While the remaining warlords of the People’s Republic of Trumpistan take turns servicing the back alley snuff film fetishist that is the MAGA movement, solutions-oriented candidates of substance have refused to stand idly by and allow the zombie brothel to wholly consume the Empire State’s GOP.
With a national mood already sour in the wake of Covid-19, Democrats in Washington and Albany continue to ignore the root cause of constituents’ anxiety. Everyday necessities from groceries to gas to housing, heating and electric have all seen stratospheric price spikes over the past six months due to rampant and runaway inflation that’s gone completely unchecked by the people in power.
And when your party controls every single lever of government, there’s only one place the buck’s about to stop.
But for the last two years of the Trump administration, even do-nothing Democrats were a constitutional saving grace compared to the alternative: Jonestown-like authoritarian rage monkeys, whose hateful rhetorical slime eventually crescendoed in an armed assault on our nation’s Capitol as they attempted to subvert our very way of life.
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Fortunately, Republicans in New York took notice, and this year, the establishment has struck back with a vengeance – fielding candidates up and down the ballot, who are genuinely concerned with making life more affordable for working New Yorkers, while making government less intrusive for all (radical notions, I know).
Chief among them is heir-apparent to the Pataki legacy, three-term Dutchess County executive and 2018 gubernatorial nominee, Marc Molinaro. His always sunny disposition coupled with 11 years of prolific good government achievements make him the embodiment of compassionate and common sense conservatism in the state. As the de facto GOP nominee in the 19th Congressional District, he’s set the bar for what state and local Republicans ought to strive for.
Meanwhile, another former gubernatorial GOP nominee has busted clear through to the Earth’s molten core in his quest to make former Iowa Rep. Steve King look like Al Roker in the wide open field to succeed Rep. Chris Jacobs in Western New York. That man is Carl Paladino – a boomer relic with a mouth like a septic tank and a brain soaked in leftover bile collected from George Wallace’s segregative corpse.
Paladino has praised Hitler and made bigoted, pejorative remarks concerning former first lady Michelle Obama, which I will not repeat in this op-ed.
But while crazy Carl has gobbled up the media spotlight and received the blessing of self-styled “ultra MAGA” House Republican leader Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, the candidate field remains pretty well populated, and Republican primary voters in the new 23rd Congressional District have less racist and more rational options to choose from come August.
One such option is Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler. Aside from his 12 years of experience in county government, Sigler comes armed with policy prescriptions and sound temperament – rather than the unbridled bombast and predilection for public lynching that is part and parcel of Paladino’s paradigm. Prior to court-ordered redistricting, Sigler had approximately $200,000 cash on hand – not exactly chump change.
This shouldn’t even be a contest. Yet, it still is. Good grief.
Next door, in the race to succeed outgoing Rep. John Katko, R-Syracuse, local job creator and Syracuse native Steve Wells couldn’t be a more natural fit if he tried. Wells’ laser focus on kitchen table and public safety issues are right out of the Katko playbook. It also helps that, like the congressman, Wells exudes a calm and deliberative manner devoid of the inflammatory and oftentimes unconstitutional watchwords that have proliferated today’s Republican politics with the rise and fall of Donald Trump.
These three beacons of hope form the backbone of a more significant, more successful, more humane and effectual future for New York’s Republican Party. And for the sake of our fragile republic, even Democrats should be cheering them on.
John William Schiffbauer was deputy communications director for the New York State Republican Party from 2014 to 2016. He is a consultant for Republican candidates in New York and conservative nonprofit organizations across the country.
