The Independent Illusion

I’m so heartbroken that Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party. It must really be that the Party left him! Of course this lifelong liberal was only a Republican so he could run for mayor of NYC. Now the Mayor thinks he has what it takes to be President of the United States. Hubris is certainly a disease that the rich and powerful more easily succumb to, and Bloomberg has it in spades.

The illusion I refer to is two-fold. One is the illusion that to be devoid of ideology is some kind of virtue, as he implied in a recent statement: "Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology." Of course this assumes that “partisan” is bad and that political ideology is incompatible with “good ideas.” This also assumes that “real results,” whatever that means, cannot come from partisan battles.

There is so much hogwash in this statement that it leaves one flabbergasted that such a smart person could be so stupid. Yet it is not so much stupidity, but disingenuousness. Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat before his conversion of convenience in 2001, is also a lifelong liberal. When he denigrates partisanship and political ideology he is speaking about conservatives and Republicans. Independents or “moderates” almost always tilt toward the left side of the political spectrum.

The other illusion I speak of is that an independent can win the presidency. Ain’t gonna happen. It has never happened and most likely never will. What independents do when running for president is take votes from one or the other party’s candidates. Two recent examples are Perot in ’92, who took votes from the first President Bush which led to the Clinton presidency, and Ralph Nader in 2000 who took votes from Al Gore and likely gave the election to the current President Bush. Bloomburg would almost certainly take votes from the Democrat nominee.

He states that were he to run he would first have to decide that he could win; if he decides to run you will know that Michael Bloomberg is delusional.