President’s Message for January 2022 by Phil Orenstein
Many of us get involved in politics to make a difference, make an impact, to give back to our communities, or to change the course of history by winning elections. The motives for me are all the above. In this sweet land of liberty, I can’t see doing anything less with our spare time. As a club, I believe we have made a huge impact on our community of Eastern Queens and beyond, and enjoyed many victories over the past year. We are riding a massive red wave into 2022, and there is a great deal to be grateful and optimistic about.
As we head into the New Year, it’s helpful to look back at the great things we’ve accomplished. Perhaps our biggest triumph was the astonishing November election results in our club’s catchment area in Eastern Queens. Outnumbered five to one in party enrollment, the data showed that most of the Election Districts turned from blue to red in the mayoral election!
A significant majority voted Republican for the first time in decades. In this liberal part of town, many Democrats are realizing that their party has changed from what it was just a few years ago, and they are defecting to our side in droves! Our club played a big role in this transformation by getting the word out, mailing and distributing our newsletters, knocking on doors, campaigning for our candidates, and hosting inspiring monthly meetings. We made a huge impact, and we warmly welcome all recovering Democrats!
Throughout the pandemic, many of these meetings we hosted on Zoom, with nationally and internationally renowned guest speakers addressing critical issues. We hosted China expert Gordon Chang, Dr. Sandra Alfonsi, calling in from Israel, who has been rewriting the US civics standards to save our schools from leftist indoctrination, former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, and Trent England, founder of the “Save our States” project speaking about saving the Electoral College. We hosted a Sliwa vs. Mateo Republican primary debate, where Mateo was a no-show, and many more.
We took the lead throughout the year. Earlier this year, Democrats launched a diabolical fraud on the voters of NYC to undermine the Republican Party. This multi-million-dollar scam perpetrated by Democrats from the real estate industry conned 1000’s of Republicans into switching their party enrollment through telemarketer calls, texts, and fake voter registrations in the mail with the Democrat box already checked off. We saw this as a serious threat and refused to remain silent, although we heard nothing from the party establishment. We launched a first-rate website, videos, and radio appearances, and we fired back with a vast media and voter alert campaign for NYC voters to register and vote Republican to break the one-party monopoly destroying NYC. We stood up for our principles and fought for our party even when it seems our party is unwilling to fight for itself!
Later this year I received an email alert from Dawn Eskew, founder of Personhood NY who warned us about the latest scam by Democrats to rig our system of fair and honest elections. No one was paying attention to the three deceptive ballot propositions that would aid and abet voter fraud. So, we spearheaded a voter education drive for all voters to turn over their ballots and vote “no” on these ballot propositions. For many weeks on end leading up to Election Day we were out at shopping centers educating the voters, handing out 1000’s of flyers door to door, and blasting out the message to the press and social media. Then just before the election, the State GOP and Conservative Party got involved with a “Just Say No” tour and continuous radio spots. As a united front, we all were the winners, and the voters of NYS defeated all three fraudulent ballot props!
We were on the forefront of all the issues. We put out position papers on most all the consequential issues: antisemitism, the danger of China, stuffing the ballot box with mail-in ballots, corruption of the Board of Elections, the war on private property, Jewish voters beware of the repetition of history and stop voting Democrat, the real danger of Marijuana, vaccine mandates – today’s civil rights struggle, and so much more. You read many of these articles in our newsletter president’s message and in various media publications. Furthermore, we took legal action against the corruption of the Board of Elections and won in court. We enjoyed electoral victory in the Primary Election, where we were influential in the big win of Curtis Sliwa over the establishment candidate, Fernando Mateo. From day one we supported Vickie Paladino and celebrated her astounding victory as City Councilwoman, flipping a blue seat to red in Northeast Queens. At our recent Christmas/Chanukah Party, she said; “Queens Village Republican Club has been my home, they gave me my mic back in 2018, and I always said I would never ever forget them for that.”
This was a year of big wins in Queens, Long Island, the city, state, and throughout the country! Thank you to all our members and friends who were part of it, whether you donated your time, your money, or your prayers. We are excited to build on this for greater victories in 2022. We’re looking forward to a great New Year’s kickoff club meeting, to promising young Republican candidates, to expanding our club and our party, and to join together on March 20, 2022, for our gala Lincoln Dinner in the heart of Queens, the hometown of President Trump, to “Let Freedom Ring” in a magnificent display of patriotism, love of country, and the principles of the Republican Party. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
