A Sad Day For democracy In New York City

Just moments ago the political theater played itself out in City Hall and the Council voted 29 - 22 to pass an extension of the city's term limit from two to three terms. The people enacted the law through referendum and the majority of the Council selfishly overturned that democratic will. The Mayor assured Council members that the public would forget about this day by next year's election, but the view of the people from his throne is clouded by all of that money he has.

As the live-blogging by the New York Times and Its Our Decision showed, the people in the balcony were passionately against what happened here today. Cheers, boos and hisses were common depending on who spoke for the Mayor and who rallied for the opposition. The Daily Politics and the NY Politicker also covered the events. As the public learns more of how the Mayor ramrodded the bill through the Council with the aid of Speaker Christine Quinn, the less popular the subversion of the process becomes. Those that passed this had plenty of backroom deals made so that they could maximize their own self-interests to go against the people that elected them.

Of course the fight isn't over yet. Both State Assemblymembers and State Senators want to address this mattter as does members of New York's Congressional and Senatorial delegation with regards to the Justice Department. The Mayor's move was politically calculated to ignore the public and have fifty-one politicians go over the hundreds of thousands that voted for term limits. If they think that this is legitimate, they have another thing coming. The Bush Administration's DoJ might get Bloomberg's back, but an Obama Administration certainly won't. Democracy is an essential, nay, the essential ingredient of our society and it must be upheld, despite the terrible shame that the Council brought upon us today.

Heads will roll my friends, heads will roll.