Many of us from a certain generation are familiar with the old axiom “new brooms sweep clean.”

I guess it was a bit of old, grandma-type wisdom where it was established that a new broom, with its brand new bristles firm and steady, could get that dirt the old worn-out broom in the corner couldn’t handle anymore.  The new one swept all before it, and with a little bit of weight behind it, there would be nothing that could escape it.

It might also scratch your floor.

Politics can be like that.

You get a government, or a board, or a similar collection of individuals given a certain task or mandate.  Maybe they start out okay, but over time, stuff happens that leads to the impression among their constituency that they have to be sent packing, whether through their perceived ineptness, incompetence or for the simple fact that they’re tired and have gone flat.  And then comes the statement that grows and grows and grows, a statement dreaded by incumbents everywhere:  “It’s time for a change.”

Hence the need for a new broom, so to speak.  And what do brooms do?  Well they sweep, with new ones even sweeping clean.  Sweeping clean politically will more often mean that every, or almost every existing member of that government, or board, or council, or committee, what have you, will be replaced by someone new, and often extremely inexperienced.  And maybe even packing a grievance.  Or an agenda.  Or, gasp, both.