Not only did western Long Island pull a Benedict Arnold on the Democratic Party last semester by presenting the nation with George Santos, but it also showed that the constituency magically did so too. Equally embarrassing, the other three seats flipped across the state contributed to Kevin McCarthy’s fifteen-round speaker marathon, and, to no one’s surprise, everyone remains shameless. New York also notably lost a congressional seat in general after the 2020 census—in which people leaving the state due to public affairs was a grave overreaction, to say the least. The NY D-3 race was only a stone’s throw from my own federal district, which made it particularly difficult to ignore. Interestingly enough, at the time, it was the only race where there appeared to be a gay Democrat facing off against a gay Republican—something that one would feel more inclined to expect in New York City itself, or even California’s metropolitan areas.
Ultimately, a candidate serves as a representation of their district, and with George Santos being intellectually deficient, as proven by interviews, then that is simply the case for the constituency in NY D-3. No one cared to carefully comb through Santos’ history during the election cycle itself and whoever eventually did, was well past the election itself. Even worse, Santos is a conman that presents the facade of deficiency in hopes of protecting himself from his own issues. This is proven by instances such as his “embellishment” argument. What makes the events of NY D-3 even more intriguing is that they are considered not only the wealthiest district in all of New York State, but also up the charts for the country as a whole. Santos successfully flirted through his false education to magnetize such voters (amongst other traits) and, somehow, what is likely also one of the most educated districts in the country just couldn’t see through the guy. It’s almost as if one could draw parallels elsewhere.
However, things go much further beyond that. Party politics have gotten to the point where a voter that identifies with one party can no longer shift the direction of their vote to someone in the other party, even if their policy interests line up to a tee—all simply because of party affiliation. Republicans did not control D-3 since Peter King over a decade ago, and Democrats had little reason to lose the district. Yet, somehow, George Santos being abstract proved worthy enough to induce a swap. Now, his own state contemporaries don’t like him either and he’s claimed that he won’t run for re-election, as if that was the issue. Suddenly, Santos also removed himself from committee assignments to not be a “distraction.” Don’t let that fool you for a second. House Speaker McCarthy being able to criticize George Santos will come the same day he converts to Judaism. It won’t happen. This is only the case since he can’t afford to lose any seats or further strain relations with his own party after the longest speaker election in over two lifetimes. Somehow, the Republican Party successfully discovered a new form of strange beyond Majorie Taylor-Greene and Lauren Boebert, the latter at least having a wire-thin re-election process this time around because of American consciousness.
The Republican Party initially learned its lesson with the deployment of strange figures in several gubernatorial and Senate races but have now returned to knowing anything is possible with Santos. It is not an accomplishment they should be proud of and neither should it be supported by the general constituency. There was a new rule segment in Real Time a few years back called “The Magic R” in which this is yet another case in which Republicans successfully argued to themselves that just because someone has it, their actions are passable. If George Santos remained himself but won as a Democrat, conservatives wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him in the street (certainly at least by the new standards that have arrived recently) or proliferate his misdeeds and “apply” them to other party members to reinforce their own notions about the other party and liberals. Unfortunately this buck can’t stop with Joe Biden, it stops with you.