Gail,
I love your columns to death, I read every one of them as I'm a subscriber to the NY TIMES.
But you missed the point of Pat Payaso. McCrea never was running for City Council seriously. He was making the same point that you often do, that politics in this country, journalism in this country, and the citizens who vote for these politicians are a joke.
You have proven his point, again. You don't have your facts correct. Payaso wasn't campaigning at the College, he was voting, it is illegal to campaign at a polling location. But when did the facts ever get in the way of a funny story?
Payaso was on the ballot for 4 months, with the most progressive platform and not a single journalist bothered to find out who this person was? No one in the english speaking white dominated press noticed there was a complete unknown "clown" candidate on the ballot? This is the state of journalism?
Then Payaso posted a video online of a woman in a clown costume and put $1 million in his campaign account and instantly had pictures, TV and magazine articles worldwide about her/him. The NY Post and multitudes of others had a picture of the fake female Payaso saying it was Payaso when it wasn't. Fake News!
Payaso spent 0 dollars on the campaign, got ~$50,000 in tax breaks from idiot politicians and is still laughing.
Let's grab dinner in NYC, I have season tickets at the Met, paid for by journalists/citizens who don't pay attention to the details.
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@kevin
ms collins might have also looked deeper into the rapini/pannini "matter"... could be that the candidate knew (if he knew his own name's meaning) that a popular form of sandwich would make a more positive point of contact with his public than the hated green cruciform vegetable for which his name, in english, stands, a kind of broccoli.
Whatever happened to normal? I have lowered the bar: Forget amazing, fantastic, stupendous or even awesome. I just want normal. Or am I asking too much in politics these days?
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No, no, no. The most hated governor in America is Maine's own (feh!) Paul LePage.
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@Shiphrah
No, no, no. The most hated governor in America is Wisconsin’s own (feh!) Scott Walker (or Mini-Trump as some call him).
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@Shiphrah
Absolutely correct!
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@Shiphrah
Absolutely. He needs to move to FL permanently.
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I'm sorry Ms Collins, I really like your take, but the East Coast bias is too precious.
The power house GOP woman in Washington State is vulnerable.
I see hints of a Democratic message.........not this.
8
And I thought Texas had a lock on bad governance and political farce. Guess we're not so special after all.
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@franko There for awhile with Operation Jade Helm,I was considering giving the prize of terrible governors to Texas. But then again, our Susanna Martinez was a contender herself.
2
"the best possible way to reform the Democrats is probably not to yell at them from outside, while still maintaining a stranglehold on a safe Democratic Senate seat"
Yeah, it probably is the best way. By all signs, it is the only way.
BTW, the Democrat who was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did the same party ID thing as Bernie. He ran on other party tickets too, so they could not run someone against him. Now he is still on the ballot, even though he is not the Democratic candidate.
Gail was wrong to support Hillary, wrong to oppose Bernie, and is wrong to bash him now the race is over and Hillary is history.
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@Mark Thomason
The process of removing a candidate’s name from a ballot varies by state. In New York it’s unusually complicated. The Working Families Party would essentially have to nominate Joe Crowley for another position on the ballot — and he’d have to accept. That’s not happening.
2
@Mark Thomason
Yes, indeed, Hillary is history...would that Bernie, Elizabeth, and Joe would follow her lead (a little joke on the popular vote).
I always felt Bernie would not be a national candidate and Tuesday seems to have confirmed that. I know, the Bernie Busters will respond and accuse me of being a DINO. I will vote Democratic in November. Will they?
Ironic isn't it?
5
@Mark Thomason
And Bernie is very popular in Vermont which seems to be doing well.
Ms. Collins, all I can say after reading this column is that Stephen King’s Pennywise—the carnivorous clown in “It,” would make a better candidate than any of the Connecticut names you mentioned. And Pennywise had a terrific, ready-made, catchy campaign slogan. It mirrors our national politics: “Down here, we all float.”
28
At one time Gail, you were the acknowledged master of satire and irony. The times have turned you into a straight reporter. A very fine reporter still, but straight. No irony, no sarcasm. Straight, right down to the Killer Clown.
28
Republicans are quickly discovering that the only thing their "base" responds to is hate (black, brown, immigrant, LGBTQ), fear (gangs from Mexico, Muslim terrorists), and a burning desire to "stick it" to liberals (Nancy Pelosi),
The party is bankrupt of ideas. and floats on the Trump cult.
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@William O, Beeman -- Meanwhile the Democrats seem to think their base responds best to "hate Trump." Certainly their donors respond with money better than they would to Progressive ideas.
13
All of Gail's assertions prove that neither party has a lock on the crazies. But right now the R's have the national stage in a way that is overwhelming. And any reinforcement at the local level is just piling more wood on the fire. We don't need that any more than we need whatever the Donald is dishing.
24
It is beyond lamentable that so many candidates are branding themselves with name gimmickry rather than with policies.
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@NM I'm voting for the first guy to change his name to Emile Nitrate.
