Elections have consequences. Voting matters. We will continue spreading the message to vote, get registered and get involved in the Party of Lincoln.
Voter apathy in electing de Blasio will ruin city
TimesLedger, Aug 25, 2014, Op-Ed page
New Yorkers enjoyed a delightfully balmy summer with pleasant temperatures, but a major storm is brewing in New York, thanks to the apathy of the voters who allowed a radical minority of New Yorkers to determine the fate for all of us.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, elected by a mere 17 percent of the city’s voters, recently gave rabble-rouser the Rev. Al Sharpton a mouthpiece at City Hall. Now Sharpton is the titular mayor and threatened to shut down the Verrazano Bridge and New York City. White flags were raised over the Brooklyn Bridge in recognition of our city’s surrender to mayhem and lawlessness.
Everyone thinks they are immune from history’s inexorable course. Apathy and indifference prevailed while the radical madman, Hitler, a nobody in 1923, rose up to win a relatively minor percentage of the popular vote on the Nazi Party line and became chancellor of Germany in 10 years.
The ancient story of the inhabitants of the walled city of Jericho is often told. They defied the words of the prophets and saw their city crumble as Joshua led the Israelites to victory in the Battle of Jericho. The Canaanites refused to listen and they perished.
Today, the latter-day prophets are the visionaries who see the future and have been spreading the message to save our city, state and nation from the destructive path we are on. De Blasio campaigned on a promise to “end the era of stop-and-frisk policing” and has kept that promise since he has been mayor.
Last year, Republican candidates warned voters that de Blasio and the Democratic candidates’ anti-law enforcement agenda and backlash against stop-and-frisk would return our city back to the bad old days of crime, chaos and gun violence before Rudy Giuliani was mayor. Murders peaked at more than 2,200 per year under Mayor David Dinkins, causing millions of people to flee the city because it was too dangerous to live here.
Since then, the city has earned the distinction of being the safest large city in America, protected by the proactive policing policies of Republican administrations for the past 20 years. In de Blasio’s first year on the job, crime, shootings and chaos are on the rise since the police are not stopping people and taking guns off the street, and the criminals are emboldened as a result.
This summer, shootings, auto theft and serious assaults were up over last year’s numbers citywide, and fewer illegal guns were taken off the streets. CompStat data shows an up to 1,500 percent increase in shootings in some precincts. Now the squeegee men are back, costumed shakedown artists are harassing tourists in Times Square and more criminal suspects are resisting arrest and assaulting cops.
We spoke out vociferously about law and order, public safety and fiscal sanity and the threat of the new progressive agenda that would destroy our city, just as it almost did more than two decades ago when liberal Democrats were in charge.
We implored voters to stand up for our police officers, who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect the safety and security of all New Yorkers, but 75 percent of voters stayed home. As a result of widespread voter apathy, de Blasio, the most progressive mayor in our city’s history, was elected with a mere 17 percent of the voting population.
Now Sharpton — the lawbreaker, thug and charlatan who has been stirring up every ugly racial confrontation in America — is dictating to our mayor, police commissioner and the city, and they are kneeling at Sharpton’s feet. The total breakdown of law and order has begun and our beloved city is being brutally torn apart before our eyes.
Elections have consequences. Voting matters. We will continue spreading the message to vote, get registered and get involved in the Party of Lincoln.
We have a great opportunity to deliver that message for our fellow citizens at our upcoming All-Star Candidates Rally Aug. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus meeting hall, in Glen Oaks, to hear the words of our prophets to save our city, state and nation.
Phil Orenstein
President
Queens Village Republican Club
Queens Village
