Stu Bykofsky: To save Philadelphia, maybe it's time to end the Democratic monopoly
PHILADELPHIA IS a great city with great problems that may have a common denominator. Let's play "CSI: Philadelphia" and see where the evidence leads us.
PHILADELPHIA IS a great city with great problems that may have a common denominator. Let's play "CSI: Philadelphia" and see where the evidence leads us.
* The Board of Revision of Taxes - an error-prone, corrupt patronage swamp - was spotlighted last week in a great series by the Inquirer. It's not the first time that the BRT has been likened to dog poop on the sidewalk, but it doesn't seem to matter. Like Mick Jagger, it just keeps rocking.
* Philadelphia's DROP program lets piggish politicians feed at a trough that was not designed for them. City Council members make twice the average Philadelphia family's income, they get gold-plated benefits and a fat pension, but some insist on dropping into DROP.
* Children die while under the supervision of the Department of Human Services.
* Almost half of our youth quit high school.
* D.A. candidate Seth Williams cites Department of Justice data showing that 54 percent of accused Philadelphia felons are dismissed before trial. That means that less than half face a judge, and, after you account for acquittals, plea-bargain reduction of the charges and not-guilty verdicts, you've got a better chance of hitting the daily number than of being convicted.
* Etc., etc.
Imagine what columnists and editorial writers would be saying if this were a Republican-run city. Wouldn't they be screaming that corruption is in the DNA of the GOP?
There is no doubt of it - and it would be justified.
For the near-century that Republicans ruled the city - that's when Lincoln Steffens described us as "corrupt and contented" - opinion-molders blamed corruption, cronyism and mismanagement on the Republican Party. So why don't they now blame Democrats? Is it because it might remind some of them of the line from the old Pogo cartoon strip: "We have met the enemy and he is us"?
Aside from a couple of at-large Council seats guaranteed to the minority party (currently held by Frank Rizzo Jr. and Jack Kelly), no Republican has been elected citywide since Ron Castille became D.A. in 1986.
One explanation, or alibi, is that Republicans have not tried hard to be competitive. (Political insiders speak knowingly of unofficial pacts between party bosses to guarantee jobs for each other's troops.)
Even when Republicans produce a strong candidate - Sam Katz was the GOP mayoral candidate twice - they lose because too many Philadelphians are incapable of independent political action.
They are what's called Yellow Dog Democrats - someone who'd vote for a yellow dog if the pooch was a Democrat. When you are a Yellow Dog, you end up with fleas like DROP and the BRT.
Nothing here negates the good things that the Democratic Party has done over time, but any political party handed unlimited power will abuse it. They can't help it. If you don't stop your dog from humping a visitor's leg, he's sure to do it again. He can't help it.
Ask yourself if the Democratic Party is more loyal to you or to their patronage pals? They'd rather raise your taxes than fire their second cousin from the make-work job he holds.
I write this as a Democrat, but not as a Yellow Dog who shuts his eyes, licks his privates and votes "D" no matter how powerful the stench - and we've had some world-class stinkers. It's not without cause that some refer to the Allenwood prison as Philadelphia's 70th Ward.
I'm not anti-Democrat, I'm anti-monopoly. Simplistic? Perhaps, but blind loyalty to any party hurts democracy and breeds complacency.
In the current Time magazine, Harvey Peeler, Senate Majority Leader in the blood-red Republican state of South Carolina, admits that "Republicans control everything around here. It would be nice if we could accomplish something."
When you are a monopoly, you don't have to.
Can entrenched Democrats deny that their party - which has owned the city for 60 years - has either created our problems or allowed them to fester? They are arrogant and feel entitled. They suffer no penalty for greed or failure.
Do I demand the impossible to want efficiency and a system guided by intelligence and compassion, but without corruption and waste? If I am not to hold Democrats responsible, who can I blame - the Whigs?
The price we pay for blind party loyalty is too high. *
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns: