Some people just can’t help themselves. Richard Hanna is one of them. He is meeting my expectations just as I thought he would. That’s right -- Richard Hanna has run a campaign of misdirection and generalities, just as I expected he would! He has come out in favor of saying “No” to everything that the Republican leadership wishes -- like the extension of unemployment benefits to 2.5 million people while at the same time supported extending tax cuts for the richest 2% (without any indication of how to pay for that extension). That certainly met my expectations. Then, of course, I have searched and searched for anything comparable to an actual Hanna plan for reducing spending and supporting jobs for the middle class. There is none. I found only vague references to these problems but no specific measures for solving them. Again, he more than met my expectations.
I more than sympathize with the gentleman who wrote in the Observer-Dispatch-D recently that the voters of this area need to put their faith in the Republican party and its candidates. I got the distinct impression that this poor man is living in a world that has passed him by -- a world in which moderate and progressive Republicans existed, like Sherwood Boehlert and Jacob Javits. That brand of Republican is gone, gone, gone, as is their moderate approach to solving the nation’s problems. The neo-conservatives who came to power with the Reagan administration have effectively destroyed that brand of Republicanism. So, if you have the same expectations for Richard Hanna that you might have had for a Sherwood Boehlert -- forget it -- it’s not going to happen. Richard Hanna, as a freshman Congressman, would be beholden to the Republican leadership of the Congress -- radical Right-wingers like John Boehner and Eric Cantor -- for committee assignments, getting bills considered, consideration for his district. In other words, he would have to go along to get along; unfortunately that means cow-towing to the radical Right. Hanna knows it, and Voters need to know it too!
If your expectations extend to: improvement of the economy and more job opportunities (not favored treatment for the very banks, wall street firms, insurance companies and businesses that are holding back on creating jobs while their profits increase), new and creative opportunities for Central New York like high-speed rail, reasoned alternative energy and environmental improvements (not the vague improvements touted by Republicans), then you need to vote to re-elect the progressive moderate in this race: Congressman Michael Arcuri, who has already proven that he can deliver all this and more for the people of Central New York, and has even been named “Legislator of the Year” for the bills he has written or co-sponsored.
