It is unremarkable to me that the framing conceit of this piece, that Ms. Salazar is a "post-truth" politician akin to Trump, is completely undermined by its author midway through the essay. Salazar has changed her views over time- this is commonplace in politics. She probably has not been totally candid about her biography- this is also typical for politicians of all stripes.
What makes Salazar or this moment unique then? I remain unconvinced that the current political moment is different in kind from what we have become habituated to in the U.S. Working in higher education, I see undergraduates attempt to make this kind of argument all of the time, along with its opposite, that things are exactly same as they've always been. Things are rarely so cut and dry and require greater precision and granularity in argumentation.
For undergraduates, this is not an issue- they are at the university to learn. But the author of this piece is a staff writer at one of the nation's most prestigious newspapers and continues to use her platform to make spurious, reactionary arguments. Why continue to devote space to someone whose entire authorial persona is dependent upon gross general generalizations and false equivocations?
65
@Daniel Beresheim For undergraduates, this is not an issue- they are at the university to get radicalized and blinded to REALITY!
Bari, to me, the scariest element of this story is that there is a website with the name "Jacobin" - and that there are people on my side of the political divide who don't understand that the Jacobin moment was among the most terrifying and futile in the last 250 years. "The Terror" was as bad as it gets - and there is nothing positive to be said or emulated about the Jacobins. Heck, they nearly executed Tom Paine (who only survived due to a jailer's error) and he would ultimately do more for the progressive cause than any of these self-righteous, power-hungry murderers and fools. The Jacobin moment was one of despotism, not progression.
The pendulum will always swing - and now it's swinging in the direction of trendy lefties, with only the flimsiest understanding of history.
That Nixon didn't denounce Salazar, after being confronted with her opportunism and rank dishonesty, only confirms this actress' utter lack of preparedness to lead at this crucial moment in time.
If we want to clean up the swamp that is American politics, let me strongly suggest that the place to begin is within ourselves. A democracy is nothing but the externalization of our collective and individual psyches. When our understanding of ourselves, our culture, and the forces that forged society, for both good and ill, are as a flimsy as the typical social media post, we must expect the representatives we elect to disappoint.
241
@Matthew Carnicelli
This is a welcome clarification of Jacobinism. But there is one additional formulation: the label is also often applied to the partisans of King James of Scotland. His defeat was a turning point enabling sweeping tyranny in the British Isles. It signalled both fresh and lasting sorrows for colonial English hegemony over the native populations of Scotland and Ireland.
5
@Michael McAllister
The followers of the Scottish king, who rebelled in 1745 against the English crown, decades before the French revolution, were known as Jacobites, not Jacobins. Quite a difference.
@Matthew Carnicelli Matthew, as a (not particularly impressed) subscriber to Jacobin Magazine, I can assure you I know who the Wobblies were-or rather, are.
Also the Jacobins, and you might look up some of the recent research yourself. Of you can drop in on a forthcoming lecture I'll be giving in Rome this Fall.
At any rate, the logo for Jacobin Magazine is a black silhouette in a tricorn--a reference to the "Black Jacobins" of Haiti, so described in a masterful book by C. L. R. Jaes--but you knew that, right?
Paul Werner
Editor, WOID
2
Reading some of the comments left me bemused; first, because there is a qualitative difference between "bending the truth" (or emphasising certain aspects), and the outright fabrication as practised by Trump and Salazar. Claiming "all politicians lie" is anyway no justification. And this blaming of the press by her supporters is chilling; it's a tactic used by all authoritarians.
And let Trump and his adoring base be a lesson; just as Trump has lied to and betrayed his base, what's to say Salazar won't follow suit? Just because she says the "right" things?
And socialism, really? It was prior to her birth, but the fall of the USSR should be a lesson to her, and perhaps would have been had she actually went to college.
49
One important factor for her win that the article did NOT mention was the incumbent rep she ran against was a member of the hated IDC. He was voted out along with 4 of the other 6 IDC members who ran as Democrats two years ago.
238
@Amy M
Dilan was not a member of the IDC, although he was closely associated with real estate developers.
2
No!
Her opponent, Martin Dilan, was not in the IDC.
1
@Amy M
that's huge. . . I don't know what I would have done if I lived in that district. What a nightmare choice.
It is impossible to understand supporters going along with lies from candidates. If the Left goes down the same path as the Right, our country really is doomed.
554
@Dianne Jackson- Agreed....this candidate is the more PC version of Trump on the left, a pathological liar ego maniac demagogue.
When the two mainstream sides bunker themselves in and will not compromise and govern, these demagogues come out of the woodwork.
3
Latina. Female. Dem/Socialist/Whatever that trumped the lies. Also the shifting demographics of the district. So many of the recent elections are race based. Look at the ticket-splitting for Gov/LtGov/AttnGen. It's not tat race wasn't used before, it's that it has become part of the "progressive" playbook.
Nixon did the same Dem/Socialist/What? Foodie? She lied about her experience. She did nothing for education. Yet she received 35% of the vote. If she would have said she was fromthe same Indian tribe as Warren who knows... she might have won the primary.
16
Channeling Captain Renault: “I'm shocked, SHOCKED to find that politicians lie!”
9
I KNEW there was something fishy about her.
I watched her campaign from the sidelines and certainly hoped should would prevail against the jerk she opposed, but now I wonder if we don't have an even bigger jerk on our hands.
The left needs to be careful. I we give up on truth, we are no better than Trump supporters.
Ms. Salazar should drop out and let the chips fall where they may.
A write in candidate?
22
Just because 11 women (and Bret Stephens) told the truth about Keyes doesn't mean the twelfth one was telling the truth #jointhebandwagon.
10
Her opponent pretended to be a Democrat. Then pretended again. And then got defeated. Funny how that works
21
Anyone who lies as constantly and wildly as Ms. Salazar has a diagnosis- sociopath. She will fit in very comfortably in Albany, and also will comfortably fit into an orange jumpsuit in the not too distant future.
