Stefanik can bring us together

All of us should make sure she does

May 15, 2021

The Front Page

Evening update

Saturday, May 15, 2021

By Ken Tingley

Rep. Elise Stefanik has always shown a startling ability to ignore constituents that disagree with her. She prefers not to engage with them at all, if possible. Her communication of choice has been Facebook and Twitter, despite the gaps in high-speed-internet all across her district.

Personally, I don’t think she likes all those long drives on those remote two-lane roads. She is a city girl at heart.

Town halls have been limited.

And it is unclear how those questions from constituents are chosen in those conference calls.

Her appearances are chosen with friendly crowds in mind.

So in response to Rep. Stefanik’s actions of the past week, several readers voiced their frustration about what to do to voice their displeasure since she is clearly not listening to them.

Perhaps, suggesting that she has an opportunity to make a historic difference in the course of our country would be a start. Maybe that would get her attention. It is clear she has not thought about being bold and daring and doing something that might make a difference.

Now that Rep. Stefanik is a member of the Republican leadership, she is in a position to bring together Republicans with Democrats in a bipartisan way, which is something she has preached since she first ran for office.

Or was that all talk?

All her constituents should ask her to deliver on that promise for the good of the country.

They should ask her to champion significant compromises on issues such as health care, immigration, infrastructure and climate change. She is in the position to do that. It could change the course of, not only the country, but the world.

I think she could do that.

Mitch McConnell recently said his job was to oppose anything the Biden administration was trying to do. Imagine, if you told your boss that your goal was to obstruct any initiatives the company had.

Yes, I know, this is politics. But aren’t we all asking when someone is going to do anything to move us forward.

The question we all should be asking Rep. Stefanik is how will she bring Republicans and Democrats together on these important issues.

Secondly, we should ask that all the local Republicans ask her to make a difference in the country by addressing the issues that are most important to the residents on the 21st Congressional District. We should be asking state Sen. Dan Stec to weigh in on what he thinks Rep. Stefanik should do next. We should ask state Assemblyman Matt Simpson the same question.

Let’s get our local supervisors on the record - most are Republicans - with what they think Rep. Stefanik should be doing to help the North Country, if she has any time after uniting the Republican Party against Democrats.

Or do they all believe that the best way to help the people of the North Country is to oppose everything.

The 30-year-old Elise Stefanik said her generation would bring the parties together for the good of the people. She wasn’t even 30 when she promised that. Maybe, she was naive. But she now has that chance. I want to see her do it. We all should tell her we expect her to do it.

I don’t think that is controversial at all.

Wrong-way driver

While driving back to our hotel in downtown San Antonio Friday night, we came upon two cars stopped in the middle lanes. One was pointing in our direction. Traffic slowed and we got around what appeared to be a minor accident. About a half-mile down the road we were greeted by an electronic sign saying there was a report of a driver going the wrong way on the freeway.

I think we almost ran into him.

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Mask confusion

Even in Texas, our experience has been that most people are wearing masks in crowds. Wandering around an old-fashioned Mexican marketplace on Saturday, we saw the security guard warning customers to wear masks in the indoor stores. It was the first time I had seen that since the pandemic began.

“Today the Republican Party is less a political party than a political freak show. It is being sustained by insidious lies. And people who love America, starting with conservatives, should say so. Otherwise, if the Republican Party’s downward spiral isn’t reversed, it will descend even further into a frightening world of illusion.”
Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner), a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who served in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations.