Beyond their obvious role in separating winners and losers, elections also serve as a lesson to society in general.
They dictate what cultural trends and policies citizens like and don't like.
This was especially true during the presidential election.
The landslide victory for Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans was a clear rejection of the ultra-woke, anti-family, anti-common sense radicalism that dominates not only the Biden-Harris administration but also the Democratic Party.
Trump proposed a course change with his positions on security, parental rights, secure borders, tax cuts and government spending cuts, and a strong military, and voters across the country responded with undeniable support.
Unfortunately, New York's leaders missed that message.
By closing their eyes and ears, Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams are sticking to a failed approach, and voters should be damned.
Government traffic deception
Hochul's name is a synonym for “make everything worse.”
At a time when the city's and state's exorbitant costs of living are already forcing a historic number of middle-class and wealthy taxpayers out the door, imposing a raging congestion tax is the worst of all possible ideas. would fall into this category.
However, Hochul not only did that, but also made the damage even worse through deceptive methods using false claims and timing.
She abruptly and without clear explanation “suspended” taxes before the election to protect suburban Democratic candidates from voter ire, then imposed the plan before all votes were counted. .
Her actions were the height of cynicism, adding insult to injury by claiming that lowering the scheduled daily tax from $15 to $9 would save drivers 40%.
Or, as her office puts it, the program “can save drivers up to $1,500 a year.”
This is the government's approach to saving money. Your payments are now zero, but instead of paying $75 a week for 50 weeks, or $3,750 a year, you'll pay $45 a week, or $2,250 a year.
Presto — You saved $1,500.
If we saved more than this, we would all go bankrupt.
This is a case of consumer fraud, and if a private company were to attempt this, it would likely be challenged in court.
But the government exempts itself from the laws it imposes on others.
her remarriage crisis
Still, the election remains important, with Trump winning an astonishing 44% of the vote in the state and doing particularly well in some black and Latino neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens, Hochul said. should keep an eye on Trump.
She had a close call in the election two years ago, but she didn't save herself by being ambivalent about Trump's victory.
Even as she spoke with him about aid to states, she told others she would rush to introduce a congestion charge to take effect before he took office.
It was an amateurish move.
Thankfully, Trump has promised to abolish taxes, and we hope he does.
Washington's new sheriff will be a gift to commuters and a lesson to Hochul and other Democrats.
Meanwhile, in Albany, the governor is widely seen as a weakling who is squandering his power and pushing the Legislature and donors around.
She doesn't dare tackle big issues like immigration, crime, and spending. Because that would mean confronting the radical left, and she doesn't even have the courage to try.
She runs the MTA, but doesn't lift a finger to go after the agency's ballooning labor and construction costs, or groups of riders who refuse to pay their fares.
To hide her surrender, she's busy with big things and small projects disguised as game-changers.
But she can't hide the evidence that New York is in decline and is lagging far behind the dynamic growth of its competitors.
New York state is expected to lose three more seats after the next census, according to a report.
Drip, drip, drip.
Here's my prediction: Hochul's latest approval rating is just 34%, and hasn't bottomed out yet.
No wonder Republicans are already excited about the possibility of defeating her in 2026.
Adams also plays with words that fool no one.
Last month, he boasted in X that it's “hard to keep track of all the ways we're getting things done for New Yorkers.”
Actually, it's not that difficult as there isn't that much to do.
Witness the background of a homeless maniac charged with three murders in Manhattan on Monday.
revolving door
The mere fact that Ramon Rivera was on the street shows how much of a revolving door the mental health and criminal justice systems are.
Rivera has a long criminal history, with officials saying he has been arrested at least eight times in New York.
He also has mental health issues and has had numerous run-ins with police here and in other states.
“This is a clear example of a criminal justice system and mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers,” Adams said, pointing to some of that history.
That's right, we haven't fixed it.
Three years into office, the mayor still describes himself as an outside critic.
Sadly, it has become his go-to position when he says something.
Hochul's congestion tax scam has shown no resistance, even though success in keeping cars out of Manhattan would likely come at the expense of the city's businesses, from sandwich shops to garages to department stores and theaters. Didn't show it.
And while Adams was elected in 2021 largely because of his police record and promise to fight crime, no one in their right mind would argue that the city is safe.
There are two relevant facts. The NYPD has a bleeding officer on duty.
And current Police Chief Tom Donilon, appointed on an interim basis, will be the third person to hold the position in the last three years.
His predecessor, Edward Caban, resigned under a cloud of corruption.
And Adams himself has the unwanted honor of being the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office.
Combined with his term ending next year, this gives him the opportunity to be more proactive on key issues, including the massive influx of immigrants, which his office says is now nearly 240,000 in New York. It may have motivated him to take a pragmatic approach.
But Adams never complained about open borders, instead insisting only that Albany and Washington help pay the costs, many of which were inflated due to the city's size and incompetence. .
More recently, Adams has developed a hochul habit of falsely claiming to be a prudent steward of taxpayers' money.
The city already spends about $5 billion on immigration, and he recently said his measure would “save taxpayers billions of dollars.”
His theory is that even though the overall cost of providing food, shelter, and health care continues to rise, the number of new arrivals will decline, with some moving out of urban shelters, and that This seems to lead to what he calls “savings.”
That's no more convincing than Mr. Hochul's spin on “savings” on crowding.
In their view, taxpayers live in a safe, orderly and efficient Garden of Eden.
Good luck selling that bull.