Mark Boughton sounds like Sam Brownback. Strange. Too more dissimilar states than Connecticut and Kansas I can’t imagine.
18
@Lee E. Hawaii and Kansas. All they have in common is that President Obama’s mother and maternal grandparents lived in both states.
13
I'm glad you pointed out Sanders' hypocrisy. He's not the white in shining armor of integrity that those who idealize him make him out to be.
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@Barbara What's hypocritical about reforming a party from within? Seems to be working...
6
Running on a party's line to get elected, then quitting after election seems more like hectoring from the outside than reforming from within. I like a lot of Sanders' ideas and I was glad to support him in the 2016 primary, but his habit of using Democratic Party structures and then stepping away again leaves a bad taste. It's possible to be a socialist and a Democrat at the same time.
3
@Barbara
Sanders has always been an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, rather than the Republicans, for obvious reasons. And he has more integrity than anyone in either party. If it weren't for the DNC and their shenanigans he would have been the candidate and I daresay that Trump would have been left in the dust.
Sander's campaign was financed by small donors, not a Corporate or super-Pac dollars, like the rest of the candidates, both Democratic and Republican.
His ideas were not pie-in-the-sky ideas, as the press and both parties would have you believe. They were taken out of FDR's playbook to save our country's citizens from starvation.
Sanders is the only candidate that showed intelligence and compassion. Two virtues that seem to be in short supply nowadays.
13
"To the outside, it seems like a well-behaved place stuffed with suburbanites coaching Little League. But it’s developed a spectacular sideline in politicians behaving badly."
Excellent line! When life gets as strange as a Connecticut election, some folks run to do a line of.... However, I get by with a line from Gail.
Quite difficult to add any commentary about Connecticut, except that the state's first three letters are "CON" and "W" went to Yale!
Of course Mark Twain was prescient about Tuesday's election, and wrote "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court" The novel's protagonist received a blow to the head causing his dreamlike state. But, I don't remember Connecticut being nuked or losing a major war to New York, a contiguous state.
So very weird, and Trump doesn't even know of Connecticut's existence!
26
It's too funny that, in a column about misspelled and fractured names, Gail misspelled Gov. Molly's first name. It's Dannel, not Daniel.
7
That would be Governor “Malloy”.
3
That Bernie's challenger in Vermont's Democratic primary, Folasade Adeluola is, as Gail writes, "a woman, who just moved to Vermont from Indiana and whose major platform seems to be Getting Revenge For Hillary" couldn't come as better news to this reader. Sanders, incidentally a transplant to Vermont himself, is long overdue at being called to account for the self centered joy ride he so blissfully took that cost America and America's least fortunate a Hillary Clinton presidency that would have cemented and built on the achievements of Barack Obama. Bernie richly deserves to be taught a lesson by Vermonters that he'll never forget. Go Folasade!
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Leigh
Bernie did not take a “joy ride” as you put it but campaigned for Clinton. He has been consistently progressive throughout his entire political career. The fact that Mrs Clinton lost has everything to do with her and with comments referring to a portion of the electorate as “deplorables”. And of course she did win the popular vote by over 3 million but lost because of the electoral college process.
9
@Leigh.
Let's get back to reality, shall we.
Bernie Sanders has been a resident of Vermont since at least the early 70s--hardly a carpetbagger. He ran for President in the Democratic Primaries as was his right. He criticized Clinton during the primaries--that is true--but he famously refused to attack her where she was most vulnerable that is on the e-mail scandal. The DNC apparatus clearly put its finger on the scale to help Hillary. Given that fact a less honorable politician might have sat out the general election sulking and taking potshots from the side or taken up the Green Party's offer of its nomination. Sanders endorsed and campaigned for Hillary Clinton.
I find the fact that you'd apparently be perfectly comfortable putting a super safe Senate seat at risk in order to get back at Sanders, rather ironic. Usually you guys are the ones lecturing us on the need for party unity.
@Leigh
If the DNC hadn't handed the nomination to Clinton there would now be a President Sanders and the world would be a much safer place.
1
Idiots and charlatans are self selected. If one of them wins the general election, he are told by Party members that his main job as a Congressman is to raise money for the Party, full time. The second job is to do what the biggest donors tell you to do, especially the dirtiest and most predatory corporations in the country.
This problem is easily solvable. It's called publicly financed elections, certified by paper ballots. Until those things happen, we are going to finish way behind countries like Uruguay and New Zealand in rankings as an actual democracy. We are much closer to Paraguay and Russia.
Until we pound the Republicans so hard they won't know what hit them, this drift will continue. We are going to find out soon if we have a democracy- and are willing to fight to keep it.
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@Mike Roddy -- That would be a revolution. The donors who govern us like the government they've bought, almost all the candidates in both parties.
We need that revolution, but we won't get it by voting for the donor-owned candidates.
22
@Mark Thomason
Couldn't agree with you more Mark. That is why Pat Payaso ran as an independent and took no money from anyone even though he was offered it by many.
Until people realize how bought and paid for our politicians are, we can not hope to address the really big issues like global warming, pollution, overpopulation, poor infrastructure, poor schools, etc.
Keep spreading the word
1
"McCrea felt his campaign would be energized if he could meet voters while wearing a funny costume and red nose. He had apparently missed the fact that the nation has moved on from lovable Clarabelle to Killer Clown."
I almost fell off my chair, with this one. Good God, Gail, good you're back. Is your upcoming book humorous, or serious, by design or by accident?
Anyway, I sort of like the point about Mark Boughton standing in front of what looks like a beach fast food joint maybe changing his name to a burger.
I can barely make out the word "steak," and the way it's prepared, "ground daily on premises."
I could make a joke about Atlantic City and open up debate as to what besides beefsteak is ground daily, but out of tact, I'll refrain.
Suffice it to say from the photo it looks as if good old Mark could use some belt-tightening exercises, which is perhaps why he's advocating cutting all those taxes.
That way, he not only starves the beast but maybe he thinks that by alone, osmosis the slimming sound of tax cuts might rub off on him.
But let's suppose for a second he gets elected, what then? Well, then, Dorothy you really have gone back to Kansas, courtesy of an East Coast detour.
64
When the name is Trump, I do wince
Exhaustion and anger evince,
It's the deeds and that hair
Driving me to despair,
Change the name and give that mane a rinse.
I don't think a name change will do,
What I want is 23 skidoo,
Would Trump to Tramp matter
Tweeting the same patter
By any name this klutz I'd eschew.
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@Larry Eisenberg
Larry....you are a gift to us all. May your tribe increase.
64
@Larry Eisenberg one of your finest. Thank you.
5
@Larry Eisenberg, this was one of your best, and made me laugh. Thank you so much. "It's the deeds and that hair...what I want is 23 skidoo..would Trump to Tramp matter", geeez.
3
As a 40-year resident of Connecticut, a state with a highly educated electorate and at present an all-Democratic Congressional and Senatorial contingent, I just can’t understand why the field of candidates for Governor is so poor. It is true that the current Governor, Dannel Malloy, and his administration, have mismanaged this 4th wealthiest state in the nation into massive debt and don’t have a clue of how to correct the situation. The likely Republican candidate, Boughton, will bring the state to its knees if he follows through with the cuts he has proposed. The expected Democratic candidate, Ned Lamont, is a failed candidate for Governor, not the most dynamic or exciting candidate, but hopefully will seek reasonable solutions. His primary opponent, Ganim, who was convicted of fraud and served his sentence, is a joke.
Over the recent past, Connecticut has become too expensive for many young people just starting out and many middle class people. We have lost population and a number of major corporations have relocated to other states. This used to be an ideal state to live and work and raise a family. I have no solutions but I will vote in the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday for state and local candidates who I hope will seek better solutions to the hole the present administration has dug.
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@Barbara
It’s inaccurate to dump Connecticut's financial problems solely at Dannel Malloy’s feet. Your state has massive unfunded pension obligations for public employees and teachers and flat tax revenues. Former Republican governor and current inmate John Rowland certainly didn’t help matters, as he increased benefits in pursuit of re-election. Nor did his successor, Jodi Rell. It’s a mess alright, but the “present administration” wasn’t the one that started digging the hole. As the state comptroller put it, “A lot of what is going on now could have been predicted 30 years ago. Revenue was flowing into state coffers but politicians never did the hard work to make sure the retirement system was funded. They did the opposite and had them underfunded.”
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@NA
Nevertheless, as Harry Truman said of the office of President, “The buck stops here.” So Malloy is not off the hook. He inherited the problem but did not come up with a workable plan to solve it. And an important reason for people leaving the state is its high income tax, sales tax, and property taxes. In my town the annual car tax paid to the town just went up quite a bit because the state has cut grants to the towns, so local residents have to make up that shortfall.
“Sanders says he doesn’t want to be an actual Democrat because both political parties are in the clutches of rich people and their special interests. Not a point you’d want to argue….”
If the Democrats followed Bernie’s example – doing what’s in the best interest of the American people, the country and planet – we would be in a much better place.
Bernie in 2020! (Integrity and good policy trumps age.)
48
@RLS
The most important part of that sentence for me was the part you didn't quote: "but the best possible way to reform the Democrats is probably not to yell at them from outside, while still maintaining a stranglehold on a safe Democratic seat."
This is what I thought of Sanders from the first time I got to know him - he's as self-serving as anyone, and self-righteous to boot. Plus he's not a true progressive - his ideas are straight out of the mid-20th century.
123
What is Bernie Sanders now? An independent, a democrat or nothing in particular?
38
Barbara wrote “Plus he's not a true progressive….”
Bernie’s not a progressive? That’s laughable. I have followed Bernie since 2009. All I can say is if you bothered to listen to Bernie’s message instead of throwing around insults you would see that corporate Democrats will not solve the serious problems this country faces because, as we know, they’re beholden to their big money donors.
Bernie is the real Democrat – an FDR Democrat.
22