24
It appears that Weiss has also switched her political views, much like the NY Times Opinion section, farther to the right as Trump has moved the Republican party way over to the extreme right. While this paper has historically been anti-Left and the defenders of the status quo, the current shift in the age of Trump is undeniable. Meanwhile, Trumpers think everyone who writes this propaganda is a radical socialist.
24
has she ever sold steaks or vodka with her name on them? Door to door? To make money to pay for her graduate degree from Oxford?
4
[a] "The right has been damaged beyond belief by its embrace of Mr. Trump."
That remains to be seen--except for truth lovers--fact checkers and academics. So much US politics is myth-marketing--economic and god story--but also--persona marketing. Trump's?--why he's the foul mouthed, racist, bully, swamp drainer. Archie Bunker with money--enough to buy porn stars.
[b] "That Trumpian logic and Trumpian loyalty is now beginning to infect the left is nothing to cheer."
You mean the "Trumpian logic" of marketing anti-logic--as though logic, reason and truth itself is "elitist"--part of "political correctness" --to be scorned by celebrating notorious incorrectness.
Salazar never did that. So this is an aspersion.
As is dwelling on her ideological evolution--as though maturing is sinful. Check out HRC on that score!
As for her lying--many comments asked for more evidence. Are you gullible? Well you take the word for Keyes accusers, finding him guilty without a fair trial--without due process.
1
This is all the fault of the voting public. The remedy is simple; don’t vote for liars!
9
She’s a good fit for Albany, LOL.
7
Kind of feel like this is a post-truth op-ed. The real story (and associated facts) is much more nuanced. I know it's an opinion piece, but isn't there any editorial oversight??
23
Why is changing your position equivalent to a lie? I think Ms Weiss has a problem with Salazar being anti-Israel.
23
I've followed most of the links provided by the NYT as evidence of her "false" claims. I found a much more complicated scenario, as many links end up in claims made by the NTY itself, in what looks like a circular-citation of the press, where there's never a "there-there" of truth or actual evidence. NYT is selling a half-baked story here, not telling the truth. Many claims-to-lie in this piece are simplistic representations of a much more complicated life-story, where the final message by NYT is "What's worst than Trump? Socialists that lie! Liberals of America, beware of socialists!" Shame on you NYT!
25
For all those Democrats or leftists or Socialists who defend Ms. Salazar in what is a case of saying things about herself on more than one occasion which were completely untrue … in other words lies … let's remember that Hillary Clinton lost the election because she was seen, correctly, as having a history of problems with the truth herself; if we don't stay on the high ground, we will lose everything.
16
If what Ms. Weiss is reporting is accurate (and I have no reason not to believe it is), Ms. Salazar is either somewhat lacking in conscience or somewhat out of touch with reality. Come on - lying about your education? About where you were born? I personally won't vote for a party or other candidates who don't actively stand down anyone who lies/manipulates to this degree. It' not about saying anything to win - it's not about you - it's about serving constituents. And at this point in our country's history, I think all of us constituents would be served by healthy servings of truth from our elected officials. Let's work to re-establish ourselves as a country, not a three-ring circus.
15
I do not believe Ms Salazar won because of anything she campaigned on. This was a referendum on the incumbent who I believe was a member of the IDC. They voted for a republican majority leader even though he was a Democrat. Ms Salazar just happen to have the most energy to take down the imposter.
11
Why is it important that she lied when she identified as an immigrant? Why, to Dems, the identification of whatever you want to be is the key thing. Because, when you identify as a homeless person, even though you live in a huge mansion, you understand the struggles of homelessness. It doesn't matter that you are lying every day and every minute.
It's really funny to watch Dems who prize authenticity work with her. And what about the key sin of today, "cultural appropriation"? Isn't this the heart of her entire persona?
19
many thanks for this great essay. having loyalty to the Truth should be the sine qua non for public service. best we all keep an close eye on her in Albany, where Truth is in short supply and liars and cheats are abundant.
9
It seems clear to me that many so called left leaning liberal type voters and writers are actually quite conservative and pretty stodgy. One would think that the thin coverage given to the two incoming young women in NY politics would at least take in some of their actual politics, but here again we are left wondering what the real problems with them are. I look forward to seeing how they vote as representatives of their constituents and how they will grow and what alliances they will make over the next years. After they have some track record built, voters may feel differently about their choices but the mood that brought them here is hardly Trumpian. It’s not sexist, classist or racist, which makes it another flavor altogether. Post truth? The truth still stands tall but Trump and his ilk just look away, and Bari Weiss has looked away with them.
2
The extreme right and extreme left were always the same bird. Is this news? Sanity and accountability are much less sexy. The middle is the loneliest place to be, and the only place that takes real courage. There, you will not have a rah-rah cheering section.
Thank you for this article. I know nothing of its subject, so my comment is less about her than about the mentality that justifies these sorts of pernicious dishonesties.
11
I'm less tolerant of any type of shenanigans by people I agree with on issues than people I don't agree with. I can hear it now, "Oh, it's OK when the Dems lie, but when the president does it...." Just Great.
16
We hear all the time how Dems need new leadership-- Bernie, Biden, Elizabeth Warren are all too old, they need to get out of the way. It seems that in New York y'all are lacking younger, but prepared players to put into the starting line-up, while in Texas we have a very deep bench-- Beto O'Rourke leading the way. We have many outstanding young Congressinal candidates here-- steep hill to climb to win (it's Texas after all), but they are smart, prepared & ready to play if they can get elected.
3
I work in Bushwick. Most of my customers, we call them patients, have names like mine. 75% have health insurance supplied by the government. Our Assemblywoman and our Senator know that. It was Davila and Dilan that made it possible for us to begin renovation, to replace furnaces, more then 45 years old. We replaced every bed and mattress, with that money. A Republican Senate was convinced by Marty Dilan to support legislation to permit us to use bond proceeds for the beginning of needed repairs to an aging safety net hospital. Maritza Davila was our champion in the Assembly, she still is, but one house bills are press releases not laws. Marty was Bushwicks representative in the Senate. Dilan has a record being a leader of a coalition that saved a hospital, but that coalition continues and needs to advocate for this safety net hospital. We need the Senator-elect to join Maritza.
