The Tyranny of the Minority

Barbara Toffler has a history of making inflammatory statements. It's not clear whether she does this by commission or omission, but what is clear is that her statements often become a convenient distraction from the real issue at hand.

In 2007, her comments about wanting to preserve diversity in Teaneck, were interpreted as a slight against Orthodox Jews and ended up getting more attention than the larger and more interesting questions raised in this blog and in the Appelbome article about the controversies over the evolution of the governance of the town.

The same can be said of her recent statement about general electorate support for restructuring the public safety functions in town. While her choice of words may have been unfortunate, the point she was driving at was an important one: that a majority of the electorate in the town disapproves of the Council majority's decision to remake the governance of the Police and Fire Departments.

It come down to this: The opinions of the majority of the electorate don't matter as long as they are incapable of organizing themselves to nominate and elect a council majority.

This speaks to the importance of smart and tactical political messaging and organizing, something the current Council majority and their supporters understand far better than the Council minority and, presumably, the majority of the electorate.

I have no reason to believe that these lessons will sink in before the next election.