In today’s Buffalo News column political news reporter Charlie Specht informs us he is stepping away from the beat and from The Buffalo News to pursue an opportunity elsewhere. This report should be shared and read by everyone as it aptly presents / addresses today’s politics and our elected body makeup – IMHO.

[BN] Politics Now: Parting thoughts from a year on the politics beat

It was just over a year ago that Bob McCarthy and I traveled to Niagara County to visit George Borrelli, the longtime Buffalo News political reporter who preceded McCarthy on the politics beat.

I listened intently as the two men with decades of political reporting experience traded stories about mayors, governors, political battles, and newspaper lore. I went home that day feeling like I was carrying on a great tradition as politics writer for The News – and I knew I had big shoes to fill.

A year later, I’m stepping away from the beat and from The Buffalo News to pursue an opportunity elsewhere. But I feel even luckier than I did that day in Niagara County because I got an inside look at politics in Western New York during an exciting but uncertain time in our democracy. After a year on various campaign trails, here are a few parting thoughts.

It is easy with all the pomp and circumstance surrounding elected officials to view them differently, either because we feel they are “above us” and on a pedestal, or “below us” and in the gutters of the vicious right-versus-left split in our nation’s politics.

I like to tell people our leaders are in large part reflective of the people they represent. About a third of them are really bright – smart people who have a passion for public service and who throw themselves into the work of the people. Much of the public has no idea what kind of sacrifice – especially in today’s nasty political climate – they and their families make on a daily basis.

I’m thinking of one source of mine, in particular: the single mom who spends her days in a top position in county government, spends her weekends running campaigns for up-and-coming elected officials and who also finds the time to serve as a member of a local school board.

“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” she once told me. “If you want to make a difference, if you want to change your community, you have to get involved.”

Another third of politicians and staffers are followers – they will put their finger in the air, determine which way the political winds are blowing and adjust their sails accordingly. They’re happy to take orders from party bosses or consultants who advise them on the politics of each situation and how their actions might ensure their political survival.

And then there’s a group – you would probably find a few people like this in any workplace – who are pretenders. They are not particularly smart; their ethics are questionable at best and they are in it mostly for themselves or to get their family members and friends jobs. You talk to these people and think, “How did you ever get elected?”

Which brings us to the system. The Erie County Democratic and Republican machines are still largely in control of politics in this region in ways that they have been for years. Just ask the progressive Democrats who have made a lot of noise in the last few years but who have struggled to get elected. There’s a reason they’re called machines: They work, and they get people elected, warts and all.

I’ve tried to stay in my lane with the Politics Now newsletter and my occasional columns about the local political scene. I haven’t delved too deeply into national politics and have tried to think and write independently.

But I worry about what will happen to our politics – and our government – come November.

Former President Donald Trump has said there will be a “bloodbath” if he does not defeat President Biden. Trump is no longer just defying the norms of our democracy. He has shown – on Jan. 6 and many times since – a willingness to destroy our system of governance if it means holding on to power.

Like many Americans, I wish we could hit a “reset” button on the election and move on from both Biden and Trump. But that is not how politics works. If I’ve learned anything in the past year, again, it is that our politics are a mirror of ourselves. The solution to getting back to unity, to normalcy, to a time when we disagreed but didn’t demonize, lies within us. We created this problem, and we can fix it.

I won’t have a front-row seat to this struggle anymore. But I’ll be watching closely. And I’ll always be grateful for the year I had on this important and fascinating beat, following in the footsteps of two legends.