Yes, I am concerned. Will Ms. Salazar be able to represent the people who need her most, like their “Lanzman” Dilan ably did for more then 20 years. I pray that she considers her constituents who need her most by seeing the good her predecessor did and continuing the law-making, budget passing that responds to the pioneers of Bushwick. I called Marty and we spoke and I called Ms. Salazar to congratulate her. 1,850 working men and women at Wyckoff Hospital look forward to sharing our pride in serving the people of Bushwick and other neighborhoods. We provide Care, with respect and kindness.
11
When I was a child, there was a school subject entitled Morality and Civics: 30 minutes every Friday. At home, my father, a Freemason, would expand on a daily basis as to the need to get to the grain of all matters large and small which were discussed around the dinner table. Being honest as well as forthright were the cornerstones of being a decent human being, a contributing member of one's family, and a citizen of the larger society.
All the above is now more and more passe. The degeneration of our civic discourse continues with "truth" becoming whatever is expeditious at a moment in time. The moral compass is accepted as relative: what is a lie one day may become the truth the next without an eye being batted. The Republican and the Democratic parties have lost their bearings.
Both major political parties are in reactionary mode. In November, the citizenry will vote for what we are against instead of what we are in favor: a ghastly state of affairs.
8
The issue here is not that a candidate is lying. It is that she is suffering from a serious mental health issue--she is in denial about a set of issues such as her basic ethnicity that add up to define who she even is as a person. This makes her unfit to hold an elected office, and the best thing her supporters could do would be to insist that she step down from the election. OK, that would throw things into a bit of chaos, but no worse than what happens when candidates die, etc. I'm sure the voters could work this out and wind up with a worthy state senator for themselves.
But then, you might say, if her mental health problems make her unfit to be a NY state senator, how can we explain how President Trump continues to hold office despite his mental health problems? Well, his problems are a little different, but it should be interesting to see how long he continues to hold his office.
15
I don’t much like being conned or manipulated.
So I finally learned to take note of the fact that the con artists of my generation whose paths I crossed as a young man all seemed to have a poster of the Beatles on their walls.
I get irritated with myself if my antennae don’t activate when a tradesperson or salesperson tells me a hard luck story or how religious they are once too often.
Part of the book on me is that I’m vain about my intelligence. I am. So I don’t mind when someone whose character and judgment I trust uses that to steer me in a way I’m confident I’ll eventually agree with. But if someone I don’t work with all that often tells me once too often how smart I am then I get irritated with myself if I don’t perk up and figure out pretty quickly just what it is they’re trying to pull.
People involved with politics who say the things we want to hear just might be people we should trust and follow. But they might be trying to con or manipulate us for their own profit or gratification. If we can manage to be sensible and skeptical while remaining generally warm-hearted that’s probably a good idea. If someone tries to incite us by raising a hue and cry or using snarl words about an identifiable group we generally should be especially skeptical.
3
My sole question is, why did you wait to publish this until after Ms. Salazar won?
250
Shame on the Times for publishing Bari Weiss's smear. She starts by conflating Salazar's political reorientation--not uncommon for a young adult--as "allergic to truth." Whoa. Then Weiss wades into the question of class and ethnic background, baldly accusing Salazar of lying when the facts are highly ambiguous. Salazar isn't an immigrant but she clearly comes from immigrant roots. She may or may not have Jewish ancestry--a notoriously clouded affair for Latin American Sephardics. And her mother, the custodial parent, directly calls herself "working class," despite Salazar's brother's hostile claims to the contrary. Contrary to Weiss's snide dismissal, Salazar's mother seems to be quite supportive of her. In sum, the truth-challenged player here is Weiss, with the Times as enabler. This must stop.
23
BDS driven opinion.
9
@Marco Philoso
Have you seen the vile comments on Weiss’ twitter feed in response to this article?
Those are BDS driven and seem to be coordinated by a twitter BDS mob - as is often the case with comments to Weiss.
Salazar, running on good ideas and against a weak opponent, did not need a ginned up bio to fit the Ocassio template. Having wealth or coming from family money shouldn’t be a mark against anyone seeking public service.
Identity politics has become a marketing ploy. It’s a vile and shallow tool which divides people.
Stick with the issues
And the Truth.
7
If this is the future of the Democratic party then sane non-socialist liberals will need a new party.
21
The way out for liars is back through the crap they created by lying to constituents and others- in this case her own family.
Respect people enough to apologize. State what you did and hold yourself accountable.
Tell people you will work to regain trust.
Quit lying or quit. We don't need more liars at the top.
The Trump Model of Lie and then double down is not what most of America is interested in and it has gutted the GOP. You are going to have a lot more Independents if this stuff keeps up.
6
Bari Weiss is one of the stars in the NY Times firmament, but she gets this one exactly backwards. She concludes,
"The right has been damaged beyond belief by its embrace of Mr. Trump. That Trumpian logic and Trumpian loyalty is now beginning to infect the left is nothing to cheer."
No. What happened is that the Left has won the culture war. The Left *is* a lie and American politics has been post-truth at least since Hillary destroyed women to help Bill, then donned the mantle of Feminist Heroine.
In 1996, William Safire wrote his famous essay about Hillary Clinton, "A Blizzard of Lies". In 2002, Mikhail Gorbechev famously admitted to a Columbia University audience that communism was "pure propaganda".
If Julia Salazar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who supports her, can promote socialism even as we watch, in real time, Venezuela dissolving in the acid bath of socialism, who cares whether Salazar is or is not Jewish?
Donald J. Trump is not the cause of Leftist lies, he is the result of Leftist lies. Because the Left wins with lies, Donald Trump is the only possible response of the Right.
Everybody---everybody---assumed Hillary Clinton would win the presidency in 2016. And I think they were right, had her opponent been anyone else. But, Donald Trump's lies won over Hillary Clinton's lies.
Ms Weiss, the Left infected the Right, not the other way around.
