Opinion: Bukharian Jewish Community Should Register As Republicans

The Bukharian Jewish Community reached a milestone in its political development on July 29, 2019 when the brand new political club “Our Voice” met for the first time. At the political club, one message stood out: the Bukharian Jewish Community must register as Democrats. This move was declared as crucial for our community’s survival, and was promoted as the only possible way to stop the menacing socialist wave that has irreversibly altered local, state, and national Democratic Party politics. The supporters of this idea thus believe that, if our community could mobilize and vote for the moderates in the Democratic primaries, we could stop the socialist wave from sweeping Queens and save our community. However, this way of thinking is flawed. The Republican Party much better reflects our community’s views. It supports the traditional family structure, the curtailing of abortion, and religion/religious instruction as a central institution of the community. It is also very supportive of Israel, businesses, lower taxes, fewer regulations, gun rights, energy independence, fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget, legal immigration, and a well-defended national border. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has irreversibly embraced an extremely socialist platform that stands opposite to everything our community stands for (tradition, religion, business, etc.); with even so-called moderates being opposed more to how fast the socialist reforms are being implemented than to the socialist reforms themselves. We can’t expect our Democratic representatives to vote against their own party’s line on issues such as illegal immigration, abortion, taxes, and business regulations just to reciprocate our support; no matter whether that representative is a moderate or a socialist. Those who support registering as Democrats have got to understand that it does not matter how much Democratic politicians say they support our community, but rather what bills they introduce, how they vote on those bills, and what they say when the audience is not predominantly made up of Bukharian Jews. Two wonderful examples of this are Melinda Katz and Rory Lancman. Both Mr. Lancman and Ms. Katz, despite being self-proclaimed moderates and so-called supporters of our community, have gone on the record officially stating their support for the closing of Riker’s Island as well as Caban’s list of “non-prosecutable crimes of poverty”. Some of those “non-prosecutable crimes of poverty” include burglary in the 3^rd degree, theft of services, shoplifting for an amount under $250, disorderly conduct, trespassing, drug possession, and prostitution. To make matters worse, while Katz simply stated at the Queens DA debate that she “agreed with everything on that list,” Lancman proudly declared at that same debate that “several months before Ms. Caban came out with her list, [Lancman] entered the race with a similar list.” By making such an alarming statement, Lancman was essentially stating that he was the “original and true advocate” of Caban’s dangerous socialist agenda and that he thus deserved the votes of the socialist electorate more than Caban did, despite Caban being one of the poster children of the socialist movement in Queens. By agreeing with Caban’s agenda to close Riker’s Island and to stop prosecuting these offenses for the sake of solving the issue of “mass incarceration”, Katz and Lancman have proven that they value their electability and the opinions of radical socialists over the well-being of their constituents. By agreeing not to prosecute these crimes, our “moderate” Democrats will open the door to a flood of burglary, shoplifting, harassment, trespassing, prostitution, and drug problems to sweep our neighborhoods and destroy our communities. Thus, by encouraging the members of the Bukharian Jewish community to transfer into the Democratic Party, we will not be guaranteeing that those who represent us can get elected. Rather, we will be assuring the election of a bunch of corrupt, cowardly, and hypocritical liars who will not be held accountable for their destructive actions and ruinous policies. They do this by pretending to be “moderates” that support our community while at the same time supporting dangerous socialist policies. The only difference between these “moderates” and their socialist opponents is that the socialists have the courage to proudly proclaim their agenda for everyone to hear instead of flip-flopping all the time. True moderates, on the other hand, are persecuted by the Democratic Party’s political machine and are pushed to vote along the Democrats’ new socialist party line by Democratic Party Whips. Dissent is no longer tolerated in the Democratic Party as its socialist leadership seeks to consolidate the party along one anti-Trump democratic socialist line. Many moderate members of the Democratic Party, such as Joe Lieberman and Dov Hikind, have condemned the Party’s recent irreversible shift towards socialism and declared that they no longer identify with it in any way due to its new authoritarian and socialist nature. I, therefore, call upon any and all Democrats who are truly moderate and who truly oppose the destructive actions and corrupt policies of the socialist-leaning New York Democratic political machine to join the Republican Party instead, a party where they won’t be pushed to vote for socialism at every turn. The Republican Party in New York better reflects our community’s values and will put our community’s welfare first. Republicans have a fair amount of power in local politics, and have already publicly stated on numerous occasions that they would gladly accept any Democrat who would run on the Republican ticket. In 2017, they showed themselves to be truthful when they happily allowed Robert Holden to be the Republican candidate despite his initially being a Democrat. Holden, who describes himself as a centrist and opposes de Blasio’s socialist policies, lost the Democratic primary to socialist Elizabeth Crowley (who garnered 63.7% of the vote). Instead of admitting defeat, Holden admitted that the socialist policies of the Democratic Party were not for him and declared that he would instead run as a Republican in the general election. He went on to win the general election with 50.2% of the vote and became the new City Councilman from District 30. Holden’s case should be an example for all those who call themselves moderate and oppose the socialist wave that has irreversibly altered the Democratic Party. Those who support registering our community as Democrats have also wrongly stated that the Republican Party is too weak to act in support of our community’s interests due to Republicans not being electable in Queens. There is no solid basis to this claim. There are sixteen City Council districts which are partly or entirely located in Queens. Out of those sixteen districts, nine had no Republican contender to stand against the Democratic candidate in 2017, making it impossible to accurately assess how many Republican supporters live in those districts. Two of those districts were District 24, which is represented by Rory Lancman and covers Briarwood, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Holliswood, Kew Garden Hills, Jamaica, Jamaica Estates, and Jamaica Hills; and District 29, which is represented by Karen Koslowitz and covers Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, and Richmond Hill. The other seven districts in Queens that had Republican contenders did not fall entirely to the Democrats. Two of those districts, District 30 and District 32, had Republican victors (Robert Holden and Eric Ulrich, respectively); very clearly showing that the Republican Party still maintains a respectable presence in Queens and can pull off victories with the proper support. In addition, the examination of primary election results vs general election results yields an interesting finding. In District 24, 3,906 people voted for Rory Lancman in the Democratic primaries while 13,620 people voted for Lancman in the general election. The 9,714 people who voted for Lancman in the general election but not in the primaries were members of what is widely known as the “Great Silent Majority”. It is certain that many of these people are to the right of Rory Lancman and his socialist agenda. However, he gained their votes due to the lack of a more conservative alternative. If there was a Republican candidate in the general election, Lancman would have had to fight to keep those voters from defecting towards someone much more representative of their interests. A similar story repeats itself in districts all across Queens, where the masses are forced to vote for a so-called “moderate” with a socialist agenda like Katz and Lancman due to the lack of competition. The only way to counter this is for our communities to put forward our own conservative Bukharian Jewish representatives as Republican candidates for these positions. These will be candidates with whom we can identify, who will not be subservient to the socialist Democratic Party leadership, and for whom we must campaign and vote. Our communities must make it clear to the Democratic Party that they have lost our support due to their socialist policies, and that any Democrats who are truly moderate should run on a Republican ticket (just like Holden did). Our communities must also make sure that Republican candidates are put forward in all districts that lack them. We must channel the Great Silent Majority of voters to stand together with all of the Republican candidates in Queens. We must make it clear to the Democrats that we will only vote for those who truly support our community’s values and that we will never vote for one of their alleged “moderates” like Katz and Lancman. Let our entire great Bukharian Jewish community register as Republicans and put forward successful Republican candidates from our midst!

 By Joshua Nektalov