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“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold – Lest that your heart's blood should run cold,” an English Fairytale reminds the bold hero of the tale. That is excellent advice for politicians who wish to succeed in attaining and holding office.

In primary elections, we find, bold politicians may be as bold as they wish. General elections, however, are horses of a different color.

In a general election, the election deciders are far less narrow-minded than are the more energetic electors in primaries because the election field is wider. The danger always is that bold primary messaging may leech into general elections and undermine the gent who has proposed the abolition of police departments and prisons. The wiser, more Machiavellian option is to draw a veil of ambiguity around the abolition of police departments in primary elections and then – after you have been elected to office -- abolish the police department.

Kevin Rennie -- once a moderate Republican legislator in Connecticut’s General Assembly, now a moderate commentator writing for the Hartford Courant -- mentioned the abolition of police departments in connection with Josh Elliott’s primary gubernatorial campaign.

In his column -- “Only one candidate for Connecticut governor wants to abolish the police: It’s state Rep. Josh Elliott” -- Rennie focuses on a 10 paragraph notice Elliott wrote on Facebook in 2020.

“The Hamden Democrat challenging Gov. Ned Lamont in the August 11 primary,” Rennie wrote, “was all-in for abolishing the police … In Elliott’s Connecticut, the governor would send a busload of stern but compassionate counselors to protect workers hiding in their office where a gunman lurks. A holder of a Master of Social Work would be assigned to find a driver who struck a pedestrian and fled the scene. Welcome to the Nutmeg State Hunger Games, where the law abiding is the defenseless prey of the violent lawless, a place where the mob rioting to overturn a free and fair election are asked politely, ‘And how do you feel about that?’”

Even American Democrat Socialist Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani was not quite so bold: “Mamdani assured New Yorkers he had evolved. He no longer believed what he trumpeted on X, ‘We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.’ As mayor, Mamdani has not defunded the police, but he did eliminate the plan to fill 5,000 vacancies on the force in his first budget.”

Rennie noted, “In his declaration to abolish the police, Elliott shared his philosophy of governing, He explained, ‘It is my consistent belief that my role as a white legislator, representing a majority white district, that my priority cannot simply be getting re-elected or saving myself from difficult conversations–and then sometimes voting right. It is my priority to lead with the advocates and activists and push my constituency in difficult ways–in the same way that I push myself.’” Rennie hoped that such entertaining appeals to left wing demagoguery might be closely examined during a one-time primary debate between Lamont and Elliott.

And, Rennie observed further, “The debate will provide opportunities for Lamont to do some explaining of his own. He is the first governor required to participate in training on how the state’s Freedom of Information Act, once a model for the world, works. The Greenwich Democrat could tell viewers what he learned and what improvements he has made in his administration’s startling disdain for the public’s right to know how government conducts the people’s business.”

It is perhaps a hopeful sign that not every political commentator in Connecticut has fallen asleep at the keyboard. Commentators have yet to turn their occasionally selective attention to U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes of Connecticut’s 4th District, once considered a political playground shared between liberal Democrats and fiscally conservative but socially liberal Republicans. Republican Chris Shea, held the District from 1987-2009 before he was ousted by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes. Shea was the last fiscally conservative socially liberal Republican in the state’s U.S. Congressional Delegation.

Progressivism in New England, we now know, differs substantially from the liberalism of former Governor Ella Grasso and former U.S. President John Kennedy. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has little in common with Kennedy and appears to be a pale reflection of socialist Eugene Debs, a brash American socialist whose run for president was derailed after he was jailed in 1918 for delivering a speech in Canton, Ohio, that directly challenged U.S. involvement in World War I.

Lisa Hagen tells us in a piece written for CTMirror -- Jahana Hayes splits with CT delegation on U.S. aid to Israel – “U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, was the only member of Connecticut’s congressional delegation to vote Wednesday for an amendment that would have cut off more aid to Israel as public opinion shifts on the issue and Democratic voters have grown critical of the country’s war in Gaza. The four other Connecticut representatives, John Larson, D-1st District, Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District and Jim Himes, D-4th District, joined nearly half of the Democratic caucus and all but one Republican in defeating the amendment to a government spending bill that would have eliminated an additional $3.3 billion in assistance for Israel.”

Remembering her Machiavelli, Hayes temporized just a bit, according to Hagen: “’I absolutely support Israel’s right to exist, but I’m horrified with what’s happening to these kids in Gaza,’ Hayes said in an interview outside of the House chamber after Wednesday’s vote series. And while I hate the amendment, we need to open the door for some discussion on what aid looks like… I wish we had put forth an amendment that was more precise and talked about supporting humanitarian aid and then put the scrutiny on defense aid that needed to be there but not take it completely away,’ she continued. ‘We just have to have a different conversation, and it doesn’t mean that I think aid should be off the table, because that’s not where I am.’”

Israel has been battered by Iranian supported terrorists, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in Israel, during Hayes’ entire term in office, according to Hamas documents captured by IDF forces during the Gaza Strip War.

And Sanders? Hagan tells us: “U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has forced multiple votes on his disapproval resolution to block U.S. arms sales to Israel. The measure failed each time it was brought up for a vote, but more Democratic senators got on board during the latest vote in April. Sanders’ disapproval resolution split Connecticut’s two U.S. senators: Chris Murphy supported the measure (emphasis mine), while Richard Blumenthal opposed it. Only seven Senate Democrats voted against the resolution in April.”

As always, Israel was in the past and will be in the future the canary in the U.S. political and cultural mineshaft.

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