7
@Haim
Please. Unless you are under about 9yo, this is absurd.
Grown-ups are accountable for their own actions, including Donald Trump. Lying is not a contest, it is wrong.
9
Progressives act as if attacking the liar is equivalent to attacking the cause.
It is not.
I watched this happen with Michigan Congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib on her Israel policy positions. During her campaign she told reporters she supported a Two State Solution and US Aide to Israel. The very day after her election win, Tlaib did a 180 on both positions. That’s not a shift, that’s shifty.
Because they are “Social Justice Warriors” Progressives and their supporters seem to think they have some sort of immunity from criticism. I have seen responses to criticism of Salazar’s lies from supporters who say, “Don’t do this. We don’t need this now. She’s a woman of color.”
Guess what.
We (voters) always need the truth.
Weiss’ comparison of such dishonesty to lox on a raisin cinnamon bagel - gag worthy on both accounts!
19
As Pilate asked, "What is truth?", he knew, being a politician himself, that there is no truth among politicos of all stripes...only expediency.
There is also the desired political end that justifies any and all means.
Lastly, as Mark Twain reminded us, "There are liars and the damn liars." and as Dante reminded us in his "Inferno", where to the liars suffer? Why the lowest ring.
You'd think it would be enough to reduce the lies and liars. But it doesn't.
3
"Yes, he’s distasteful and prone to exaggeration. But he’s promising to pass policies we like. Supporting him is a price worth paying in pursuit of our goals."
This the perfect assessment of this moment in our politics. Many people don't care about the character of the person they elect any longer - but rather the policies they might get enacted.
Which is very scary. Mostly because by electing liars and cheats and the amoral, you are opening everyone up to the lies and cheats and immorality of someone not even a family member can trust.
Even if the campaign's proposed policies (mere rhetoric) are to your liking, sending a political neophyte and documented liar and cheat to office means sending someone who is highly prone to corruption, and being pulled into the political networks of cronyism, closed door deals, and generally bad legislating.
Without a moral compass that works, whats to stop a Salazar-type from being easily duped and manipulated by the other dirty-politicos? As a working compass would cause a person to pause and seek counsel about a bargain, or a secret handshake deal...but without, it looks and smells and fits, like its SOP.
Many a Mafia Don managed to run their enterprises with full public support because they got things done for their communities. Is that the direction we're going and want to go? Electing lying and cheating women and men, as long as they serve our niche needs?
We are cursed if this is true. Exposes us all to danger as well.
5
A politician that makes things up. I’m shocked! I would have loved to have believed that only those on the right are the liars and those on the left are all pure of heart. The truth is.... liars can appear all across the spectrum. The horrible question is....is this politician lying for my side or theirs.
2
Thanks for posting this, Ms. Weiss. It's true, as I often try to explain to my partisan wife, that there's no good nor evil but what spreads on both sides of the factitious political divide in our country.
Like it or not, both sides need to admit that they want their "side" to win, damn the fate of the nation. Which means we have an entire political class, of all colors and ideologies, whose slogan is "Damn the fate of the nation."
7
What you describe here about Ms. Salazar is what is widely described as the worst effect of the rise of the Sweden Democrat (SD) party, a party that has papered over its Nazi roots but whose official spokesman spouts Nazisms without blinking.
We have had on Sunday 9/9 the every 4th year national election so study after study and column after column are coming out reporting how chameleons are changingcolors and stories to raise the number of likes.wherever needed.
Thank you Bari Weiss for providing this information, a useful message to learn about any new face brandishing a label but perhaps without truth and content behind that label.
A footnote as concerns Nazi views in NYT comments. I was astonished and dismayed to see so many comments at US has highest share of foreign born since 1910 article that could have been written by Swedish SD supporters.
Vote.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
1
The election of lying, corrupt Democrats like Salazar is exactly what triggered the launch of the IDC many years ago. It’s sure only a matter of time before some Democrats distance themselves from Salazar and we watch history repeat itself.
3
And, why didn't Bari Weiss publish this piece BEFORE folks went to the polls, when it might have made a difference? What's the point of publishing on September 14th?
13
"According to The Washington Post’s running count, Donald Trump is averaging 7.6 “Trumpian claims” a day. One wonders how many Salazarian claims Julia Salazar has spoken."
Maybe I don't understand op-ed journalism but wouldn't it be more appropriate to actually do the kind of work Glenn Kessler did *before* publishing an opinion about it?
8
Speaking of lying about your past: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-h...
14
Salazar’s lies about her past were exposed by her family not the press. Why couldn’t the NY Times make a few phone calls to Columbia University and others to verify her resume? Any corporate HR department would have uncovered this immediately. Of course the answer is that the liberal press is enamored with the likes of Julia Salazar and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, another well off middle class rebel wannabe, and puts politics above good honest reporting. And they wonder why people think it’s fake news.
16
Hmm...seems as if a NY state senatorial candidate can't represent 'the left' seeing as 99.999% of 'the left' in the country wasn't eligible to vote for her. Comparing a state senator to a nationally elected president is silly.
2
She sound like a younger Latina version of Trump, who started out as a Godless, philandering, abortion-promoting Democrat and somehow morphed into a pro-life, God-fearing Republican now adorted by Evangelicals. But what else can we expect when truth is no longer truth and a grifter in the White House has persuaded nearly half our populace that alternative facts can win you the highest office in the land.
6
Trump is begetting a new counter-Trumpism of the left. And while we can count on left-leaning journalists to reveal the lies and crimes of Trump, who will be there to tell us the same about the left-wing counter-Trumpists?
The future is scary.
7
I don't know what to make of Julia Salazar. (I'm a DLLPJECA*) Is she a sociopath, or just very calculating (that is, a natural politician). Either way, she's only one among many progressive candidates who are winning elections and in no way shape or form like the lying anti-truth Trump-Republicans running our government (into the ground).
She's going to be a NY State Senator. Hopefully she'll become a reliable progressive.
