When There’s More of Them Than There are of us, you Lose.
By Josh Resnek
The mayor has been at it for more than a decade.
He’s had a great run.
He’s designed his position like a master craftsman, boiling down his effort to never being in the office, never exerting himself, never showing a strong work ethic and by getting sloppy now and then.
He spends enormous amounts of time out of the country on extended vacations that the city pays for, that the voters pay for. Those extended vacations irk many hardworking Everett residents.
At this point in his career, he rules by instilling fear in those he employs.
City employees are intimidated by Kickback. What he has given them he can take away.
The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh away.
Such a system of governing is doomed over time.
Since he first took office he has thrown dozens of city employees under the bus.
He has been disloyal to people who supported him, who gave him money, who helped him along the way to the mayor’s office.
He’s made promises he never intended to keep.
He’s done backroom deals that are the stuff of legend.
The luster of his youth is gone.
The gold plated image of the mayor as the city’s savior has soured. He has shown himself to everyone and we all know what he is about. There is no hiding who Kickback Carlo DeMaria is inside the city of Everett.
In the beginning he had everyone’s support, all the important families, all the powerful businesspeople and individuals with personal influence. He still has their support but mainly because he threatens people in order to keep them in line – and many do his bidding because of this. He won them over with a positive personality and with a promise when he started out.
That promise has gone stale.
Many of those who were with him when he started out are no longer with him.
We find this out by talking with politicians now going door to door and feeling the tenor of the voters in this city.
The mayor isn’t up for re-election but he has a growing negativity problem.
This is, after all, how it works when you give your life to politics in this city.
No matter who you are, you make enemies. A few at first, then more, then a lot, then so many that your base begins to shrink.
Then comes the horror of an election night when everything fails you and you are thrown from office.
This will happen to Kickback. It is not a question of how but rather, of when.
For Kickback Carlo in the first year there were a few who went sour on him.
The second year there were more. Every succeeding year those who have become disgruntled with the mayor have grown in number. It is a natural progression, as common as the sun rising every morning on the new day.
It is likely that there are now at least 1,000 former Kickback Carlo fans and supporters who are no longer Kickback Carlo supporters. That’s what time does to local politicians. It erodes their base. It diminishes the winning political coalition that keeps politicians in their positions election after election.
Nothing lasts forever.
In fact, after more than ten years in the mayor’s office, the mayor’s base is inevitably beginning to fall apart.
First one family becomes bitter, then another and another and soon, there are many families who feel hard done by by Kickback Carlo.
How long before Kickback is run out of city hall?
That is a good question.
Some of his most ardent supporters, especially those who benefit from their financial relationship with him and the city hall budget, say he will never lose.
They promise he will be the mayor forever. Nature indulges in no such fantasies.
No one is the mayor forever here. Kickback’s time is coming.
The moment when a tsunami of negativity causes chance and fate to mix will likely come upon him.
It is impossible to know when this will happen – but we know it will happen because this is the lesson we learn paying close attention to politics.
The time will come – probably sooner rather than later at this point – when Kickback’s enemies conspire with the local electorate to bring a new face into the mayor’s office.
This can only occur when the electorate becomes totally unpredictable and opts for change rather than the same old thing week in and week out from Kickback.
There is no way of knowing when this time arrives until it is here. Will it be in the next mayoral election?
This is possible but we can’t know history until it happens.
I can tell you this, the next election may not defeat Kickback but it has the possibility of taking him down to his knees.
If fate takes over, Kickback can’t fight it.
No one can fight fate.
No amount of campaign money, no amount of bluster, no amount of signs, rallies, visibilities in the square can lead to a victory when fate has it down that he is going to lose.
When that moment comes – and it is coming – Kickback will be tossed out of office and relegated to the dustbin of stale local history.
Everyone who was with him will say they were against him. Everyone who loved him will transfer their love to the new mayor. Can this happen?
Yes it can.
Will it happen?
Yes it will.
The only question is when.