It will be interesting to see how the right wing Journal Editor, Kent Walz, handles the election and service of the new City Councillor Pat Davis. Walz, in his constant effort to put editorials into the Journal's news stories by bullying otherwise competent reporters, did everything he could to stop the election of Davis, a progressive candidate from a progressive part of town. Walz's actions almost constituted a pogrom against the young former policeman turned activist. Well, Walz looks weak on this one, because Davis creamed two other candidates.
Will Walz now treat Davis fairly in news coverage of city hall? He will look a fool if he doesn't, well, more foolish than he looks to many of us already. Mark my words on this issue and see if this fairness can emerge from the smoked filled editorial offices.
And, as for Pat Davis, he needs to make a real effort at being effective rather than just showing up as the most left of center council member. He is a bright young guy who could have a future if he plays his cards smartly.
Will Walz now treat Davis fairly in news coverage of city hall? He will look a fool if he doesn't, well, more foolish than he looks to many of us already. Mark my words on this issue and see if this fairness can emerge from the smoked filled editorial offices.
And, as for Pat Davis, he needs to make a real effort at being effective rather than just showing up as the most left of center council member. He is a bright young guy who could have a future if he plays his cards smartly.
4 comments:
Pat Davis would be a natural advocate for real police reform and APD civilian oversight because of his law enforcement background. He could call for a complete overhaul of APD, removal of the Chief, Deputies and other top management and a reorganization of the Department to get more cops in the street. I have stong hope that Pat Davis will show far more backbone and substance standing up to Berry and Perry than all the other Democrats combined on the Council. He is articulate enough to take on the Bully in Chief Rob Perry. Time will tell.
I know Pat Davis, and I too, have great hopes he will be an asset to the City Council and hold APD and others accountable. I love it when Kent Walz goes after someone and loses- which almost always happens. He is a bully and puts a target on anyone's back who has the audacity to be independent and not follow his commands. He is impotent, as is the Journal. I love it! Can you imagine, buying ink by the barrel and not being able to effect an outcome? I don't think even Viagra would help. Poor, miserable psychopath!
Interesting comments here. The Journal. It could have already become irrelevant. Imagine that. There's the decline of that form of media in general, added to the way it presents itself as a Republican-corporate pamphlet. I actually subscribed to the online paper a few weeks ago because I feel it's important to have a daily newspaper, but nothing on it really works and to me it appears they aren't putting the money into the digital form. I'm basically just donating $12 a month to them. That's a trip to El Modelo.
On Pat Davis, when I first read this post I wondered what Jim was getting at when he advised Davis to "make a real effort at being effective rather than just showing up as the most left of center council member" and that he "could have a future if he plays his cards smartly."
Was he advising him to act like some of our other Democrats -- don't offend anyone powerful or wealthy, don't be identified as being for the people too strongly, just keep a seat warm and collect a salary and it will pay off for you in the long run? That's not really what he's saying though, I don't think.
The right has won the "war of ideas" because it became a contest of sound bytes designed by ad agencies and PR firms that know how to appeal to people in certain ways. Most Americans when questioned agree with individual "left of center" policies, but politicians who espouse them are easily marginalized with a sound byte or two. Davis' "real effort at being effective" will have to include overcoming such obstacles and changing the conversation so that things like equal pay, more intelligent development and police reform can get a fair hearing.
Playing his cards smartly means advancing his agenda so that it has a chance, of which building community support for it would be a critical element, I would venture. That's something politicians don't seem to do enough. I often criticize ours for not making use of the podium they have to that end. They simply identify what interests and interest groups are out there and go around pandering to those. Our society in its current condition needs more than that. Our ideas about what's possible need to be reawakened, shaped and guided.
Being effective means getting your agenda adopted.
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