Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Leading Democrats in the General Assembly think we need a new revenue source – tolls. Why do they think so? Because they have run out of money. And why have they run out of money? The answer to that question will depend upon the political affiliation of the person to whom the question is put. Democrats have offered a cornucopia of reasons. Number one on their list is -- the gas tax just ain’t what it used to be.

The New Left, both in Europe and the United States, is the old left reanimated by an economic downturn. In France, former Trotskyite Jean-Luc Mélenchon is being pushed forward politically by a favorable communist wind at his back. It is said that M. Mélenchon’s public rallies rival those of President Nicolas Sarkozy in size and intensity. The Financial Times reports:  “His policies, including rescinding the new EU fiscal discipline treaty, raising the minimum wage from €1,200 to €1,700 a month and confiscating all income above €360,000 a year, go far beyond even [France’s chief socialist] Mr. Hollande’s proposal to tax income above €1m at 75 percent.” M. Mélenchon’s poll numbers have surged from 5 percent two months ago to a high of 17 per cent in more recent days, a reaction in conformity with Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. M. Mélenchon’s recent popularity is undoubtedly a reaction to austerity ...

The Hartford Courant editorial board gave full warning on Saturday that Governor Dannel Malloy, the Elmer Gantry of progressives, will be on the road again, this time pitching his vision of a progressive utopia to Connecticut’s vanishing business community. The Courant editorial board seems enthusiastic: “There isn't a more important or timely subject, considering Connecticut's glacial job-growth performance and the state's tattered, business-unfriendly reputation. At this point, following a legislative session whose results were cheered on by liberals and hissed at by many business interests, the governor and his economic development czar could stand to hang around with a few business people.” The key to the trip is provided by unnamed “members of Mr. Malloy’s staff”: “This will not be as structured an enterprise as the post-election ‘town hall’ listening tour taken by Mr. Malloy. The purpose, says his staff, is to "road test" his own ideas and to gather b...