Tide may be turning against Stefanik

The Front Page

Morning Update

Saturday, August 1, 2021

By Ken Tingley

Elise Stefanik will have to come to terms with the fact she is not the “fresh young face of the future anymore.

She is not the next generation, she is the worst generation.

“I thought a Harvard-educated elite stooge like Elise would know that the speaker of the House is not responsible for security at the capitol. Did Harvard teacher her how to spread and savor the lies or is it genetic?” That was part of a letter to the editor to The Post-Star from Chestertown resident wrote Al Muench this week.

The voters had John Sweeney’s back right up until they found out his wife had called the police about his abuse.

“Ok, Elise, we know you were able to fool a lot of people in District 21 into voting for you, despite your lying, carpetbagger track record, but really, blaming Pelosi for the 1/6 seditious insurrection? Your reasoning for this is beyond bizarre and in line with your lies becoming more egregious and mendacious by the day,” wrote Queensbury’s D. Neal Iverson in a Post-Star letter to the editor.

Most people believe in doing the right thing. They support their community institutions and don’t want to be lied to. But they also have busy lives trying to make ends meet and raising their families, so it often takes a little time for them to understand a con.

“You are truly turning into something that is getting harder and harder to look at,” wrote Queensbury’s June Woodard about Stefanik in The Post-Star this week. “You are an embarrassment to the state and government.”

Stefanik has always blown with the polling wind, taking positions that would benefit her politically and attacking anyone who dared to criticize her.

That is part of the record now.

Consider the following:

She refused not to lie when campaigning.

She hired teenagers to spy on her opponent and paid them well.

She regularly attacked the reporters and editors who grew up here and lived in the district far longer than she has.

She rarely holds town hall meetings where constituents can ask her tough questions.

But she is a good fundraiser. It is her grandest of all accomplishments. She is able to raise money - not for the United Way to help those in need - but for her campaigns to further her ambitions at the expense of anyone who gets in her way.

Not everyone believes this about Stefanik, yet.

You certainly don’t hear it from the local Republican leaders. I suspect they are afraid of her.

The people in her district are calling her out. They are seeing the hypocrisy of her positions in Congress. They are seeing her as an embarrassment to the values that they hold dear.

But I believe the tide is going to turn. What has made democracy work for so long is that eventually the people figure out the con - it often takes awhile - and then they do the right thing when they get to the ballot box.

Tweet of the Day

Geoff Eaton @geoff_eaton

My wife, who works at our local Catholic school, was asked by a parent if the school intended to teach Critical Race Theory. She replied "explain to me what it is and I'll tell you if we teach it." The parent had no reply.