GOING…gone

GOING

Once upon a time, when members of the Republican Party saluted the Red, White and Blue of the flag and not a red and white MAGA hat, there were liberal Republicans not only supported by the Liberal Party but elected by it.

With its singular focus on New York, the Liberal Party help elect such liberal Republicans as Jacob Javits, John Lindsay, Roy Goodman, Ted Kupferman, Bill Green and Rudy Giuliani before he looked in the mirror, saw “America’s Mayor” ran an invisible primary campaign for President and then lost his balance completely.

There were liberal Republican Senators and Congressmen throughout the country…even as archconservative Barry Goldwater became the party’s Presidential candidate.

And then, there was Ronald Reagan and changes that narrowed the party’s focus until the reality of government policies disappeared to be replaced by the idea that policies were no longer necessary: the goal was the Presidency and they’d have all the power they needed.

Reagan incorporated race into the party pointing endlessly to “welfare Queens in Cadillacs.” He went South to bring the party into the center of Christian nationalism seeking not governmental policies but religion-driven populist ones – like abortion.

Reagan talked of tax cuts for the wealthy and introduced the idea of a “safety net” for the rest of America. Once the union leader of the Screen Actors Guild, he literally destroyed the Flight Controllers union, clearly sending a message. It wasn’t long before liberal leaning Republicans in Congress stepped away.

These Republican populist concerns could not give George HW Bush a second term, though they and an artificially designed war in the Mideast gave his son two terms. But while they did not help elect either John McCain or Mitt Romney, they surely helped a political novice like Donald Trump defeat a policy-smart but politically inept, Hillary Clinton.

The Republican Party continues to believe the Presidency is all and has given Donald J. Trump an unprecedented third nomination as President.

What the Presidential candidacy of a man convicted of assault after pleading down from rape and a probable convicted felon will do to the candidacies of Republicans running for Congress and the Senate is anybody’s guess but it doesn’t seem to bother the party’s leadership.

In New York City today, the Republican Party’s influence has declined until it has hit rock bottom. First, they lost the entire New York City Council. Most recently, they lost the New York State Senate. The NY State Assembly has always been Democratic…but now it is overwhelming.

The Republican Party’s last two candidates for Mayor of New York, while effective in the work they do – Nicole Malliotakis, now in Congress and Curtis Sliwa,on talk radio and as head of the Guardian Angels – had no relevant experience in government that prepared them to be Mayor. An aware public barely gave both 35% of the vote in their losses.

The Republican Party candidate for Governor, Lee Zeldin – a Long Island Congressman and a known admirer and supporter of Donald Trump – ran a strong campaign focusing exclusively on crime in New York City that helped elect four area Congressmen in districts that had been held by Democrats – one of them George Santos. Of course, Zeldin never mentioned that Long Island is the home of fentanyl and drug abuse is everywhere.

But Zeldin’s connection to Trump was so well known that it gave him no chance at all to become Governor.

GOING…

Two realities exist which reveal significant weakness in New York’s Democratic Party. The first is that party incumbents are rarely, if ever, challenged by other party members especially when the party has so much control over State politics.

Bill DeBlasio’s first four years should have put him in jail. He had no opposition for a second term…not in his party and not from the Republicans.

Second, there is a serious lack of leadership in the Democratic Party.

The leadership weakness appeared when the party nominated Hillary Clinton for President a second time after her primary defeat by Barack Obama. Yes, they thought she could beat a Donald Trump. He thought so too, at first. The Democratic Party should have known better. Apparently, it was the best they could do.

One party government- not just a majority but a monopoly – is a guarantee of ineffectiveness and too often, a penchant for moral and actual corruption all up and down the line.

The Democrats in New York have a history of just that.

When the Irish immigrated to New York in the 19th Century they ruled the Five Corners with an iron hand. When the Italians came later there was a war between them and then they each ruled their territories in the same way.

Money, power and violence talked.

Tammany Hall and Carmine DeSapio ruled the Democratic Party in the 20th Century until the Liberal Party joined with moderate Democrats to push them out, away and into history.

There no longer is a force doing that now.

What we have is incompetence, politicians who think talking is enough and young people in government who excuse brutal, daily crime by freeing the criminals to do it again – all in the name of race and the childish idea that their actions will improve race relations.

What we have is a Mayor simply over his head in a job he cannot do; able to endlessly talk the talk, announce a new goal every day and never make anything happen; who continues to make promises about an endless number of things – like education and crime – and can’t make those promises true.

We have a Mayor who thinks his endless talk and looking good are answers to the problems he can certainly define – but not fix.

He hears that a madman has punched a girl in the head, been arrested and then released and several days later punches another girl in the face. The City Council remains silent; the Mayor is busy selecting tomorrow’s shirt and tie.

He and his “brother” Banks, Chancellor of Education, have promised a whole new way of teaching reading – simply a return to what worked- phonics – but there is no indication that the plan has been implemented in a way that shows promise of growth and success.

He said he spent 30 years as a Policeman and he and his “brother” Banks, head of Public Safety will make streets safe – but the lack of police on the streets has caused daily, vicious, painful crime…crime where there is no monetary gain but simple baseless violence. Every day.

In both cases the Mayor states endless statistics without statistical support.

Saying graduation rates are the highest in years overlooks a basic truth: those who do not qualify graduate anyway.

The fact that the City Council does not support the Mayor and he is unable to control or even modify what they do doesn’t concern him.

Instead, he notifies them that they cannot meet with any member of his administration without first asking permission in writing for any meeting…claiming this is the way to maintain efficiency.

The latest missive from the Mayor’s office is an order to alter how Policemen dress and look. The fact that they no longer stop crime but just try to capture the criminals doesn’t matter; how they dress and look, does.

And to make all of this even worse, Adams thinks Governor Kathy Hochul is his buddy. Kathy Hochul is nobody’s buddy but her own.

What Hochul has not done to improve life in New York State requires and deserves a political examination all its own.

But instead one act is a perfect example of Hochul’s belief in nothing but herself.

She has absolutely ignores the fact that there is a job for every single able-bodied migrant who was shipped to New York by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.

That’s tens of thousands of jobs throughout the State that these people could be doing to earn a living and settle into a life they walked thousands of miles to find.

But no. It’s up to NYC alone to find jobs and lives for them.

If New York State had even the semblance of a two party system there would have been an unending outcry against this race-based decision.

But there is nothing. Not a single word from anyone.

Her luck continued in her campaign for a full term as Governor. Any other Republican but the Trumper she ran against would have defeated her.

Kathy Hochul is always on the move, talking a mile a minute as she does. While she does not have Eric Adams’ “from the pulpit” style, she keeps right on talking.

What she has done by refusing to allow the 100,000 bussed-in migrants in NYC to find work – suggests that she fears the impact of all those brown faces throughout the State will hurt her chances for reelection in 2025.

No one has asked her to explain it. While neither Hochul nor Adams deserves another term of office, both the Democratic Party and the media have accepted the inevitability of one- party rule.

GONE

Until and unless the people of New York recognize that today’s politics in the State does not and must not represent what the city and State are all about, life will not get better. Older, established New Yorkers will move out and the younger essentially uneducated population will grow to continue to hold public office and we will be anything but the Empire State.

On the Republican side, State Chair Ed Cox must find and develop centrist Republicans who can bring a genuine concern for public policy back to the party no matter what is happening on the national level.

The public itself must become part of a focused participation and involvement with community and citywide problems because there is no genuine desire to change anything coming from within the Democratic Party.

Unless these activities take place, New York will continue to lose families able to move away from a chaotic, leaderless and rudderless New York.

Caring and concern are no longer enough.