*Democratic Lefty Liberal Progressive Jewish East Coast Atheist)
30
“I regret not having the foresight to anticipate being misunderstood.” She is a character disorder. She will never stop lying and manipulating'
Ocasio-Cortez should seriously be questioned on her support for Salazar as an outspoken advocate of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Left wing anti-Semite is what Salazar is.
11
This is the first I’ve heard of Salazar, and the portrait is pretty damning.
Seeking another perspective, i came across “This Is the Story of How a Campaign Goes Off the Rails” (one of the earliest search hits) in the Rolling Stone. It provide a significantly different, more nuanced picture.
Just saying...
3
Every column from Ms. Weiss is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant leftist echo chamber of the NY Times opinion page, but I don’t see Ms. Salazar’s win as the *beginning* of the left’s embrace of willful ignorance. They've been overlooking Bill and Hillary's long list of scandals for decades. Fahmy Malak, Mena, Whitewater, Vince Foster, the Clinton Foundation, Uranium One, Travel-gate, Monica-gate, Email-gate. The Clintons have more gates than LAX.
Nothing new at all. Nor is their willingness to bury stories which contradict their agenda.
A few days ago a video surfaced proving beyond doubt that Google, a company which controls most of the world's search results, vowed to stop Trump. Not a single op-ed about that? Is it not important enough? Every op-ed would be about it if their target had been a Democrat.
It always amazes me that liberals have no problem correctly identifying Fox and Breitbart as propaganda, yet they somehow manage to convince themselves that *they’re* not being brainwashed or manipulated at all.
Perish the thought.
6
The stories that most politicians tell about themselves are usually lies or half-truths. Most voters are sophisticated enough to distinguish between autobiographical embellishments of the sort made by Salazar and the lies that are likely to effect their lives. Salazar ran on a progressive platform and the promise not to betray her constituents to the Republicans the way that her incumbent opponent had. Her supporters were right to keep their eyes on the prize and to stand by her.
Weiss dismisses the proposition that the attacks on Salazar were part of a right-wing Zionist campaign to silence a figure who has expressed support for Palestinian right. But that is of course, exactly what they were. The best evidence for that is that Weiss is involved, since smearing even the mildest critics of Israel is apparently Weiss's main beat. Glenn Greenwald's August 31 review of Weiss's career in The Intercept should dispel any notion that Weiss is driven at all by a journalistic hunger for the truth.
Almost exactly a year ago today, Weiss was defending the integrity of Joey Gibson, the far-right demagogue who has headlined several violent fascist rallies in Portland, Oregon. Now she is seeking to minimize the damage done to Israeli interests by focusing attention on the character of the woman who exposed David Keyes as a serial sexual predator. What loathesome figure she will be running interference for next year is anybody's guess. Weiss's supposed concern for "truth" is laughable.
12
This is an incredibly important story. Democrats like me do demonize Republicans for supporting Trump; friends are ending friendships over this. We all need to understand that moral superiority is too often just a matter of convenience and opportunities.
Maybe we can learn to pity our Republican friends instead of hating them.
3
Does she remember landing under sniper fire? Does it depend on what the meaning of "is" is? Why does the media give centrist, Very Serious People who lie a pass, but not a state Senate candidate for the provincial corruption capital of the nation?
This is the problem with our least-worst, two-choice system. A pathological liar who might vote for what helps me vs. an honest person who will vote for what harms me? Easy choice for most people. That's almost the story of Trump (minus that honesty bit).
5
She may be a liar, but by the same token, she puts the lie to the notion that by merely electing women, the integrity of our political representation will automatically improve. As much as the women-are-better believers push the notion that men have a lock on twisting and hiding the truth to gain power and undermine the public's trust, it clearly is not so. And as this story makes clear, even women (and men) in politics who have a reputation for being more or less honest cannot be trusted to call out fraud in their own ranks when doing so conflicts with the mythology of the beneficence of their favored identity politics.
As Trump would say, there are fine people on both sides of the gender divide. There are also untrustworthy power grabbers in both sets. Let's be honest, even if they cannot.
4
So most of the folks here think she is OK because what...Trump is lying more? But she is just starting, give her few more years please.
However it is good to see how the "principled" left is abandoning all the pretenses. Hilary was just not that good at lying, that's why she lost, but I am happy to see that the Democratic party is now electing people who do not even have to be good at it. They just need to lie less than Trump, at least for now. By the way Trump lies are ways less consequential than Obama lies about Iran and health care.
6
I'm conflicted about this one, and I am a bit suspicious of Ms. Weiss' intentions in writing this.
I think it's important to make room for the fact that Salazar evolved in her political views since leaving Columbia University. It was clear that she had pretty conservative politics up until a certain point - her anti-abortion stance being the most glaring example. Seeing her evolution is refreshing to me. I had a politically/socially conservative upbringing myself and appreciate seeing another Leftist start from an environment that is the antithesis of Leftist politics.
But at the same time, it appears that she and her campaign embellished parts of her personal biography in order to make herself more appealing as a candidate. It's not negative to be a Jewish person who converted later in life rather than someone who grew up in the faith or negative to be the "daughter of an immigrant" rather than an immigrant yourself.
The problem comes when you pitch yourself to voters in a less than truthful manner. It diverts attention away from an egalitarian Leftist policy agenda (single payer health care, free higher education, et cetera) and onto Salazar as an individual. And while it's true that the Left needs to do a better job of encouraging women and people of color to run for office, someone's religious faith or non-immigrant/immigrant background should not become proxies for their policy positions. Not all Jewish people are Leftists. Not all immigrants are Leftists.
6
According to Ms Weiss, most of the so called flip flops the 27 year old Ms. Salazar has made occurred in the past decade, in other words, between the ages of 17 and 27. As such, I don't make much of this.
1
@abbot laplan Flip flopping in her political ideology. Flat out lying in her personal history.
4
Looks to this reader as if the media both print and radio, TV and internet totally missed this one! A person in America is often praised for inventing themselves and re-inventing themselves, especially if they aren’t considered “too old” but in this case it appears to be one change too many and none that were uncovered and could have been by a cursory inspection.
