U.S. Consultant Elise Stefanik (R-NY) speaks with the media after the Republican caucus assembly, in Washington, U.S., Might 14, 2021.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The story of Elise Stefanik’s political rise and fall is a parable of a younger girl’s all-consuming drive for political stardom and her crushing downfall by the hands of a despotic tyrant.
Stefanik was the youngest girl elected to the U.S. Home of Representatives. A Harvard educated liberal with political ambitions, she was expert at impressing individuals together with her intelligence and work ethic. She made herself right into a average millennial Republican who performed down her help for abortion rights and homosexual marriage to draw voters in her upstate conservative New York district. She was elected in 2014 on the age of 30 with a slogan about “new ideas and new generation of leadership.”
Stefanik was regaled by the Republican social gathering’s nationwide institution. She was profiled in Glamour. She was admired for her brains and diligence by a brand new crop of younger Republicans elected to Congress. Native papers reported that admirers had registered SrefanikForPresident.com and different Stefanik domains.
She detested Donald Trump. She thought the person was too terrible and ridiculous to be taken significantly as a candidate for president within the 2016 election. She thought the discharge of the “Access Hollywood” tape during which Trump talked about groping ladies was horribly offensive and she or he drafted an announcement calling for him to drop out of the race. She deliberate to vote for John Kasich within the major. She stated she may by no means vote for Trump. After Trump received she expressed shock and fear.
Throughout Trump’s first two years as president, Stefanik supported most of Trump’s initiatives however voted towards his tax cuts and funds for the border wall. She additionally supported local weather initiatives and laws offering a path to citizenship for “Dreamers,” younger immigrants dropped at America as kids. She strongly disapproved of Trump’s denunciation of immigrants coming from “shithole” nations.
However as Trump’s presidency advanced Stefanik discovered herself someplace within the center — seen by many as a rising star however unsettled by the habits of her harder-right colleagues. Though she was more and more annoyed and sad, she noticed validation in profitable the 2018 midterms by the most important margin of any Republican in New York. She considered positioning herself as a bipartisan chief. Nonetheless, she knew the president’s hard-right base was ascendent.
An uncommon occasion gave her an thought for the longer term. Trump joined her on the navy base at Fort Drum, in her district, to mark the signing of the protection invoice. Trump heaped reward on her work. For the second she tasted the affect she dreamed about.
And Stefanik determined to make one other radical transformation. Trump’s first impeachment listening to was upcoming, and Stefanik deliberate to defend Trump. She argued that Ukraine obtained the cash it was promised and there was no investigation of Biden. However her sharpest assaults have been on U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chair of the Trump impeachment panel, whom she continued to berate with theatrical objections.
Stefanik’s mates and mentors hated her efficiency. However Trump beloved it. Enormous quantities of cash flooded into her management PAC, and she or he now had a nationwide base of MAGA followers. Stefanik grew to become a rising star with visibility and energy. She even obtained to fly on Air Pressure One with Trump. She was ubiquitous on Trump’s social media platform. And when Trump misplaced the 2020 presidential election, she was one of many first officers to help his lie that the election was stolen. To former mates Stefanik had misplaced her method; she had chosen private ambition over the values she had lived by. However she noticed the brightest future as an ultra-MAGA acolyte of Trump. There was even speak of her becoming a member of Trump’s 2024 ticket as vice-president.
Loyalty to Trump paid off. With Trump’s patronage Stefanik was ascendent. After Trump’s election in 2024, Stefanik grew to become third strongest official within the Home of Representatives. She noticed herself in a cupboard put up. Trump nominated her to function U.N. ambassador.
However all of the sudden issues went terribly awry. She had climbed to unimaginable heights. Now got here the autumn. First, Trump wished to protect the razor skinny Republican majority within the Home and yanked her nomination to the U.N. Second, Trump dismissed Stefanik’s incendiary rants about New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as a “jihadist” and heaped reward on Mamdani. And third, after Stefanik introduced she would run for governor of New York, Trump, who notoriously doesn’t prefer to help losers, refused to endorse her within the Republican major.
After these public humiliations, Stefanik introduced she’s completed with Congress and received’t search reelection.
What’s the ethical to this pathetic story. Solely an ignoramus or Trump cultist could be unaware of the dangers of sucking as much as a despicable tyrant who calls for loyalty after which throws you below the bus. Possibly Stefanik thought she was particular. She wasn’t.
To Stefanik’s former mates and mentors: Ambition typically annihilates beliefs, morality, and integrity. It’s in Shakespeare. Learn it. Or simply observe American politics.
Stefanik willingly sunk herself into the mud of Trump’s corrupt swamp. And she or he paid the value. Don’t cry for her.
Bennett L. Gershman is a distinguished professor on the Elisabeth Haub College of Legislation at Tempo College
