It's About Time
At 10 am, according to the daily papers, City Councilor David Pfeffer will switch political parties and let his inner Republican out of the most transparent closet I've ever seen. Actually, I had a phone message from Pfeffer this morning (left yesterday actually, but I cut out of here a little early to go home and have an allergy attack).
Pfeffer's conservatism is Santa Fe's least-kept secret. On a city council where even the fiscal conservatives are social liberals, Pfeffer has been the lone wolf, or Odd Man Out as we called him back in April, 2003.
Yes, it's true, we endorsed him when he ran for office. My personal opinion, which is basically an armchair psychologist's view of Pfeffer, is that he was basically a typical Santa Fe liberal until 9.11 and, subsequently, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pfeffer is a Vietnam Vet and it's my view that the schism that has taken place in this country over war is well personified by Pfeffer's own seeming "break" with his old political persona and his new one.
I don't agree with his views (any of them, as far as I can tell), but I do have a certain respect for someone willing to take the kind of political heat he's taken for voicing them. For example, a Q & A interview I did with him after the election brought a world of criticism on his head (although mostly because a confusing quote in it led people to believe he was anti-Semitic (which was not my interpretation but, in retrospect, I was able to see what people were reacting to).
At any rate, Pfeffer's switch from Dem to the GOP isn't likely to change the political hemisphere in these parts, although it does mean there's a Republican on the Santa Fe City Council (that's gotta be if not unique then a very rare situation. I'll have to have a reporter find out when the last Republican sat on that council). I think Pfeffer's dramatic public announcement (press release, a press conference) is a little odd—after all political parties are theoretically private business and it's not like he's a US Senator), but there is the hint of megalomania in Pfeffer's actions sometimes. Or maybe this is the public's business. Well, I tend to think everything is the public's business. The question is: do they care?
Pfeffer's conservatism is Santa Fe's least-kept secret. On a city council where even the fiscal conservatives are social liberals, Pfeffer has been the lone wolf, or Odd Man Out as we called him back in April, 2003.
Yes, it's true, we endorsed him when he ran for office. My personal opinion, which is basically an armchair psychologist's view of Pfeffer, is that he was basically a typical Santa Fe liberal until 9.11 and, subsequently, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pfeffer is a Vietnam Vet and it's my view that the schism that has taken place in this country over war is well personified by Pfeffer's own seeming "break" with his old political persona and his new one.
I don't agree with his views (any of them, as far as I can tell), but I do have a certain respect for someone willing to take the kind of political heat he's taken for voicing them. For example, a Q & A interview I did with him after the election brought a world of criticism on his head (although mostly because a confusing quote in it led people to believe he was anti-Semitic (which was not my interpretation but, in retrospect, I was able to see what people were reacting to).
At any rate, Pfeffer's switch from Dem to the GOP isn't likely to change the political hemisphere in these parts, although it does mean there's a Republican on the Santa Fe City Council (that's gotta be if not unique then a very rare situation. I'll have to have a reporter find out when the last Republican sat on that council). I think Pfeffer's dramatic public announcement (press release, a press conference) is a little odd—after all political parties are theoretically private business and it's not like he's a US Senator), but there is the hint of megalomania in Pfeffer's actions sometimes. Or maybe this is the public's business. Well, I tend to think everything is the public's business. The question is: do they care?
posted by Julia at 8:18 AM
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