Al Thanks for your comments. However I was not trying to say that any party should either represent cities in general or Philadelphia in particular. My point was that if either party feels as if they can operate without any fear of anyone else challenging or even investigating their actions then they tend to become completely self-motivated and fail to keep the best interests of their constituencies in mind. I guess there's some analogy to trying to raise one's kids without ever punishing them or even questioning their actions. "Lord of the Flies" is not non-fiction, but it described the kind of self-centered behavior humans can fall into if no one is watching over them. My point is that I believe that one of Philadelpia's deepest seeded problems is that we have had a one party rule and that no one seems motivated to address our deepest problems. I'm not looking for a political argument here, but have you heard any of the five Democratic candidates innovatively discuss the issue of the union contracts that are coming up for renegotiation? I did not want to get wrapped into a political argument that traded facts about each political party, but you did ask a "soft-ball" when you asked whether I could name ANY major US city that had a Republican Mayor? Doesn't NYC have Blumberg and had Guiliani before him? I consider both to have been effective non-status quo guys...... just what we could use in Philly.
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