12 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • FEBRUARY 2021
CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS
FOR OR AGAINST DEMOCRACY?
BY JAY JACOBS
New York State Democratic
Committee chairman
Because I am the New York State Democratic
Committee chairman, there
are many who will immediately discount
my words as political. But last
month’s insurrection and riot, for me
and most Americans, was a defining
moment for our country. It was a moment
of clarity. There is nothing more
important to me than this country.
My family comes second, my party a
distant third.
Without this country, I wouldn’t have a
family. My father’s ancestors emigrated
in the 1840s in search of a better life.
My mother fled Nazi Germany in 1939
in order to save her life. The democracy
they were drawn to, imperfect as it is,
created everything we hold dear. And,
at our end of the bargain, as citizens of
a democracy, is that we accept the results
of free and fair elections whether
we like them or not.
For the attack on our democracy,
the former president needs to be
impeached. I have also called for the
resignation of the four members of
Congress from New York State who
voted against the certification of the
Electoral College — even after the
violent insurrection.
Former President Donald Trump,
predicated on the clear lie of a stolen
election, incited his adherents to come
to Washington D.C., and then march
on the Capitol with the malicious intent
of stopping the constitutionally
mandated count of the electoral votes.
He wanted to overturn the election.
He knew there was no massive fraud
and no credibility to his claims. And
so did Lee Zeldin, Nicole Malliatokis,
Elise Stefanik and Chris Jacobs (no
relation, thank God), who propagated
that lie. Their fear of Trump’s base led
them to put opportunism above our
democracy.
Yet as bad as their support of this lie
was, I don’t call for their resignations
because their personal ambitions
got the better of them. History is
replete with examples of failed politicians
who succumbed to the same
temptations.
The New York Foul Four, as well as
all of their Congressional colleagues
who cast that same vote, need to resign
because after seeing what occurred in
their House after hearing the president’s
exhortations to the mob and
after it was clear that those lies were
the cause of an insurrection which
resulted in the desecration of our
Capitol, the death of protestors and
police officers, and an attack on our
Democracy, they continued forward.
This was a violent coup attempt.
These four chose to cast their lot with
the insurrection they were complicit
in fomenting and they now own the
sad consequences of their unpatriotic
judgment. People died because of that
insurrection. They own that. You are
either for democracy or against it.
There is no middle ground.
The Republican Party has no shortage
of honorable, courageous, decent, patriotic
Americans who can represent
those districts. Unfortunately, by
their vote, the New York Foul Four
have clearly established that they are
not among them.
“There is no middle ground.”
POINT OF VIEW
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