Opinion: The Machine That Wasn’t, and the Party That Still Can Be

Lackawanna County lately suffers from unilateral, armchair idealism that masquerades as political thought, the kind that demands total ideological purity while dismantling the very cooperation that defines democracy itself.

Chris Kelly, writing for the newly Republican Hedge Fund owned Scranton Times, has made himself the last voice of a collapsing echo chamber. His commentary on Bill Gaughan’s “heroic stand” against the so-called Machine is not analysis; it is projection.

The problem with Chris has always been this: he almost knows what’s going on. But that small margin of not knowing has turned into a canyon, and he has fallen straight in.

Kelly’s latest piece paints Gaughan as a martyred reformer, when in fact he has been the most divisive figure in Lackawanna County government in a generation. Gaughan’s court challenge to Commissioner Brenda Sacco’s appointment was not courage, it was desperation. It was the tantrum of a man who refused to accept that democracy requires compromise. The Supreme Court called him out for it, and the rest of us paid for his mistake.

What Kelly misses, or refuses to admit, is that Gaughan’s defiance was never rebellion against corruption; it was rebellion against cooperation. His 33 percent tax hike came with no consultation, no consensus building, and no transparency. It was unilateral, arrogant, and reckless. And when it all collapsed, Gaughan pointed fingers at everyone but himself.

This is not the profile of a reformer. It is the anatomy of hubris.

Kelly’s mistake, and Gaughan’s downfall, come from the same place: resentment disguised as righteousness. Chris Kelly, who has never made peace with his own blue-collar origins, sees the rise of pragmatic Democrats like Marty Flynn and Chris Patrick, people who can disagree without destroying, and feels betrayed by his own reflection. These are leaders who understand politics as the art of standing next to someone you may not always like, because the alternative is losing the republic.

You do not have to agree with every committee decision to know that cooperation is the only antidote to authoritarianism. But Gaughan and Kelly seem united in a new kind of political narcissism, one that mistakes disagreement for corruption and martyrdom for leadership.

Meanwhile, the Times itself, once the proud chronicler of Scranton’s civic life, has reinvented itself as a right-wing megaphone. Its editorial slant is no longer subtle; it is partisan theater. The paper that once defended workers now defends one man’s ego trip while ignoring the slow dismantling of the institutions that protect all of us.

And now, with Thom Welby stepping forward as the Democratic nominee for the special election for County Commissioner, Gaughan has revealed even more of his character. He is the only man arrogant enough to attack, or refuse to cooperate with, a figure so rooted in goodwill and service. Anyone who knows Thom knows he cannot be controlled. He stands firm on virtue and values. For people like Bill, that clarity is confusing, even threatening. Control is his comfort; conscience is his enemy.

There is still a Democratic Party in Lackawanna County, but it is fragile. It is held together by ordinary people who still believe in the slow, often maddening work of compromise, the only real safeguard against chaos.

That is what Chris Kelly does not get. That is what Bill Gaughan refuses to practice.

Politics is not purity. It is partnership. It is the grind of governance, not the theater of grievance.

If you sneer at the messy, necessary work of cooperation in a democratic system, then you are not a reformer. You are a fool standing in a burning house, arguing about the furniture.