By Sarmad Khojasteh
Editor’s note: We continue our discussion
about the future of the GOP in Westchester with
an op-ed from Sarmad Khojasteh, who ran for
State Senate this spring. He brings a different
narrative to a party in desperate need of new
life. Read our Jan. 19 story on Sarmad at risingmediagroup.com.
Khojasteh writes: Irving Dilliard said,
“Historically, dissent is the way the voice of
prophecy is first heard.”
Today, the Republican Party in Westchester County finds itself reeling following successive electoral landslides – in November 2017 and April 2018 – and on the eve of what, by all accounts, will be a challenging political environment in November 2018. While the party faithful are rightfully disappointed, if not altogether disillusioned, the party’s leadership cannot resign itself to simply incurring another round of electoral defeats in the fall. Instead, it is critical that Westchester Republicans define benchmarks for success beyond winning elections.
While the Party must continue to battle for electoral victories in the near term, as voters deserve nothing less, the party must define its success to include incrementally and directionally rebranding the Westchester Republican Party. Progress on this front would include broadening the party’s base of support by, among other things, running candidates that offer compelling narratives that resonate with voters across the political spectrum and unshackle the party from the caricature depicted by the national media or our Democratic opponents; offering the party as an independent-minded, policy-focused alternative to the Democratic machine by making social mobility to the centerpiece of its legislative agenda and offering concrete solutions to the problems facing lower- and middle-income New Yorkers, not simply arguing against high taxes and corruption; and forcefully drawing contrasts with the National Republican Party, if not outright rejecting the extreme positions that have plagued the party.
Such progress, even in the face of repeated electoral defeats, will ensure that the Westchester Republican Party is a viable alternative to Democratic machine in New York State once the Trump-fueled “blue wave” recedes, and that the center of gravity for our party is Westchester County, not Washington, D.C.
In regards to the last point, it has become plain that for many in Westchester County, today’s National Republican Party does not resemble anything close to their father’s Republican Party. Too often, national Republicans appear to have set aside measured and thoughtful policymaking in favor of reactive and bombastic grandstanding; President Reagan’s once “Big Tent” party, too willingly, has permitted itself to be used as a vehicle by what Sen. John McCain so aptly called “agents of intolerance;” a party that proudly was bound together by broad unifying principles has become no less reliant on a coalition of disparate interests groups than its Democratic counterpart, and worse yet, the National Republican Party has come to be identified with precisely the litmus tests and rigid orthodoxy for which Republicans of a prior generation derided the Democratic Party.
Until recently, Republicans in Westchester County were able to serve honorably and, as a result, win elections. However, the National Republican Party’s ongoing decay and the dysfunction presently devastating our national politics is leaving many to wonder whether they can identify with either national political party.
Invariably, Westchester Republicans are being forced to answer for positions taken by the National Republican Party with which we have nothing to do, and which have nothing to do with the traditional Republican governing philosophy which historically has been defined by, a respect for regional differences, aversion to one-size-fits-all public policymaking, suspicion of concentrated power – whether power is concentrated in Washington, D.C., Wall Street, K Street, or in our national political parties – and a reverence for the principles of federalism and local control.
While the blame for Washington’s woes undoubtedly can be shared by both national political parties, it would be dangerous folly for Westchester Republicans to not consider their own national party’s role in the fiasco, and to fail to meaningfully draw distinctions between our values here in Westchester and those promoted by the National Republican Party.
While some may question the merits of battling for such progress while losing elections, it is important to recall that Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan’s lone dissent proclaiming that the Constitution is “color-blind” in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, where the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation law, was not vindicated for another 58 years until Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregated schools unconstitutional.
If the current political environment destines our party to suffer electoral defeats in the near term, we owe it to our democracy and the voters we seek to serve to pen well-reasoned, eloquent, and passionate dissenting opinions in support of our values and governing philosophy. In doing so, we will ensure that, when the tides of history shift our hard fought campaigns will have contributed to the arc of historical change.
Let us heed the words of former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who observed that “wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.” Today, there is no dispute that Westchester Republicans are facing their share of problems. However, with those problems, an opportunity to lay claim to our own brand of Republicanism exists; and how Westchester Republicans approach the opportunity before them will determine the future of the Republican Party in Westchester County.
Any Westchester Republicans who wish to offer their views or thoughts may email us at risingmediagroup.com.