1
For the most part, nationwide, Democrats have chosen excellent candidates this year. Nevertheless, Bari Weiss successfully points out today's dangerous tendency to embrace candidates simply because they seem/claim to be members of our tribe--whichever tribe that may be.
I would never be willing to support anyone with such obvious moral failings, despite my loyalty to all causes liberal.
11
@Todd- Yes to what you wrote and ........... who says she is even gonna stick to any policy or positions that she campaigned on! (not a question)
3
I thought the new rules were that one could "identify" as whatever race, sex, ethnicity, religion one wished to, as well as imagine and project a history in accord with one's current "feelings." This intense adherence to identity politics, at the expense of much else, naturally leads to this kind of identity opportunism. I gather the young lady's views, such as they can be determined, smelled well enough in that area of Brooklyn that voters are willing to give her a chance, whatever her history of chameleon-like posturing.
7
"A known liar is now heading to Albany."
She has not been elected yet.
Is there a public-spirited resident of the district who is able to lead a team going door-to-door and will step up to run a write-in campaign for November?
Working Families Party? Can you take this on?
8
Did she lie as much as this reporter says she did? Hard to say from this article or even from previous reporting. Lying appears to be part of the shifting political landscape landscape these days, and I'm skeptical about both the writer and the politician.
I don't live in New York, but I'm willing at this point to she what happens from here. If Ms. Salazar lives up to the promises she made, we are better off in the long run. Let's see what she does before we write her off.
36
@LAllen But you appear to hare read a different article than I did: I read the one by Ms. Weiss that talks about Salazar as having been dishonest multiple times in the run up to her election. Weiss makes the very valid point that her supporters are willing to overlook, to ignore numerous details about Salazar that are unequivocally false. Not creative truth telling; utter falsehoods.
Whatever she does in office will not offset those falsehoods. And yes, that is the same illogic that Trump supporters use. She is playing the people who voted for her like a pinball. Just like Trump does with his supporters. We live now in post-truth era.
10
@LAllen Before you question "the writer" saying Ms. Salazar lied as much as she said she did could you have the decency to bring up one shred of evidence for your skepticism?
4
@LAllen
"If she lives up to the promises she made, we are better off in the long run."
But that's *precisely* what the Trump voters told themselves--that Trump is an amoral liar, but he's taking them where they want to go!
Lies will crush democracy, if we tolerate them, and reward liars for lying. Don't support liars of any party.
2
All politicians are "post-truth" to a greater or lesser extent. The nature of politics, and particularly campaign reporting, raises certain aspects of every candidate's background to a ridiculous and undeserved level of importance. To assert that progressives should maintain unrealistic levels of idealism regarding this fact - at the expense of gaining representation for progressive goals - is like saying we should fight with one hand tied back in a ring full of two-fisted gorillas. But beyond that, to equate fudging or changing ones personal backstory - and it is in EVERY case a story - with the kinds of habitual, criminal lies being told be the Trump administration, lies which affect the fate of every American and the planet we inhabit, is to trivialize those lies. Whether or not these are Ms. Weiss's aims, I'm disappointed in the Times for furthering them.
3
The question is, will she be as honest in Albany as she was on the campaign trail?
1
I'll be writing in Dilan's name in November. A futile gesture, perhaps, but I won't be able to vote for Salazar in November any more than I could a few days ago. The millennial destruction of Brooklyn continues.
8
Remember the main tactic by those on the right like Barrie is false equivalency.
8
"The right has been damaged beyond belief by its embrace of Mr. Trump. "
That simply is not true. I detest him more than most, but the right has gotten everything it ever wanted from the Republican embrace of Trump, even to the point of starting all future debate with the far right as the new norm — thus giving them the false glow of reformers.
Salazar doctored her bio, then she had to back track. She did this in the age of the celebrity politician, where the book deals and instagram photos you make define you— she trying to copy the actions of other "interesting back story" careers like Obama. But she's in her twenties in this messed up horrible gilded age trying to fight back, there's no equivalency with Trump at all. jumping on every thread to discredit Democratic Socialism isn't going to work — because it has a 70 year track record called post war europe. Working people will get something for their tax dollars someday soon, you just watch - and they won't have to beg humbly foir their own money anymore.
4
There should be no comparison between young Ms. Salazar and old Mr. Trump. He's a congenital, pathological liar of very longstanding of whom Ed Koch said you couldn't trust anything he told you even if his lips were notarized.
But young people who can't get their identities straight--yes, there are complex, multicultural identities, but the difference between anti-abortion and pro-choice is pretty clear, or between being born in Colombia or Florida--are worrisome, e.g., Rachel Donazal. I am quite certain we progressives are going to be squirming in the future regarding Julia Salazar.
6
I'm not familiar with the Constitution of the State of New York, but I looked at is and it is long, pedantic, and granular about things like district allocation. But one thing is clear: Each House determines the results of election, and QUALIFICATIONS of members. Which means the New York Senate can legally refuse to seat Julia Salazar if they have the numbers and moral backbone to do so.
Art III, Sect 9 Sentence 2 of the state Constitution:
"Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members; "
4
I haven’t followed this race, but, if you’re going to let your column get posted with a headline with the word “lies” in it three times, you better lead with some strong evidence of lies. Instead, this column starts with a complaint that she dropped the right wing views she had as a teenager. Get it together!
10
Good grief, to compare a candidate for a NY State senate seat to Trump's country wide assault on our Constitution and his harm to the Republican party seems a bit of a reach to me.
Perhaps Salazar's anti Zionost and support for the boycott of Israel are the real reasons for the author's distress about this woman.
9
It's great to have a young politician who is in touch with citizens eager to lead the Left against the CorpoDems and GOPers. The fact that she's against funding Israel's apartheid Likud Party makes her a national figure and a real hope for positive change here and abroad.
5
A closeted right-winger, opportunistically coopting left-wing positions for political advantage?
3
She may be a liar, but she's our liar.
6
@Ed L. And you can have her.
