THIS IS PART THREE in a FOUR Part Series. Enjoy!

Lee Zeldin is anointed the hero of the Republican House of Representatives. Even though he lost the New York Governor’s race by a margin of 53.2 to 46.8

Believe me, that was much closer than anyone had predicted a few months before. And despite former Governor Andrew Cuomo being a bit of a sleaze, there is reason to believe he would have won by a wider margin than Kathy Hochul won by.

Having said that, even a loser can have long coat-tails. Thanks to Zeldin’s better than expected margins the Republicans flipped four house seats in NY. Rockland County and both Nassau and Suffolk County on Long Island trended Republican this last election. The GOPs tough on crime platform really resonated with New Yorkers (in particular in these suburban enclaves just outside the city). And Zeldin’s strong showing is why some in the GOP want him to be the next Speaker of the House, as just about nobody likes Kevin McCarthy.

After the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats won back control of the House with a 36 seat majority. 235 (D) - 199 (R) . Despite the 2020 Presidential Election, going to Democrats in the Senate and winning the White House, Democrats lost seats going from 222 (D) - 213 (R). So clearly, despite a good Democratic turnout, the House numbers were trending in the wrong direction. It almost seemed like a foregone conclusion that President Biden was going to lose the House for Democrats in November 2022. The fact that the numbers just flipped where it’s 222 (R) and 213 (D) is incredible. The fact that Democrats only lost a handful of seats, is a tremendous moral victory. It just goes to show that politicians of all stripes overreach when they have a bit of power, and there is (almost) always an inevitable backlash.

The craziest thing is, that if the Democrats held on to the 4 seats they lost in NY, we would be looking at a much more evenly divided House 218 (R) to 217 (D). I would assert that there would be at least one or two weaselly Republicans that would be happy to flip to give Democrats control of the House. I mean after all, everyone wants to align with a Winner! As a registered New York Democrat, I’m sad our state was so pivotal in deciding who controlled the house. But, I’m not entirely shocked.

Despite the image of New York being this great liberal bastion of a state, it is not this one party monolith that people and media make it out to be. And how could it be? Fox News HQ is in NYC. Sean Hannity lives in a town on Long Island that votes Republican. And all the municipal fire-fighters and cops NY has, despite being backed by big unions, many of their members vote Republican.

Zeldin publicly did say abortion access would always be safe in NY. Whether he was lying about that or not, it wasn’t exactly a bold proclamation by him. NY has always been among the early States to provide abortion access before it was nationally recognized. As for “Gay Marriage”? Well, if you have ever spent any time in NY, you would know that our State has over 166,000 lawyers. In a State population of almost 20 million people, that’s 1 lawyer per 84 people. A lot of these lawyers make their money on divorces. Gay people are no more immune to high divorce rates than straight people. Lawyers want more people married. Because with more marriages comes more divorces, which means more money for lawyers.

But, even so! New York is relatively insulated from the political nastiness and violence we have seen in other States. For example in Michigan, Republicans in that state attempted to kidnap Democratic Governor, Gretchen Witmer.

Michigan officials were also ruthless in how they tried to strip abortion rights after Roe was overturned. When Michigan voters went to the polls this past November (2022), they overwhelmingly voted Democrat. Even among many Republican women who decided to vote Democrat, they were voting for their very survival, and protection, as well as the protection of their sisters and daughters.

We New Yorkers are too spoiled and insulated to realize the consequences of our vote. I hope and pray we never let our political situation get so extreme like in Michigan, where a bunch of delusional men tried to kidnap the Governor. I also pray our healthcare system never becomes such a mess, where a woman can’t even abort her miscarried baby.

Many people didn’t know that Lee Zeldin was a BIG SHILL for Trump. People didn’t care to see this, because Zeldin like any effective politician is a good liar, and shows up for people as they wish to see him.

“Lee Zeldin, a Republican congressman from Long Island, voted to overturn 2020 election results and blamed Democrats for Jan. 6 violence. Now, he wants to lead New York State.” - Nicholas Fandos 10/29/22 NY Times.

Hence my initial title of this series of articles “When you see me, what do you see?” It’s not just relevant to me, but it’s relevant to everyone, Kyrie Irving and Herschel Walker were just my first examples.

Josh off the Press

PART IV: When you see me, what do you see ? - Kyrie, Ye & Lee: Also a new Speaker named Scalise?

“I’m bad and that’s good” - Ralph Wreck it Ralph…

3 months ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Joshua Pressman Jacobs

But, this is why we as people need to be careful where we get our news, what we pay attention to and who we choose to believe. There are a lot of bad (political) actors in this world, and it’s sunlight that is best disinfectant against these evil political forces. So, please as you read this, let the sunlight come in!

-JPJ

Josh off the Press

PART III: When you see me, what do you see? …