I believe, without reservation, that Tom Suozzi was the best County Executive Nassau ever had. Even so, given Mr. Gulotta’s incompetence, Mr. Mangano’s corruption and Ms. Curran’s feckless vapidity, that’s a pretty low bar. Mr. Suozzi could have even been a transformational figure if then Legislator Craig Johnson hadn’t blocked his plan to remake the county’s revenue stream.
Years of fiscal and social dysfunction followed because of that one vote, and the county and its residents have paid a very heavy price for it. Mr. Johnson should wear that around his neck for the rest of his life.
The County Executive Tom Suozzi was a breath of fresh air in a fossilized political environment. However, Congressman Tom Suozzi has descended into self-parody.
A veteran of retail politics, he has squandered a good deal of energy sponsoring bills he knows don’t have a chance of passing. His social media timeline is 10 percent policy, 90 percent effusive pandering over the national holiday of every ethnic group under the sun.
As a member of the so-called “Problem Solvers Caucus,” he is literally and figuratively, a pawn who needs to be sacrificed.
Unfortunately for Mr. Suozzi, politics in America have become completely binary, and even the idea of compromise doesn’t play anymore unless of course, you really WANT to be played. It marks him as either naïve or complicit. His advocacy for replacing Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker was contemptible.
His response to the murder of George Floyd was hollow, canned, and soulless. He wrote, “Our nation’s racial disparities in income, education, housing, criminal justice, law enforcement, and healthcare are real.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Suozzi, he has been a willing executioner in maintaining those very disparities. “Last week, I participated in a House Ways and Means hearing focused on exactly this” he boasted. He participated in a hearing. On exactly this. Well, there you have it.
While I believe Ms. D’Arrigo could be better polished in her messaging, that hardly matters. We need genuine Democrats, not sell-outs and equivocators to fill seats in Congress. Unlike Mr. Suozzi, Joe Biden can read a room. To his credit, he has moved his agenda to better suit the needs of the times and has reached out to the Sanders wing to help shape policy. He offered Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a seat on climate affairs, and she wisely accepted a place at the table. Biden surprised me. He gets it. He’s leading the Party to where it WANTS to go. And where it HAS to go.
Democrats are moving to a new consensus, one that will return it to its New Deal roots and reshape the economy to the needs of the 21st Century, from a workforce ravaged by automation and globalization, a health care system that ruthlessly bankrupts them, and a tax code that viciously punishes labor while showering limitless rewards on rent-seeking, tax arbitrage, and asset accumulation.
Let us be blunt: There is no place for Mr. Suozzi within this new consensus. Like all Nassau Democrats, he is blissfully complacent regarding the political and social turmoil the nation finds itself in.
If the nation is going to move forward to repair the damage of the past four, and the past forty years, it’s going to need Representatives who will push that agenda forward without hesitation or compromise. We need to clean house of the old school back slappers who cannot or will not grasp the need for aggressive new policies in health care delivery, taxation, and economic policy.
While this a heavy lift politically, given the size and breadth of the Jay Jacobs rent-a-crowd, this is a critical moment for the country.
We can’t waste time. We need people with the fire and the commitment to see new policies implemented. Registered Democrats need to turn out in size and number to overcome the votes of patronage hires and Party grifters. I needn’t remind them this is no ordinary time. If the past few weeks haven’t convinced them, nothing will.
I urge you to show up and vote for Melanie D’Arrigo in the Democratic primary on June 23rd. This is no time for compromise. Take the moment. Solve the problem.
Donald Davret
Roslyn