1
Wow! Living in these treacherous Trumpian times, we seem to have lost one of the most valuable elements of a democracy, the trust in our institutions and trust in each other. How is it possible we cannot trust politicians to tell the truth anymore, even about themselves, and accept that truth is in the eye of the beholder, however changing, according to the circumstances and personal convenience? If this will come as a reflection of things to come, we are screwed. Who can be blamed but ourselves, for not doing our homework?
2
Swamp creatures are naturally drawn to a swamp.
And those in our government embrace corruption because “that’s where the money is”.
It’s going to take people with real integrity, morals, and ethics to really fix this problem.
Until then, we will have opportunistic predators like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and now, a new generation ready for their chance.
1
It looks like Julia is a very astute at marketing herself, which is what most of politics in the U.S. consists of anyway. When she wanted to appeal to conservatives, she went all in on those issues, now to get the progressive-socialist vote, she presented herself as a caricature that encompasses the causes that appeal to them. Being a privileged trust-fund kid from South Florida simply would have been a harder than being a make-believe immigrant for someone trying to pass herself off for a "socialist." But as Danny Elfman says: "You're just a middle class, socialist brat; From a suburban family and you never really had to work."
7
Perhaps her constituents see past the 11th hour character assassinations because this particular district is full of folks with similarly complex multicultural and economic backgrounds. For those who live and work in Salazar’s district—artists, the educated, the blue collar worker with a secret trust fund, the kid coming from both spectacular wealth and spectacular poverty—there is no tidy personal narrative. Any attempt to conscribe the complexity of her situation into a campaign trail soundbite is bound to sound inauthentic.
Salazar is entitled to nuanced, liminal states. I find it reassuring that she demonstrates ability to change her mind, maturing from the sophomoric notions that all adolescents toy with.
The doggedness and timing of these “revelations” over a NY senate seat is a profound example of the ways in which women and candidates of color are scrutinized— without ample time to rebut claims. Her outing as a sexual assault survivor is similarly distasteful and hostile.
Salazar is given an opportunity to earn her bonafides in the state government. I’m optimistic.
9
@Aihua Lin You wrote this tongue in cheek, right?
5
To say this is anything at all like what is happening with truth on the right is ridiculous. First of all, while it is possible that Salazar knowingly lied about her past (and decided to randomly tell the truth in interviews just to throw people off the track?) there's no reason to believe that instead of her explanation that the she simply failed to make sure her staff had all the correct details. As a young first time candidate running for a state office, it is not hard to believe that she would have made that mistake.
It's also perfectly plausible to me that she would not remember all the details from when she was a small child - most people don't and would remember things differently than other family members. Does failing to nail things down with her family prior to the race make her a conniving liar?
Maybe most importantly, none of these "lies" are substantive with respect to the campaign she ran, an it's hard to see the incentive to intentionally lie about things so easily fact-checked and have such negligible benefit to her.
If Salazar is truly a pathological liar like Trump, then I'm sure it will become clear before she is able to reach a higher office, and the left would not support her. Right now, she seems to be just a politician who found herself in a much more high profile race than she thought it would be and received a much higher level of scrutiny than other candidates due to her stance on the Israel/Palestine issue.
12
The left will fail itself. It’s becoming clear. Climate change is real, as are so many other issues the left aligns itself with. But just because one is correct does not make one immune to the same vanity and irrationality that has taken the right. We all live in the same celebrity obsessed culture inundated with entertainment. The effect on the brain is the same on both sides.
208
@Alex Who on the left is as bad as Trumpolino and his acolytes?
1
Left and right — two sides of the same coin. Let’s hope for a revival of the center.
7
"trounced an eight-term state senator"
That is a key fact here. Being an eight-term senator is not a good thing now. They've earned and deserve a "bad thing" label.
It isn't all about "why her." It is as much or more about "why not him yet again." When your head hurts from pounding it on the wall, stop doing that.
183
If a voter is against someone solely because the candidate has already been in office they deserve whatever they get.
There is no other field where ignorance of the job is celebrated like this.
It’s voter malpractice.
54
@Bumpercar, on the other hand, if they oppose a candidate because through his term in office he has betrayed his party and his district, they are quite smart. That's the Democratic method. What you describe is the Tea-Party Republican method
2
@Thomas Zaslavsky
So then replace a lifer with a liar?
1
I wouldn't be able to vote for a candidate who tells outright lies. I will note, however, that Salazar stands out on the left for dishonesty, but she wouldn't stand out at all on the right.
12
Interesting that Bari Weiss didn't mention the most explosive revelation about Salazar's background: the Tablet story about her arrest for allegedly stealing from and trying to defraud Keith Hernandez's ex-wife. The story made Salazar look like a nutcase. Why didn't Weiss, a former Tablet editor, mention it in her op-ed? Maybe because the Tablet story was deceitful: In a very long story, it barely mentions the fact that prosecutors DID NOT file charges against Salazar, and even fainter mention that Salazar later sued Hernandez's ex-wife for defamation and won an out of court settlement, which, after the article was published, turned out to be for $20,000.
There was much more deceitfulness in that Tablet story than in the couple of little, insignificant fibs Julia Salazar told about her and her mother's academic records. And she was telling the truth when she said she was Jewish - she'd practiced Judaism at Columbia and sought to convert. There was Judaism in her father's family background. She identified as Jewish, and all that's enough for some Jews, like me, to consider her Jewish, but not enough for other Jews, like Bari Weiss.
Salazar was the victim of overkill, and at least in the case of Tablet, a right-leaning Jewish publication, and certainly Britain's Daily Mail, the motivation was political. That Tablet article was a smear, calling her a liar is malicious, and mentioning her in the same sentence with Trump shows desperation.
13
@Larry Derfner You fail to mention that Hernandez's ex-wife at the time she chose to settle was undergoing treatment for cancer and probably that's the reason she settled, more important emotional and physical concerns---at least according to Hernandez's lawyer. Also, the only "background" in her father's line is the name, possibly Sephardic. Nothing more. Seems to me your are smearing Tablet.
