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To Help the New York GOP Stand Again, Build a New Base
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:45:00
By K.T. MacFarland
After a long and steady decline, the New York Republican Party has finally died. For one of the only times in history, our entire state political power structure is controlled solely by Democrats.
The tragedy is the only people who didn’t see it coming—or if they did, were unwilling to do anything about it—were the Republican leaders themselves. For years, they’ve whined about changing demographics, a hostile national environment for Republicans, a biased media. But rather than reinvigorating the party by articulating core principles and then sticking by them, or welcoming in women and young people and legal immigrants, Albany Republicans took the coward’s way out.
They lived hand-to-mouth from election to election, with every man for himself, selling off their principles one after another in hopes of perpetuating themselves in office, while their party went down in flames.
Well, they’ve finally run out of principles to jettison and they’ve finally been jettisoned themselves. Good riddance.
If Albany raises taxes, it will be the Democrats who do it. If Albany favors New York City at the expense of the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas, it will be the Democrats who do it. If, in spite of our dire economic straits, Albany increases government spending and drives our economy into a ditch, it will be the Democrats who do it.
So what are Republicans to do? Start working together. Create an organized opposition. Articulate a few core principles and stick to them. Open up Republican organizations around the state to women, legal immigrants and young people and encourage them to take leadership positions in them. For too long, we’ve taken the attitude that women belong in the Women’s Federation, youth in College or Young Republicans, and different minorities in their own Republican clubs. We’ve cordoned off the New York Republican Party as the private preserve of old, white males.
According to Orange County Chairman Bill DeProspo, one of the most energetic and successful Republican leaders in state, “The challenge is not what to do, but how do we do it.” If the New York State Republican Party is to have any realistic chance of being taken seriously, they have to look to qualified Republican women to assume leadership roles.
DeProspo speaks from experience. In Orange County, Republicans hold 75 percent of all elected offices and over one-third of those offices are held by qualified Republican women. Assembly member Annie Rabbit. County Clerk Donna Benson and Family Court Judges Carol Klein and Lori Currier-Woods have won landslide elections to office in Orange County.
Republicans must also stop living in the past and turn to the next generation. Hofstra College Republican President Sean Nabi, son of Iranian immigrants, has built an organization from the grassroots by showing up at college events, inviting speakers, talking to the media and being pro-active in spite of Hofstra’s campus being overwhelmingly Democratic. In less than a year, Nabi has grown Hofstra College Republicans from just a handful to hundreds of members.
Finally, it’s time New York Republicans stopped being gloomy. New Yorkers are the most entrepreneurial, innovative, creative people in the country. Our forbearers were immigrants who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, whether it was in the Adirondacks in the 1700s or Lake Erie in the 1800s or Lower Manhattan in the 1900s. Every time an industry in New York faded, we created new ones to take its place, from farming to shipping to manufacturing to banking to high tech. We’re not the kind of people who want a hand out. We may occasionally need a hand up, but mostly we want government to create the conditions where we can do it ourselves.
If New York Republicans can capture that sentiment, we can rise again. New York is the land where people reinvent themselves every day. So can the New York Republican Party.
After a long and steady decline, the New York Republican Party has finally died. For one of the only times in history, our entire state political power structure is controlled solely by Democrats.
The tragedy is the only people who didn’t see it coming—or if they did, were unwilling to do anything about it—were the Republican leaders themselves. For years, they’ve whined about changing demographics, a hostile national environment for Republicans, a biased media. But rather than reinvigorating the party by articulating core principles and then sticking by them, or welcoming in women and young people and legal immigrants, Albany Republicans took the coward’s way out.
They lived hand-to-mouth from election to election, with every man for himself, selling off their principles one after another in hopes of perpetuating themselves in office, while their party went down in flames.
Well, they’ve finally run out of principles to jettison and they’ve finally been jettisoned themselves. Good riddance.
If Albany raises taxes, it will be the Democrats who do it. If Albany favors New York City at the expense of the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas, it will be the Democrats who do it. If, in spite of our dire economic straits, Albany increases government spending and drives our economy into a ditch, it will be the Democrats who do it.
So what are Republicans to do? Start working together. Create an organized opposition. Articulate a few core principles and stick to them. Open up Republican organizations around the state to women, legal immigrants and young people and encourage them to take leadership positions in them. For too long, we’ve taken the attitude that women belong in the Women’s Federation, youth in College or Young Republicans, and different minorities in their own Republican clubs. We’ve cordoned off the New York Republican Party as the private preserve of old, white males.
According to Orange County Chairman Bill DeProspo, one of the most energetic and successful Republican leaders in state, “The challenge is not what to do, but how do we do it.” If the New York State Republican Party is to have any realistic chance of being taken seriously, they have to look to qualified Republican women to assume leadership roles.
DeProspo speaks from experience. In Orange County, Republicans hold 75 percent of all elected offices and over one-third of those offices are held by qualified Republican women. Assembly member Annie Rabbit. County Clerk Donna Benson and Family Court Judges Carol Klein and Lori Currier-Woods have won landslide elections to office in Orange County.
Republicans must also stop living in the past and turn to the next generation. Hofstra College Republican President Sean Nabi, son of Iranian immigrants, has built an organization from the grassroots by showing up at college events, inviting speakers, talking to the media and being pro-active in spite of Hofstra’s campus being overwhelmingly Democratic. In less than a year, Nabi has grown Hofstra College Republicans from just a handful to hundreds of members.
Finally, it’s time New York Republicans stopped being gloomy. New Yorkers are the most entrepreneurial, innovative, creative people in the country. Our forbearers were immigrants who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, whether it was in the Adirondacks in the 1700s or Lake Erie in the 1800s or Lower Manhattan in the 1900s. Every time an industry in New York faded, we created new ones to take its place, from farming to shipping to manufacturing to banking to high tech. We’re not the kind of people who want a hand out. We may occasionally need a hand up, but mostly we want government to create the conditions where we can do it ourselves.
If New York Republicans can capture that sentiment, we can rise again. New York is the land where people reinvent themselves every day. So can the New York Republican Party.
