Chris Powell: Conn. voters need to mix it up; is racial discrimination okay now?

The film The Land of Steady Habits is set in suburban Connecticut.

MANCHESTER, Conn.

Connecticut got its nickname as "the land of steady habits" in part because of its resistance to political change and its inclination to keep the same people in elective office for a long time. Comments made by Thomas Jefferson about Connecticut politics in 1801 have been aphorized as "few die and none resign."

Now that Connecticut has lost most political competition, with Democrats long having held all major state and federal offices in the state, change seems more unlikely than ever. A television commercial for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy's campaign for a third term acknowledges this resistance to change even while suggesting it's needed. 

The commercial shows the senator on another campaign walk around the state. He says: "What I find on this walk is that the things people care about here in Connecticut really don't change: the cost of living, how much money are they making, how much are they paying in taxes, are their neighborhoods safe?"

Would people keep expressing such concerns if they were satisfied? Or has the cost of living been outpacing wages for many? Have taxes decreased or has inflation made them more burdensome? And when social disintegration makes news in the state every day, how can anyone believe government's claim that crime is down?

Of course, if people's major concerns never change, eventually they might figure out that re-electing officials who never change anything won't help. 

But then where are the alternatives in Connecticut? Ken Dixon of the Connecticut Hearst newspapers reports that six of the 36 state Senate elections and 43 of the 151 elections in the state House of Representatives next month are essentially uncontested.

Only one of the six Republican candidates for Congress is well known and will raise enough money for a plausible campaign. It's not enough for candidates to have a message. They also need the means to publicize it.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate for president is very unpopular in the state and will be of little help to the party's other candidates here.

But any campaign at least  starts  with a message, and Republican campaigns in Connecticut might do well to take Senator Murphy's inadvertent hint. That is, the cost of living is too high, as is the cost of government, and the social order is coming apart without any acknowledgement by those in charge. Something must be done. But what exactly?

The outgoing administration that the senator supports has worsened the awful trends. Will Connecticut Republicans offer voters more than the opportunity to cast protest votes?

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IS SEGREGATION GOOD NOW?: U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the former Connecticut education commissioner and Meriden school superintendent, will be remembered mainly for botching the redesign of the federal college financial aid application, causing a national scandal. Even Democratic members of Congress doubt that Cardona could be considered for reappointment if the party keeps the presidency.

Cardona also spends much time using social media to pander to the teacher unions, one of the Democratic Party's biggest constituencies.

But the other day Cardona said something on social media that might actually be good for Connecticut residents to ponder. He wrote: "The Biden-Harris administration has invested over $17 billion in historically Black colleges and universities, more than any other administration in history. Now  that  is investing in Black excellence."

Many state residents may remember what they were told by Cardona's colleagues in the state education bureaucracy during the years of litigation in the school integration case of Sheff v. O'Neill: that Black students learn best in a racially integrated environment and that Connecticut's de-facto segregation of Black students should be considered unconstitutional. Now the same big thinkers claim that Black students need other Black students and Black teachers.

So how does racial segregation become "excellence" when, with the federal government's encouragement and financing,  Black students enter "historically Black" colleges and universities? After the billions of dollars of expense resulting from the Sheff case and the regional schools it spawned, Connecticut residents might want to know.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).