COURIER L 14 IFE, FEB. 26-MAR. 4, 2021
OPINION
There’s a saying, “Take
care of the pennies, and
the dollars will take care
of themselves.” When applied
broadly, or as an idiom, it
amounts to a belief that if you
pay attention to small details
(pennies), the bigger picture
issues (dollars) will follow as
a matter of course. There are
some aspects of life in which
this holds true. However, one
area in which it most defi -
nitely does not is public policy
and politics.
If elected offi cials take
care of policy (implementing/
advocating for popular
policy), the politics (winning
elections) will NOT take care
of themselves. There are various
reasons for this, but the
bottom line is people don’t
necessarily know who their
benefactor is.
This applies to matters
national and local. Take, for
instance, former President
Barack Obama’s 2010 $116 billion
tax cut. This tax cut was
given by way of a payroll tax
cut and made nearly every
working American’s takehome
pay go up. With that,
working people who needed
an immediate infusion of pay
began the consumer spending
leading to a multiplier effect,
thus stimulating the economy
and helped bring the country
back from the massive recession.
That’s good policy.
But did people connect
all the dots? No. Only 15 percent
percent of Americans
knew they had received a tax
cut, while almost 30 percent
percent thought President
Obama had actually raised
their taxes. These perceptions
would probably have
been different if people had
received rebate checks as
they had under George W.
Bush. Just think about how
much attention has been
given to stimulus checks, and
how the politics worked out?
The Democrats were defeated
by historic margins up and
down the ballot.
On a more local level, in
New York State, we’ve got a
model of the inverse. Gov. Andrew
Cuomo oversaw the second
most COVID-19 deaths (including
nursing homes) of any
state, all the while dismissing
public health experts, slowwalking
shutdowns, shuttering
subways, and other policy
matters that could make for
their own column. This was,
in a very clear way, the result
of bad policy.
However, Cuomo went on
television every afternoon
and told people he was doing
a great job. Some nights he
went on his brother’s show
and discussed what a great
job he was doing and after
that even managed to write,
or at least dictate to a ghostwriter,
a book about the great
job he did. Throughout this
time, his bad policy did not
“take care” of or determine
politics. Cuomo’s approval
ratings defi ed gravity.
So what’s my point? The
point is that people may not
like “politics,” but they like
to think they have a government
that works for them,
even more so when it does
work for them.
So as the Biden Administration,
with Democratic
majorities in Congress,
looks to implement policies
that will get us through the
pandemic, reduce unemployment,
and more, they have to
make sure voters know who
is responsible. If not, 2022
could see a replay of the 2010
“shellacking.”
In Albany, the Democrats,
who won a supermajority
in both houses, should
use it to make sure that we
don’t see cuts to education,
public transportation, and
many other progressive and
popular policy matters. But
they’ve also got to let people
know so that we don’t quickly
revert to New York State’s
norm, which has been Republicans
in control of the State
Senate.
I wish this weren’t the
case and that good policy always
spoke for itself and the
true state of affairs was apparent.
However, there is a
chance that policy can, or will
one day, take care of the politics,
because the day before
I wrote this, a poll indicated
that the governor’s approval
rating dropped below 50 percent.
Only 36 percent want to
see him re-elected.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on
Twitter @RacioppoMike.
Taking care
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
Brooklyn deserves a fresher fl ag
Today on my one-year anniversary
at Brooklyn
Paper I’d like to address
a less weighty topic than
some of my others: Brooklyn’s
fl ag.
Brooklyn’s fl ag design
is quite old, dating back to
about 1860 — 38 years before
modern New York City was
born in the amalgamation of
different large neighboring
cities into the fi ve boroughs.
Changing fl ags mostly
happens when the entire
type of government changes.
In the last 30 years, South Africa
changed fl ags when it
became a multi-racial democracy
and Russia’s fl ag is a
very different fl ag than what
the Soviet Union had. Probably
the biggest fl ag change
occurred after the French
Revolution. The iconic blue,
white, and red tricolor has always
symbolized the French
Republic, replacing monarchist
fl ags that feature the
House of Bourbon’s gold
Fleur de Lis.
But sometimes places
change their fl ags for simple
branding reasons. For instance,
New Zealand nearly
changed its fl ag recently,
because its current fl ag too
closely resembles Australia’s.
Without a new fl ag, it can be
very hard for many outsiders
to tell Australia and Australia’s
Canada apart.
Brooklyn has had a number
of rebrandings in the last
few decades, because we are
such a different place than we
were 50 years ago. Changing
our fl ag is a part of changing
our historical second-rate status.
It’s just a boring and diffi
cult-to-reproduce fl ag. It’s
the seal of the borough on a
white background (the background
of the fl ag is called
“the fi eld.”) I will quote Wikipedia’s
description:
“Within the seal is an image
of the Goddess of Justice
set on a background of light
blue, and bearing fasces, a
traditional emblem of unity.
The fasces is composed of
six rods, representing the six
towns of the original Dutch
settlement. Encircling that
image is a ring of dark blue
and the Old Dutch phrase
‘Een Draght Maekt Maght’
(modern Dutch: ‘Eendracht
maakt macht’) which translates
into English as ‘Unity
makes strength.’ Also in the
darker ring are the words
‘Borough of Brooklyn.’ The
outside and inside rim of the
seal are gold-colored.”
Who is the Goddess of
Justice? The fl ag honors the
borough’s Dutch heritage
not by using the handsome
blue, white, and orange of the
Dutch tricolor that forms the
basis of the city’s fl ag but instead
archaic Dutch words
about unity. Words should be
used very sparingly on fl ags.
Also, nowadays, the Roman
rods called “fasces” conjure
up not legitimate government
and unity, but, er, fascism.
What should our new fl ag
look like? I am not a graphic
designer, and have poor visual
sense. I have two suggestions,
though. First, it should
include substantially more
black than we normally see
on fl ags that aren’t the Jolly
Roger. Black to me symbolizes
creative focus, winning, and,
with green, is the symbolic
color of the African diaspora.
Second, the fl ag should include
only two words, in English:
“Spread love.”
It’s the Brooklyn way.
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo