Striving for Mediocrity, or Worse

Read a bit and you'll come across all kinds of interesting tidbits that can reveal.

Today, we'll cast our eyes away from the Common Council for the City of New Albany, Indiana, to a statewide perspective. I'm sure adroit readers will be able to draw parellels to our own city's self-inflicted plight.

We're just ten weeks away from the first of the presidential primaries. Candidates for county office are maneuvering and Sodrel for Congress signs are sprouting in anticipation of "Round 4" in 2008.

A race for governor and a presumably contested Democratic Party primary may bring out a few voters in May, but Indiana will have absolutely nothing to do with who becomes President of the United States. Evan Bayh and Pat Bauer, arguably the leading Democrats in the Hoosier State, have cast their lots with Hillary Clinton, but the voters of Indiana don't mean spit when it comes to who the parties choose as their nominees.

But did you know that in 1916, Indiana was, in fact, the first in the nation primary? Can you imagine how Indiana, with its concentrations of Catholics, reasonably sizable minority populations, and broad mix of urban and rural voters would be treated by the White House hopefuls? We'd be hosting Mitt and Rudy, Oback and Hillary in our very homes and national attention would be focused like a laser back home in Indiana.

But no. Ignoring any possible significance of the date, Indiana moved its primaries to May, and New Hampshire has been in the spotlight for most of the last century. Would Evan Bayh have sat this one out if Indiana were still in the first slot?

As for the fast-approaching city elections, the die is cast. I need to get me some of those rose-colored glasses. We're in for more of the same, if you ask me, and the next four years are going to be a test of our resolve. Will we continue to ignore the actions of city government in the belief that it doesn't have anything to do with our lives? Will we continue to send in our taxes twice a year to subsidize a government we disagree with?

Oh, Willie, where are you when we need you? We need someone to sound the cry "Nail 'em up!"