George Santos- the accident was waiting to happen. Now, it’s finally happened. Perhaps it’s time to take a step back and look at the entire situation. Even though Santos took advantage of a very broken and corrupt system, he did get elected to Congress- not a small task. I was one of the many who voted for him based on the information available at the time, and his words were much better aligned with my thinking and my feelings than those of his opponent. That’s what creates votes and sways voters. Whether the information was based on lies was not known at election time, and those who had information regarding his lack of qualifications that he touted did not come forward.
Move now to the political ‘machines’ in New York, many of which exist to fill their own coffers by supporting only candidates who will kowtow to them and make ‘donations’ to the party and are then allowed to run for office. They often will oppose an honest candidate in favor of one of the ‘good’ candidates who are too honest. Look at some local primary races of the last 15 years. Some of us have seen it up close and personal. I know I have, but the names are not important, at least until the election of Santos.
Where was the background check, the verification of qualifications and claims? The party whose ticket he ran on never did their due diligence to vet him as qualified to run. Had he made no claims regarding his education or background, I would have been happy to help him with his campaign or election, but this was not the case. He lied, and nobody checked. The opposition party, which normally will go to any length to find dirt never checked him out. The Santos election was an accident waiting to happen! And it did!
Now we have a situation where many contributed to his campaign, devoted hours of campaign effort, and we’ve elected a liar to the United States Congress. Shame on us for not asking the questions when they should have been asked. People are calling for a recall election. That is not available at the federal level. There is only one road to follow at this point- let the House of Representatives Ethics Committee do their job, let the investigations by all of the attorneys general and the DOJ move ahead. The best possible outcome is that he will resign. The worst? He won’t resign and will turn out to do a better job than some of the congressmen who have been elected who don’t follow their oaths of office and use their government jobs to enrich themselves. How many, and you can likely count them in small numbers, have not shown massive growth in their net worth since taking office? It’s no longer public service for most of them- it’s self-service. And after the investigations, if it is shown that money changed hands to avoid due diligence, let the heads roll wherever necessary. The government answers to the people, and the ‘machines’ are self-serving entities that don’t represent our best interests.
No, it’s time to stop all the haggling and proposing of so many actions and just let things run their course. What goes around comes around- there’s karma in everything that happens. I’m disgusted, too, but I’m willing to wait for the process to be completed in the House and the courts, and let the chips fall where they may!
Eric Spinner