The Howard Beale Candidacy by John DePetro
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7 FM, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com
If you were listening last week to the Providence Democratic mayoral debate held on 630 WPRO and 99.7 FM, you would be forgiven for suspecting one of the candidates was about to throw open the window of the Salty Brine Broadcast Center and shout out, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!!”
Controversial—and repetitive—candidate Chris Young brought his political stage show, always a mix of outrage and circus act, to the debate, but this time the predictable antics seemed to prompt a less predictable reaction among the listeners.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIf you were paying attention to the callers following the lively forum, it was undeniable that Young struck a chord with them as he displayed the type of anger that seems to reflect the voters of 2010. People were calling in and commending Young for “telling like it is” and many saying they felt he was “speaking for me.”
I admit the instinct is to dismiss the validity of the candidacy of someone best known for knocking over a table during a previous debate or showing up with a four-foot statue of the Virgin Mother, but this year is a little different. Young is running for Mayor of Providence and to quote an old Jackson Browne song, Providence is “running on empty.” Deep in debt, displaying a crumbling infrastructure, and with a failing and troubled school system, some worry that Rhode Island’s capital city is on its way to becoming “Central Falls with a skating rink.”
Downtown after dark is less an arts and restaurant town, more a strip club and nightclub town, with Kennedy Plaza, in the shadow of City Hall, an outdoor drug flea market. (One of Mayor Cicilline’s Democratic opponents for Congress has at least seized upon his role in mismanaging the city, taking it right to the steps of City Hall, as Anthony Gemma’s campaign has repositioned his theme to “Enough is Enough” and rightly so.)
The final nail in the coffin was hammered in by the recent firefighter contract, which keeps unsustainable COLAs in the pensions. (But also keeps the protests away from Mayor Cicilline’s East Side fundraisers). Yet one wonders how long those East Siders will tolerate knowing they have basically been assigned to subsidize all this (but then again liberals love to pay taxes) . The “renaissance city” has become the “welfare state” with no pot of gold at the end of Smith Street. So enter candidate Chris Young, a.k.a. Howard Beale from the groundbreaking film, “Network.”
Just as in the film, where the down and out Beale resurrects his own fading star through hysterical rants, so Young, embodying the down and out Providence everyman seems to have lit a fire of sorts with the wider public.
Aside from the Tea party and business-platform campaign efforts of RISC and others, what has been missing this political season, up to now, is someone who captures the anger of the outsider. Young questions everything from the salary of the President of Brown University, to the religious faith of other candidates. Relevant? Maybe not. But when the electorate is this angry, they seem poised to follow Young to the window ledge and give a good scream.
John DePetro can be heard weekday mornings 6-10A, on GoLocalProv media partner 630WPRO & 99.7 FM, and podcasts of show highlights are found at 630wpro.com
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