Why Long Island Is A Big Success on the Long Road Ahead

The Recent Special Election and Lessons the President, Democrats, and Republicans Should Take From It

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Tuesday rendered a rather interesting verdict. Congressman Tom Suozzi is going back to Washington DC, flipping a Long Island Congressional District (NY-03) despite a strong GOP challenge. The outcome was indeed a decisive win for Suozzi, yet it also offers many lessons Democrats as a whole should not ignore.

Long Island is an area that cannot be easily defined by the nature of polarized politics today. In a 50-50 country, many election results are consistent, stable, and rarely change. Long Island, however, has swung in all kinds of directions. On the one hand, in 2016, 2018, and 2020, Democrats won across the board there by huge margins. On the other hand, Republicans made substantial inroads in the 2022 midterms, and the 2021 and 2023 off-year elections for municipal offices. Yet in this special election, the Democrat once again won with a comfortable margin against the Republican.

Add onto that another big win in Pennsylvania for maintaining state legislature control there.

Republicans miscalculated badly. They had an immigration package they long desired, and instead chose to sabotage their own deal at Trump’s bidding to make it a 2024 campaign issue. So much for the GOP being the “securing the border” party, or the “Back the Blue” party. Let’s just hope that Capitol Hill is under the full control of competent Congressional Democrats and White House leadership, and not the Do-Nothing MAGA Conference, to address these issues.

But there are lessons for Democrats too. The idea of 2024 being just a choice between normalcy and chaos is not the full picture. Neither is the idea that the choice is between a bad President and an even worse one.

Joe Biden is not a bad President. He is much more than the not-Donald Trump candidate. He has been a very good President given the situations he inherited from Democratic and Republican presidents alike. He has made significant progress towards truly progressive goals. The legislative achievements of Build Back Better so far are vast. The years of the Build Back Better Congress (vs. the Freedom Caucus Coup from McCarthy to Johnson) have been some of the most productive legislative sessions in more than a generation.

A second term and full control of Congress next year can make Joe Biden one of the most consequential Presidents in American history, with a legislative program of his own rivaling that of LBJ’s Great Society, JFK’s New Frontier, and FDR’s New Deal. The Biden Presidency and its track record of legislative accomplishments and its commitments to fulfilling the campaign promises of 2020 speak for themselves. Build Back Better is the path towards a better future in America. It is a Blue-Collar Blueprint for reviving the spirit and well-being of the United States from the coastlines to the rolling plains, hills, rivers, and mountains of Flyover Country.

Unlike Trump, who talked of what he would do, Biden has acted on a significant amount with the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act alone—never mind the examples of executive leadership & the endless list of legislative policy achievements from 2021 and 2022.

Sure, he is not perfect on everything. Not everything he has done or has chosen to do has worked out. There is always more the Biden White House can do—whether through action or the bully pulpit. People are suffering from rising costs, as my retiree friends can attest to in several important ways. Inequality, unemployment, and poverty are still present in many parts of the country. Pandemic benefits that have now expired (thanks, GOP) have made life even harder for those in need of a helping hand. Yet make no mistake about it: if you think 2024 is a choice between bad or worse, or dumb and dumber, you are sorely mistaken about where the real contrasts are.

Trump is the worst President American history has ever seen. His accomplishments are smaller than his small hands. His talking points are a failed Obamacare repeal and successful tax cut legislation for the rich. That is about it. His failures, by contrast, are large: his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd movement, and his infamous conduct on January 6th. His autocratic tendencies have only accelerated and become ever more obvious. The desperation of his own self-preservation is palpable. But so is the lack of productivity of House Republicans and Senate enablers. Is this the type of leader we want in our country, for these reasons alone? As long as Trump is around, bipartisanship is dead in the MAGA Republican Party.

Still, Democrats have to speak to the concerns of the working class, listen to the voters, and engage with them to earn their support. Do not expect Rural America to show up for your candidates if you blow off every opportunity—or, Hillary Clinton-style, call these voters a bunch of deplorables. Do not expect African Americans or Hispanics & Latinos to turn out if you think the best you can possibly do is show up at their door a week before the election. Do not take for granted that the working class coalition will come to your aid in the hopes of regaining the House and offer a miraculous prayer of holding the Senate. You have to engage with the base grassroots and the progressive movement you are relying on the most to come out in droves this cycle.

Do not expect to gain support if your only argument is that we are bad, but they are worse. Do not make your campaign platform that you are not the party of Donald Trump. It did not work out very well in 2021 for Terry McAuliffe against Glenn Youngkin.

Yes, young voters, both parties need to change. The people need to be the kingmakers in politics, not the special interests. The need for change in the GOP is obvious. Yet the Dems also need to change, to become a party of the people admired instead of a party that counts on Wall Street & Corporate America for high-profile checks. We have had enough of wannabe power players on Wall Street and beyond who play it on both sides (like John Arnold and his Enron empire).

The party needs to do more than just talk about the bad of Republicans, and should actually talk even more about the good of Democrats. We need an actual vision to tout to voters. We need to be the party of working families in the spirit of its origins, instead of relying on the Clinton ways of flip-flop pandering. That is the Manchin and Sinema way of governance, but it should not be our way.

Finally, the party needs to hold itself accountable when necessary. Like now, when our current Commerce Secretary leading the push for AI regulations has a husband who worked for two AI companies, PathAI and SwordHealth, in only 4 years. The family ties and financial stakes in these companies is worthy of recusal, not a central leadership role—especially if she has still failed to report those ties to Congress.

This is just one example. Long Island’s election is a lesson bigger than the immediate victor or loser. It is a barometer for 2024 and the stakes of November.