[lbo-talk] Rudy's braintrust

[Michael Smith]

On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 17:15 +0000, Carl Remick wrote:
> > From: sokol at jhu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:06:14 -0400> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Rudy's braintrust> > Doug:> > > It is. I don't think anyone who didn't live through the Rudy years in > NYC understands how awful he is. > > [WS:] I understand that he was arrogant and alienated a lot of people, which> in itself is not a good thing, but otherwise what was so horrible about him ...
>  
> Rudy *institutionalized* arrogance for one thing.  
> He turned the NYPD (which wasn't that great to begin 
> with) into a pack of uniformed thugs.

They were always that, I'd say. Difference is, now there are a lot 
more of 'em. But that started under Koch and hardly slowed under 
Dinkins, and has continued, has it not, under Bloomberg? 

I guess my point is that Rudy *seems* worse than a muffled, 
mean-spirited corporate Napoleon like Bloomberg just b/c Rudy is, 
so to speak, 'out'; he's obviously a diseased sadistic fuck with a 
nightstick fetish. But when it comes to what happens in the streets, 
and in the schools, he represents as a practical matter the elite 
consensus.