New = Better?

The tech crowd goes wild every time Steve Jobs burps. The NEW iPhone4 must be better because it's NEW. Ooops, sorry about that antenna thing...

Politicians love to run on the concept of NEW. Throw the incumbents out! Elect me instead! We need NEW ideas, NEW leadership! If it's been there a while, like last year's handbag, it's just not as good as this year's model, right?

Look at the incumbents themselves. They often brag about the NEW laws they passed, the NEW roads and bridges they built. Why? Because nobody gets excited about maintaining the infrastructure or enforcing existing laws. There's nothing "whee!" about quietly doing with excellence the job you are called to do.

People want "whee!" Politicians know this.

Some very good incumbents were voted out in this week's Baldwin County primary runoff election. Incumbents, quietly doing their job with excellence, raised the creditworthiness of our county in an economic climate where almost nobody could accomplish that feat. Even when the "old" was excellent, the financially illiterate people threw the baby out with the bathwater, because all they saw was the football coach's endorsement, and the word NEW. The accomplishments of the incumbents were not enough for "whee!" the people.

The law of reaping and sowing still applies. People get the government they deserve.

I'm still carrying last year's handbag. It's not "whee!" but it quietly, excellently does the job it was created to do. I'm ok with that.

What old, reliable things will you hang on to today?