Wendy Long was a terrific candidate who ran against Kirsten Gillibrand for US Senate in 2012? Does anyone remember Wendy Long? Gillibrand won by more than 70%!
Long didn’t even try to make much of a dent in the Orthodox community and this year’s Republican Chele Farley - Gillibrand’s opponent, has gotten off to a much better start in that regard. Wednesday, the Coalition for Jewish Values, which Rabbi Yaakov Menken represents, hosted a meet and greet for Chele Farley. It was held in Young Israel KGH's auditorium, where at least 100 important dignitaries from the Orthodox communities from all of NYC were there to hear her speak.
There is no question that Farley is absolutely the choice for anyone who cares about Israel, NY’s fiscal health and indeed America’s vitality. She has a background in Wall St
where she was quite successful in finance and academically she has 2 engineering degrees from Stanford University. Gillibrand turned out to be a Leftist Democrat who is sympatico with the newly elected Alexandria Acasio-Ortiz as far as abolishing ICE and has prevaricated on the legislation to punish those engaging in BDS as well as not signing on to the Taylor Force Act which would hold back money to the Palestinian Authority so long as they keep rewarding the families of terrorist martyrs with cash.
Chele Farley holds none of these crooked views and would back Israel whole heartedly based on what she has spoken on the matter. Also, she as Trump is, a negotiator
as she says that she has been in her finance career. She says that she would have negotiated with President Trump on the tax deal that his party in congress passed to get a better deal for well-to-do NY’s who have high deductions for property and state income taxes. She also feels that she would have a good relationship with both sides of the isle being that she has experience dealing with Democrats because her husband is one - she could successfully bring home more of the money that we as NYorkers, a donor state, pay into the Federal gov’t ; money, she says that we could desperately use for infrastructure and education facility upgrades.
Here is the problem however. Because Chele is such a no-nonsense doer type of a person, I feel that she hasn’t yet learned how to schmooze a crowd enough. Her talks, from
what I have seen on YouTube and last night are very short. She also doesn’t talk that much about herself as a person which is a necessary thing in politics because people need
to bond with the candidate as a person. People have to feel that a candidate fits into their “world” and even into their community. The night she spoke to the Orthodox crowd,
she spoke for 8 minutes out of a 2 hour planned event. I don’t know if this was her idea or the coordinators of the event. Towards the Q & A session one of the coordinators
stood at the podium while she sat down having to answer from her seat! Who thought this was a good idea?
Farley needs to do what the insurgent Acasio-Ortiz did running against Crowley. Farley needs to court the Orthodox vote very heavily and make herself “haimish” in their midst.
If she learns a few Yiddish and Hebrew words even better. People have to become excited with her enough to create a buzz that we must go out and vote for her. She needs to
do the same with other religious groups be it Catholic, Singh, Buddhist and Muslim.
She has to hit the Upstate NY area HARD! That’s where she’d get her Republican votes and that’s where they are hurting economically. Upstate NY is Trump country and where you find all the “deplorables” (according to Hillary). She must engage them with a listening tour the same way Hillary did when she ran for the same Senate seat! That’s one of the few things that Hillary ever did right! Once Chele Farley will hear what’s on their minds she will be able to “feel their pain” and speak with them on a level that people will be able to feel her heart! Then they will know that Chele Farley is their ‘messenger’.
Don’t get me wrong. Chele already comes across as being sincere and having a can-do approach to governing. It also doesn’t hurt that she has a very charismatic
presence. But all that is not enough if people don’t feel and see her as a firebrand as Gillibrand is doubtless able to do for her followers. In these times where family life
and religious participation in Temples and Churches are diminished (except in the Jewish Orthodox where there is an ascendancy) people are starved for an ideology that
they can attach to and call their own. That explains all the ridiculous marches that the Liberals have where they wear and say the most ludicrous things! People on the
right are also looking for more meaning and solutions to life’s problems. This is where politics and spirituality intersect.
Donald Trump took the country by storm with his message of straight talk of dealing with nuclear threats be it from North Korea or Iran. He also spoke forcefully
how we need to stick up for ourselves when it came to fair trade even with our allies and how we need to decimate terrorism at its core. Trump taught us something -
that being forceful and aggressive in an age when wrong leadership is leading us astray has to be called out in no uncertain terms. Trump takes it overboard sometimes
but nice and calm rhetoric in these times against the cult-like entrenched yet horribly misguided Democratic leadership in this state, will not cut it!
People in NY state, as in the rest of the country, are struggling with ideological confusion as well as bread and butter issues. Our children are more and more being
brought up on social media with often tragic consequences and very little guidance and TLC from their parents. Opiate use and other psychopharmacological medications are overused and abused by youth and adults alike. Suicides rates are up 25% in the last 15 to 20 years often hitting the middle aged white men group the most, who are locked out of the labor market and otherwise don’t see much use to their lives. However suicides are up for children as well, as social media cliques tend to isolate some and viciously bully others relentlessly to the point that some helpless and desperate youth see no worth to their lives and subsequently act on that false, pernicious notion. Academic failure or substantial minority underachievement in school, joining of gangs and other forms of violence and criminal life bloom when youth have no positive direction in life and can only identify with activity that speaks to their anger and alienation.
Here in NY city, mayor Deblasio, to his credit, has instituted social/emotional learning programs with regular discussion groups on how students deal with life’s adversities.
This is a wonderful thing where children learn great character lessons such as respect for others, compassion, perseverance, forgiveness and tolerance for others’ foibles and even with one’s own. This is something that could be promoted on a state-wide scale and even introduced in the Senate on a national scale (considering all the horrendous school shootings that we see all across the country) as a wonderful addition to public schools curricula where such programs are not available. Farley could even give credit to De Blasio about this and thereby show Liberals that she can accept great ideas no matter where they come from. On the other hand, promoting more charter schools and
funding private schools with such programs also are ways to foster the mental and emotional health for our youth that is often lacking in many public schools!
The reality is that Republicans have a great disadvantage in the Blue state of NY! But people upstate are hurting for jobs and economic development and the Jewish Orthodox are very afraid of the onslaught of the radical Democrat Party's shift away from Israel, the trend towards Socialism which goes contrary to the industrious and entrepreneurial spirit of the Jewish people, the abandonment of supporting religious institutions (which serve as foundations of proper citizenship for society), open borders which can bring in elements that are hostile to Jews such as what we see in Europe, and being lax on law and order which could lead us backward to the way the city, state and country was for 3 decades starting from the rioting of the mid 60’s through the crack and crime epidemic of the 90’s.
I am rooting strongly for Ms. Chele Farley to become our next US Senator from the state of NY replacing the Bernie Sanders wannabe Kirsten Gillibrand but it will take for Chele Farley to make her own case forcefully and with heart. Statewide there are (as of 2 years ago) a 53% over 47% ratio between Democrats and Republicans here in NY - (5,800,500) Dems Vs. 2,700,500 Repubs. It’s a hurdle to overcome but it can be done!
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