Staying in your lane – business and politics

259
Advertisement

Good afternoon,

The term “stay in your lane” is in danger of becoming a cliché.

But it was the  question I asked myself last week  when the story surfaced on social media  remarks from Sussex and New Castle County Republican officials that used  gay  and anti-Semitic slurs.

New Castle County Republican Chair Chris Rowe resigned with Sussex County Vice Chair  Nelly Jordan is  not commenting on her status.

A frustrated Rowe, a gun rights advocate, used a homophobic  slur to YouTube in his  unsuccessful effort  to post a  video of a shooting at a Texas Church. He wanted to honor  the church member who took down the assailant with his gun. YouTube has a ban on such videos.

Advertisement

Separately Jordan fretted  over the Trump impeachment and Democrats who are Jewish.

She  used code words  and ancient claims of disloyalty to the homeland that form the bedrock philosophy of anti-Semites.

I wasn’t  sure whether this stuff amounted to wandering outside  “the lane” of a business newsletter.

In the end, it is clear that politics and business in Delaware are intertwined and the internal  woes of the Delaware GOP are  bad news for the business community.

There was a time when Delaware had moderate Republicans in the mold  of the late U.S. Sen. William Roth and former Congressman and Governor Mike Castle.  The more diverse party even had  labor union representation.

Then came Castle’s primary defeat at the hands of Christine O’Donnell in the race or a Senate seat. Democrat Chris Coons waltzed to victory.

The influence of moderate Republicans  waned  and after a modest surge in 2016,  hopes for a Senate Republican majority faded in 2018.  Democrats picked up seats north of the C&D  Canal and the GOP grew its base south of the canal  as conservative Democrats faded away.

The GOP’s  rising  star,  State Treasurer Ken Simpler was defeated by Colleen Davis, a candidate known for difficulties  with traffic tickets.

The Democratic Party moved to the left, with an emphasis on social justice legislation, with less attention paid to fiscal responsibility and enhancing  the state’s  business environment. A couple of Republicans wandered  further  “outside their lane”  and on a couple of occasions  flirted with fringe obsessions with guns  and Islamophobia.

Democratic Gov. John Carney now deals  with legislators on the left  who have no interest in his plan for “budget smoothing” – setting  aside some revenues during good times as a way to avoid tax hikes during economic downturns. Some money has been set aside but not enough.

Instead, bills calling for additional  income tax brackets for the wealthy and a $15 minimum wage were promoted. A moderate streak that is still alive in Democratic leadership meant the bills went nowhere.

The lack of action on the minimum wage last year  led to an Email tirade from State Rep. John Kowalko, D_Newark. Kowalko attacked legislators from both parties for not passing minimum wage bills. He later  apologized for the  choice of words.

Republicans should be entering 2020 with a ray of hope. Forty years of Democratic control of much of  state government have left many uneasy. Democrats are not squeaky clean on the scandal front and  Delaware still ranks high on the government corruption scale.

But this most  recent controversy shows that some in the GOP have strayed from a small government, pro-business message into the frightening  obsessions of the political fringe.

Republican legislators were correct in demanding the resignations of both Rowe and Jordan. It is time to move on and leave this ugliness behind. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.

Advertisement
Advertisement