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This was an effective teaser for an article:
Last week's coup in the Senate may signal the final breakdown of New York's long-declining political order
Nicholas Confessore goes on to describe the rot that had set into the old political order, the one we here at TAP have complained about for a long while:
New York's long-declining political order, where governors and senators were once feared and powerful county leaders provided a check on ethnic feuds or individual ambition. Even veterans of New York's rough-and-tumble political scene seemed shocked at the revolt....
That weakness has been reflected from Buffalo to Brooklyn, as old political coalitions fray and the once-powerful party organizations decay. Three of the state's senior posts - governor, senator and comptroller - are filled by unelected figures who are either politically unpopular or unknown to many voters.
The Democratic Party is dominant here, but it lacks a strong central figure with the stature, authority or will to impose discipline. The Republican Party is cohesive, but shrinking.
The rest of the article is a search for a strong leader to rescue the Democrats and the state from chaos, and it doesn't really find one. It also takes a look in the Times' own neighborhood, at city council, and finds similar weakness.
I know that New York State has relied on strong "government by patroon" from the Rensselaers and the Schuylers through Rockefeller and Bruno, but suddenly we find ourselves bereft.
Our last state strongmen collapsed in scandals at the Mayflower Hotel and consulting gigs. The remaining possible leaders all have good reason to want to stay out of this mess.
The problem, though, is that there's nothing ready to replace the rotted system. It's not election season. Our state party committees and even many of our local party committees (on both sides of the aisle) spent most of their time reinforcing the status quo rather than changing it. The echoes of gerrymandering and machines have left voters wondering whether they have any role in the process at all.
We've rotted our way out of the old system, most likely. What comes next?
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