Stefanik has no sense of who we are
The Front Page
Morning Update
Thursday, August 5, 2021
By Ken Tingley
Earlier this week, Rep. Elise Stefanik proclaimed this in a tweet:
This came at a time when the county in which she lives had one of the highest spikes for the virus in the state.
I was stunned by how out of touch our congresswoman was with the people she represents. For the past year, I believe this community has come together as well as any in wearing masks to prevent the spread of this virus, it has social-distanced when necessary, followed the arrows in the supermarket and put its own personal desires secondary to the community at large. It came together.
That is the community in which I live, so I don’t know where Stefanik is coming from with this pronouncement to put children, teachers and the community at risk. What Stefanik proposed in that tweet was the opposite of previous efforts in the community and it puts us all at risk.
About the same time Stefanik was asking us to disregard the safety for each other, I was reading an article from a North County native about how our political leaders no longer have “a sense of place.”
David Fontana’s article, “America’s hidden crisis of power and place,” was published in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine this past week and it went a long way toward explaining Rep. Stefanik’s dangerous tweet.
Fontana is a professor of law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but because he grew up in Plattsburgh, he has always followed congressional politics in his district. He has previously written stories in The Post-Star analyzing NY-21 politics and he has interviewed me for past articles.
In the Washington Post article, Fontana shared a story of his family bumping into the mayor of Plattsburgh at the local Grand Union when he was a boy, and how his family thanked the mayor for the annual Mayor’s Cup Regatta on the lake that they enjoyed. Fontana wrote that one memory shaped his views of how politics was supposed to work. Political leaders were supposed to have lived with the people they represented and shared their challenges, values and beliefs. And you might even run into them in the local supermarket.
His research showed that is not necessarily how it works today. The views of today’s political leaders are often shaped by their experiences at elite colleges, big cities and the centers of government like Washington, D.C., and not the places they grew up.
Rep. Elise Stefanik fits this description, having gone to college in Boston and spent her early employment in D.C.
But the reality is that has been the case for most of our congressional representatives for the past two decades from John Sweeney, to Kirsten Gillibrand, to Scott Murphy, to Chris Gibson, so it appears that Fontana is onto something.
He points out there are many capable local leaders who would make outstanding representatives in Congress, but because they did not spend their early careers gaining the connections to raise money and influence in places of power, they never get the opportunity.
It is a thought-provoking piece that I urge all citizens to read. Check it out HERE.
But more importantly, it glaringly shows that Rep. Stefanik is of another world and she will always struggle to understand communities that try to look out for each other. We don’t have red and blue neighborhoods.
The Post-Star editorial board saw the same thing this past week and weighed in with a strong editorial concluded Stefanik had adopted a “pro-Covid agenda.” It should be a must read as well. CLICK HERE.
Rep. Stefanik’s most recent social media post is an invitation for more people to ignore the virus, to put local children, the elderly and teachers.
I don’t believe that is the way most people think in the small, rural communities throughout the North Country. They are not screaming about their freedoms, they just want to be able to see their kids have a normal upbringing that includes school dances, homecoming games and the school musical.
The fact that Rep. Stefanik doesn’t understand that should be a wake-up call for all of us.
The day the news broke about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s misbehavior, I caught the end of an interview with Stefanik on Spectrum News. She blamed the “mainstream media” for not holding Gov. Cuomo accountable.
The Spectrum News reporter pushed back that their news outlet had continually reported on the story.
The Post-Star, the newspaper where I was editor for 21 years, has also continued to cover Gov. Cuomo’s misdeeds and criticize him in editorials. It has done it repeatedly. Its editorial board has never endorsed Cuomo for governor. It is not surprising that Rep. Stefanik does not know any of that that, because she has not lived among us, she has not shared our values or experiences.
That makes her a poor representative for all of us.
Tweet of the Day
Apparently a Harvard education does not mean Stefanik has any common sense. Wonder if her child was in school with an unvaccinated, unmasked teacher her views might change.Stefanik is nothing but a lying, hypocrite! I for one, have never stopped wearing a mask and we continue to do so.
I agree 100% She is a fraud. Harvard where she went to college even agrees. I wonder how much her wealthy parents had to contribute to Harvard to get her in. And then the Willsboro resident issue! I doubt she ever spent more than a few days a year there. Unfortunately $ govern this country