Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Sen. Kate Brown is stepping down as Oregon Senate Majority Leader. She has had a remarkable run.

We met Sen. Brown on a couple of occasions, once when she came to the Board of Medical Examiners to see what that organization did, another time in Salem. She is a smart and caring Democrat. She also was lucky to have a term that ended coincident with the implosion of Republican power caused by the stunning arrogance of Dick Cheney and his sock puppet, George W.

The accolades for Brown start with the fact that when she became leaders of the dems in the Oregon Senate in 1998, there were 10 of them, now there are 18.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Yeah, I know. Damn the effetes. But folks, it is a concept that has been around since Latin was the language of the civilized world, which is why it’s important that we remember we ain’t as smart as we think we is. Just because she was there then, and things are different now, does not mean she made the difference.

The second round of accolades center around what happened in this last session:

“increased funding for early education, K-12 schools and higher education; making health care more affordable and accessible; restoring 100 state troopers to protect Oregon’s highways; protecting consumers; investing in renewable energy; expanding the Oregon Bottle Bill; enacting landmark civil rights protections; and passing comprehensive ethics reform – Brown said she leaves her role as Majority Leader with a great sense of accomplishment.” (Salem-News.com)

Well, some of those might be accomplishments.

With a majority (but not two-thirds, required to pass some reforms) and a Democratic governor (we forget his name) the Democrats also failed to implement fundamental tax reform, bring accountability to teachers, failed to create a fair and comprehensive health system (sorry, Ben Westlund), failed to reform school finance aside from dipping into a pot more full of money, and failed to fix Measure 37.

They frittered away much of their session on “feel-good” legislation.

Kate Brown is a good senator, and a good Democrat. But credit where credit is due. Just because some things happened doesn’t mean they were all good, doesn’t mean she gets the credit if they were good. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.