Robert Hornak is a professional political consultant who has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Republican Assembly Leader’s NYC office and as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @RobertHornak on X.
BY: Robert Hornak
On Monday, the unthinkable happened for many democrats, Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. The American people spoke clearly that they preferred the Trump agenda by giving Trump over 3 million more votes than in 2020.
But just because someone loses, that doesn’t mean they need to be happy about it. And many on the left are expressing their displeasure loudly. An angry “People’s March” was held on Saturday in a handful of cities around the country, but with unremarkable attendance.
And in NY the most notorious racial arsonist in America, Al Sharpton, proclaimed a boycott against any company adjusting to the new reality and declaring the end of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs.
This was happening with the backdrop of Martin Luther King day on Monday. As these hypocrites were celebrating a man famous for declaring that the content of a man’s character was what mattered, not the color of his skin, they are trying to rally people to defend programs that only consider the most superficial characteristics like skin color. MLK would no doubt be extremely disappointed.
But perhaps most disturbing was how democrat governors and other officials around the country, including here in NY, tried to take steps to thwart the plans of the incoming Trump administration to do what they people elected them to do.
On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a televised speech promoting presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. It was called Rendezvous with Destiny but was quickly referred to as A Time for Choosing. What they realized is that the Republican Party had gotten away from its founding vision of government that served the people and protected their constitutional rights.
In the late 1800’s it had become common for the “Captains of Industry,” Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt, to gather every four years and decide who the Republican candidate for president would be. And for many decades they and their heirs controlled the party, until Goldwater and Reagan said enough.
Reagan laid out a new vision for the Party to return it to its roots – smaller, limited government that protected the people’s constitutional rights rather than the perceived needs of society. They realized that government could only control our economy by controlling people and their decision-making, while growing increasingly more powerful. And this they knew was the slippery slope to authoritarianism.
Reagan forced the Republican Party to start a debate that challenged a basic premise of the establishment, that a growing federal government was fine as long as they were the ones in control. But power, once enshrined, is never relinquished. All that changes is who uses it and how.
That fight has continued until today, with Trump the true heir to the limited-government Reagan movement. Trump has been fighting the same establishment Republicans and it’s fair to say now that he’s winning hugely.
Democrats now find themselves in a very similar but reverse situation. The difference is that the radical left, the socialist democrats, want more control over people, the economy, and the decisions that people can make.
The establishment Democrats are the ones who have faith in the wisdom of average Americans and enduring love of country. Like most Republicans, they are proud of our country and hope to improve the one we already have, not destroy it to remake it in their image.
NY democrats know the issues are mostly not on their side now. Republicans overwhelmingly express the will of the people on public safety, immigration, homelessness, quality of life, and many other issues. Democrats like Kathy Hochul know their re-election is looking precarious. That’s why she is trying to have it both ways, signaling to her base she will resist Trump, but to the voters at large saying that she wants to work with Trump.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party will have to look introspectively at itself and determine, just as Republican have done, what kind of party they want to be. Do they want to be one that empowers people, or do they want to be only a radically ideological party that supports an “I know better than you” agenda contrary to what the voters want for their communities.
Is there a Reagan in the Democratic Party who can change the direction they are going in now? Doubling down on their failed agenda will not serve them well but will make Republicans smile.
