Chris Hayes

I suppose it was a week or two ago, I saw MSNBC host Chris Hayes—not on his own show but on another MSNBC program—and he was talking about the growing contempt of a number of Republicans for the American public following President Obama ‘s decisive victory over Mitt Romney. Republican  leaders like Herman Cain were classifying the American people who voted for president Obama as being ignorant and stupid. Hayes said that that’s not the way one is supposed to behave when one is the minority party in a democracy. The minority party is supposed to simply “soldier on”: fight peacefully, nonviolently, civilly and democratically. You’re not supposed to insult , never mind oppress the public.

It was a brilliant statement by Hayes, but it made me uncomfortable because I’d been bashing the American public for years for supporting Ronald Reagan and both George Bush’s  and for listening to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. Leftist intellectuals can also be accused of hurting the public when it fails to vote for the left’s desired candidate, party or ideology. It woke me up to the reality that no matter how angry I am at the state of the union, the fact is, I’ve been a bad boy politically.

Whether I’ll now be like King or Gandhi or the Dali Lama and be a nice and serene leader, I’m not sure. Love should be the tool for creating change, not anger and hate. But is hard not be partisan in this political climate, especially when  unions and grassroots  organizations that defend the weak are dismissed by Republicans and even Independents as “special interests”, as opposed to being “of the people, by the people, for the people”.

So I have to work this out—my desire to be civil and democratic and my anger at people who have contempt for special interests, especially left wing special interests. I pray that I emerge a better person.

Craig R. Bayer 2/28/13

Ed Koch

I’ll miss New York Mayor Ed Koch the way I miss some of my more endearing if sometimes backward Jewish relatives(my feisty, bigoted  and sometimes obnoxious grandmother, whenever she’d see Ed Koch on television would exclaim, with warmth and sarcasm, “there’s Beauty!”). 

Mayor Koch certainly could be a beauty, not for his looks, in my opinion but for his charm. I loved to see him on national television, both defending and promoting New York City. He helped rescue New York City from not just bankruptcy but from demoralization and embarrassment. He made one proud again to be a New Yorker, even if, in the end, he did not resolve all the city’s problems.

Being a great Martin Luther King fan, I was a bit uncomfortable with Koch’s rocky relationship with African Americans., especially his harsh words for Jesse Jackson, whose presidential ambitions I supported in 1984. 

I also didn’t like, although I would one day grudgingly admire, his nervy support of Republican politicians like Ronald Reagan, Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush. Being  a socialist, I could not stand his endorsements of these people, regardless of their ardent support for Israel. Sometimes it seemed like he was putting his knee-jerk support for Israel ahead of Democratic Party principles, but as a Jew, I had to like his determined commitment to protecting Jewish interests.

I was no fan of the mayor’s support for the seemingly politically expedient support for death penalty either.

But I liked the mayor’s energy, spunk and upbeat presence and would later come to appreciate his willingness to engage in political payback in order to stop people from using him or others as punching bags.

I also find something both humorous and  admirable in his winning elections despite the fact that his personal life was a complete mystery. 

I worked on the mayor’s final campaign—the year he was defeated by David Dinkins in the Democratic Primary. It was a calculated, Kochian move on my part: I wanted to be around Koch and hi successful team of operators to see how they managed to win elections, so I sort of ignored sympathies for the Dinkins campaign, which I ultimately supported in the general election.

As a reward for my campaign work, the Koch campaign invited me to Gracie Mansion, where I heard Koch speak and had the opportunity to shake his hand and tell him that he had done a fine job as mayor.

Later on I would read Koch’s fascinating  three political books and a Village Voice writer’s harsh account of his mayoralty, yet still, my curiosity about Koch was never satisfied. I truly enjoyed watching his post mayoral career as a television commentator and judge on The People’s Court. He had a certain brilliance about him, even though he could be so earthy, crude and crass in his views and style.

The bottom line is that I’ll miss Ed Koch and I have always been tempted to emulate his unique combination of feistiness and clownishness in my own political dealings. God bless Mayor Koch and may he rest in peace.

Craig R. Bayer 2/1/13