New York’s “conservative” paper wants no opposition to same-sex “marriage”

The New York Post’s editorial page editors (as well as its news reporters), denounce Carl Paladino today. Their main point is not to say that he’s a bigot, but to say that he is distracting attention from the main issues of government spending, taxes, and job loss:

This has profound implications for the welfare-state leviathan New York has created over the decades—along with the crushing, and ultimately unsustainable, tax grab needed to feed it.

That’s what Paladino should be talking about each day from the moment he wakes up—that and the ethical swamp Albany has become.

Instead, New Yorkers get inflammatory rhetoric about gay marriage.

Evidently the Post’s editors are unaware that Democratic governor Paterson and the Democrats in the state legislature (with “Republican” Mayor Bloomberg’s passionate support) have been striving to pass a homosexual “marriage” law for New York State, and that the Democrats will doubtless continue to try to pass it if Cuomo is elected. Far from being a distraction from “real” political issues, Paladino’s opposition to same-sex “marriage” aims at the center of real politics today. We can only assume that the Post’s “conservative” editorial page now supports homosexual marriage, by their denunciation of Paladino for opposing it, and by their calling such opposition “inflammatory.”

In New York State, liberalism is not only in the saddle; no opposition to liberalism is permitted.

Paladino’s distraction
October 11, 2010

Oops, there he went again.

Carl Paladino’s famously flapping jaw has been in motion again—earning him well-merited down-ticket disapprobation from GOP running mates Dan Donovan (attorney general) and Harry Wilson (comptroller).

This time it was about same-sex marriage, which Paladino is against.

And while this hardly makes the Buffalo businessman unique, Paladino has a penchant for expressing his views in ways that even those who might sympathize with him find flat-out offensive.

For example, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, an icon of Albany dysfunction, is not “a criminal,” not “Adolf Hitler” and not “the anti-Christ”—Carl Paladino’s views notwithstanding.

Worse still, this latest controversy—which, like all the others in the campaign, was entirely of Paladino’s making—deflects attention from what should be the transcendent issues.

Like the new analysis from the Empire Center for New York State Policy, which shows that, from 1993 to 2007, this state lost a staggering 408,000 jobs—more than 60,000 of which traveled across the Hudson River to New Jersey.

Since only 259,000 came into New York during the same period, the state suffered a net loss of 149,000 jobs. And that’s before the 2008 meltdown, which hit Wall Street particularly hard.

This has profound implications for the welfare-state leviathan New York has created over the decades—along with the crushing, and ultimately unsustainable, tax grab needed to feed it.

That’s what Paladino should be talking about each day from the moment he wakes up—that and the ethical swamp Albany has become.

Instead, New Yorkers get inflammatory rhetoric about gay marriage.

The negative impact of such distractions on the GOP reform ticket—all the way down to the legislative level—is potentially profound.

And the candidates know it.

“I do not condone intolerance of any kind and categorically reject these hurtful statements. Furthermore, I strongly urge every candidate for statewide office to focus solely, as I have, on the problems of our state, particularly our massive and growing fiscal crisis,” said comptroller candidate Wilson.

“Any statements of this nature are offensive. We should be fostering a dialogue on tolerance. These statements do not achieve that, and I do not agree with them,” added AG hopeful Donovan

For his part, Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo wryly—or maybe just cynically—noted the criticism thusly: “While we appreciate the advice and counsel of experienced leaders outside our campaign, we prefer to receive it via telephone.”

Here’s a better idea.

The next time Paladino opens his mouth, Caputo needs to wrestle him to the ground and shove a sock in it.

The less the candidate says, the better for those seeking genuine reform in the Empire State.

The editorial page editor of the Post is Bob McManus. The deputy editorial page editor is Adam Brodsky.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 12, 2010 10:05 AM | Send