By Phil Orenstein
President of Queens Village Republican Club

If Curtis Sliwa was our mayor, Lee Zeldin governor, and if Donald Trump was president today, our city, state, country, and the world would not be in the chaos it’s in today.  Voters are waking up to this reality and  reexamining their voting habits.

According to a recent Rasmussen poll of likely voters, more than half of voters in America said they will vote for Trump in the 2024 general election. What’s more, 30% of Democrats and 50% of Black voters are likely to vote for him.

The illegal migrant crisis and global events are opening people’s eyes that the Democrat Party has embraced evil. The savage Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, aka Israel’s 9-11, is causing Americans to reconsider the way they vote.  Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of ACT for America, reported that she overheard two female college students having a conversation about the war on Israel. They both said they were planning to vote Democrat no matter what because of Roe v Wade, but were now thinking again because of the left’s anti-Semitism. “How can Rashida Tlaib defend what is happening to all those babies and women,” one of the young women remarked. The other one said disappointedly, “maybe Democrats really are anti-Semitic.”

There is a great shift in voting behavior going on today. But why do the remaining holdouts still vote Democrat? The blunt truth is that it’s all about the money. Mayor Eric Adams famously said: “show me the money … that’s what it’s all about” and that applies to voters and voting blocks that have been paid off by Democrats’ political bribes for decades.

The biggest taxpayer financed government boondoggle in American history was President Johnson’s War on Poverty. $20 trillion in government assistance went into anti-poverty programs and agencies, including food stamps, Medicaid, Head Start, Job Corps, subsidized housing, and other welfare programs which did little to lift people out of poverty, but kept them voting Democrat for generations. The money never helped put the poor on a path to a middle class life, hard work, opportunity, prosperity, and pursuit of the American Dream. Instead, the money flowed directly into the pockets of government bureaucrats, welfare agency bosses, labor union leaders, and into the coffers of the Democrat Party.  

Citizens United opened up the floodgates to multi-billion dollar Pay to Play corruption in politics. In a landmark decision in 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (FEC) that the First Amendment free speech rights allow corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on their chosen political candidates, independent of their campaigns.

Liberals were originally blasting the Citizens United ruling for the dramatic expansion of political influence that wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups would have in elections, that would negatively impact our democracy and the battle against corruption in politics. But they are now popping their champaign corks since the ruling has allowed unions, woke companies, and high-tech corporations to give billions of dollars to the Democrat Party and their candidates.

Super PACs are the vehicles by which billionaires like George Soros give tainted money to Democrats. According to FEC filings, 25% of America’s top billionaires poured money into Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, while Trump received money from only 14%.  The Democrat Party gets big money funneled into super PACs from unions who Pay to Play to get good contracts, corporations who get no-bid contracts, and wealthy donors like Soros who get pro-criminal DAs like Alvin Bragg elected.

COPE is the UFT’s super PAC.  The UFT asks employees to give a percentage of their salary to COPE to make sure they get a good contract. But in reality COPE gives it directly to the Democrat Party and nothing goes to Republicans. They mount huge Get Out The Vote drives for Democrat candidates, manning the phone banks, knocking on doors, and campaigning at poll sites.

This is the core one-party political corruption that is rotting our schools and destroying America. Democrats are the most corrupt party in United States history. People vote for them because of the money they get from Democrat policies, legislation and of course, kickbacks. Follow the money. The big Labor Unions, including the teacher’s unions, building trades, SEIU, and many others were the major donors to Kathy Hochul in last year’s election cycle, who in turn received huge contracts and payouts.  CUNY professors in NYC, in the largest urban university system in the United States, work only 30 weeks a year, nine hours per week, and make over $150,000 a year. So, they register and vote Democrat to say thanks.  According to statistics published by Brooklyn College Professor Mitchell Langbert and others, Democrat college professors outnumber Republicans by nearly nine to one. They indoctrinate their students to vote Democrat and demonize Republicans. It’s all about the money.

Today, New York City looks like a third world country. Who in their right mind would vote for a party that destroyed NYC, a party that slashed the NYPD budget by $1 billion, a party that’s pro-criminal, anti-American, socialist, anti-traditional families, and pro-Palestinian?

People are out for their own self-interests and by nature vote accordingly. People are bought. The reason they vote Democrat is because Pay to Play politics is the status quo. That’s the way they funnel money to church groups, pastors, anti-poverty programs, labor union officials, non-profit organizations, professors, teachers, civil service employees, and so many others. As soon as CUNY professors and other civil servants retire, they move out of NYC and take their taxpayer funded retirement accounts and pensions and relocate in a paradise of their choice while fellow New Yorkers are left with the rats, crime, migrants and a greater tax burden.    

Democrat voters don’t like the illegal migrant crisis, the crime, the failing schools but they think to themselves: “If I don’t vote Democrat I won’t get that good contract, keep my job, or have money. The crime, the inflation, the migrant crisis are bad, but if I move out of NYC when I retire, my family and I will do well.” Yes, you will have money now and a nice retirement, but your kids and grandkids will suffer, and who knows if we will have a city, or a country left if you continue voting for Democrats.

A strong two-party system is best for everyone. Democrats want a one-party system without Republican opposition. The end result of a one-party system is the same throughout the history of fascism, communism, and monarchy: the destruction of society and the human soul. We need a two-party system, and  the only way is to vote Republican!