President Clinton raised the stakes in that race last month by pardoning a number of Puerto Rican nationalists who had been involved in terrorist activities in the 1970s and 1980s. Many see the president's actions as political pandering to New York's large Hispanic voting population. I agree with this assessment. Likewise, the mayor is pandering to conservative, upstate New York voters with the museum funding. When the issue over the art exhibit became public, he was in California appealing to conservatives for contributions for his Senate race.
Public policy is inherently substantive and symbolic.
Purely symbolic policy is, however, costly and leads to a further erosion of confidence in government. Voting provides the public with a check on such behavior at election time. New York voters would do well to remember the actions of the Clintons and Giuliani when voting in next year's Senate race. I think not. Click here and join the discussion in the Reginald Shareef folder.