Four years ago, Jill Krout recalls, she stood angrily before the Greenfield City Council, railing against then-Mayor Larry Plack and urging him to resign for the good of the city.On Thursday night, during a sometimes heated meeting, resident after resident of the small Hennepin County community railed against now-Mayor Jill Krout, urging her to resign for the good of the city.
– "Residents implore Greenfield mayor to resign," Star Tribune
One of the hoariest cliches coming from political campaigns — especially from challengers — is "I'm going to fight for you!"
The fired-up candidate promises to cut taxes, save marriage, expand health care, find jobs for laid-off workers, stop illegal immigration or stop Wall Street from making piles of money. Even (especially?) in local elections, they start out angry about something — fluoride in the water, snowplowing or building inspectors — hoping to storm into office buoyed by other mad people.
Now, Greenfield and its mayor are discovering how that sort of thing works out.
Anger has its place in politics, I guess. It may work when running a campaign, but it's no way to run a railroad. Mayors are supposed to be able to run their cities, or at least supervise the people who do.
Anger carried into office can turn into dysfunction, just as it does in families. It puts the wrong people in charge, or more often, puts them on the back bench.
I tried to think of something a person could do better angry than not. All I could come up with was murder; they'd also be better at getting caught.
"Angry" candidates are either inauthentic, clueless or destined to be ineffective. I'm all for passion, but please spare me the pre-fight routine.