2
Apart from the depressing story of Julia Salazar's success, it's disappointing to watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez do herself discredit with needless blunders. Another was the lending of her star quality to Midwestern politics though it hasn't even been vindicated by election to her own first public office. She ought to be staying in the midst of the people she means to represent.
I still hope to see Ocasio-Cortez succeed, but I also hope that she and the rest of us will take this opportunity to reflect on the limits to the value of youth, charisma, and over-arching vision.
280
@Longestaffe I think "Berniecrats" working swing states, and even red states is smart.
There is this narrative, popular among "coasters," that triangulating sell-outs like the Clintons are the answer in these states, lost by the Democratic Party.
The opposite is the case. Rust-belters who voted for Obama (and Sanders), voted for Trump, precisely because these neol-liberals are widely, and wisely, seen as gun-snatching culture warriors on behalf of Wall Street, who want to annihilate their local economies (they've never been anything else).
So, when Bernie comes to town, he sounds like a Roosevelt, or a Truman, or maybe even a Johnson.
As a progressive who spent half of my life in fly-over America, I can tell you, the swing voters aren't afraid of the New Dealers; they're terrified of the neo-liberals.
There's a reason Berniecrats were able to take over Pennsylvania, and yet the same Clintonites that have handed the GOP historical majorities at every level of government across the country, remain the party's experts on electability.
#Unteachable #Unreachable
65
@John Maenpaa
Thanks. You have a good point about the appeal of the Berniecrats. I think, and hope, that the country as a whole is open to political change in the spirit of the New Deal.
At the same time, I can't help thinking it would be better for Ocasio-Cortez herself to focus on taking care of business in the Bronx. Better for the cause, too, because each region's home-grown New Dealers are its best champions there apart from Bernie, who has earned the status of a national figure.
1
Democrats need those Midwestern seats to take the House. I agree that she shouldn’t lend them her “star power”; we won’t woo them back with identity politics and a self-avowed socialist. I mean, had that Dem from PA adopted her strategy, we’d already be down one.
5
Thank you Bari and the NyT Opinion section.
It is not often the NYT is willing to betray its leftist brethren, so to speak.
Unfortunately, in this political climate, anything goes. Lying has become the new norm for politicians.
As always, the only ones losing are us, the citizenry.
We get a woman representing the great citizenry of NY who has no problem with fabrication, falsehoods, or just plain lying, if it will further her agenda.
8
Seeing her supporters try to excuse her lies is more proof that both parties are corrupt to the core. Salazar lied before and she will lie in the future. She is a liar.
10
@Hellen no, it's proof that people are people.
1
Bari. Keep the smear on a bagel, but not in the NYT.
1
I love the outrage when someone claims they’re shocked — shocked, I tells ya — that politicians may not always be soulmates with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
But instead of castigating the politician alone, why not also ask why voters consistently vote for proven liars? One of the main reasons why politicians lie is because there are hundreds of years of history demonstrating they can almost always get away with it.
Anyone who thinks Ms. Salazar is beyond the pale really should acquaint themselves with some of the lying liars who have lied their way into far more senior political offices than the one she will soon assume.
2
Unfortunately she is not the first Democratic politician who was not truthful yet still elected/re-elected.
Former DC Mayor Marion Barry is a previous example.
1
Julia Salazar is not just a liar, she is a pathological liar. Anyone who likes about things so easily verifiable has more than a problem with remembering a few minor details ( like where she was born).
And yet she is the darling of the progressives - just like AOC, who also misrepresented her upper middle class background to present a more “acceptable” narrative, fitting with the current image of radical chic. It reminds me of the intellectual elites of the Russian Revolution presenting themselves as sweated workers. And that didn’t go so well, did it?
6
This is a ham handed and quite un-nuanced report. Weiss presents a decided skewed version of both the statements and the facts. In particular she seems to hew to reports of the brother's comments, while the mother's comments in other actual reporting coincide with Ms. Salazar's version of events.
What I can discern about ms Salazar's background is she underwent an awakening from conservative benightedness to some amount of progressive awareness. It doesn't seem that that was done for any kind of expedience or wasn't genuine. So I welcome people that change for the better. It's odd that Ms.Weiss holds the views that Ms. Salazar disavows against Ms. Salazar, as though she still holds those views. If Ms Salazar does waffle back to conservative views then that IS a serious indication of mental ill-health. But There is zero indication so far that her awakening was not genuine.
I'm happy to hold the progressive candidates to a high standard. Yet, I don't see the smoking gun here and it makes me more suspicious of Ms Weiss as a fifth column anti-progressive infiltrator. The NYT support and rationalization of corruption in its support of Cuomo and it's downplaying and non-enthusiasm for the significant and substantial grassroots democratic wins suggests a very troubling picture as to who really calls the shots there. Maybe not so independent journalism.
7
Tribalism over truth. It's disgusting when it comes in any ideological flavor.
4
Is this fact checking entirely based on her family? It seems like it from this column, and that's troubling. Family members are not objective sources.
Do a better job Times.
6
@Chrissy
Opinions columns about current events cannot be relied upon for in-depth coverage. They must presum some basic knowledge of the news from readers. Google the stories, they have been widely fact checked by major and reputable news outlets both local in NYC and national.
5
Hmm. Seems like she has more than a few marbles loose. Claiming oneself as a Social Democrat is the new hipster millennial zeitgeist. It's disturbing what people will do to fit in with their crowd.
8
When you give someone with no allegiance to the truth power, the results will not be good.
10
Cool. The lady is clearly qualified to serve as our politician.
3
I'll give you this, at least you did identify the actual reason you are against this candidate. Her real crime is support for boycotting and divesting from Israel for its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians and it's decades-long occupation of the West Bank. It seems we need to keep learning this lesson every day; it is not treachery to point out the failings of even our closest allies. In the run-up to the Iraq War France did the U.S. a better service than the United Kingdom, for calling out that illegal war for what it was. True supporters of Israel should appreciate the protest against Israel's policies, which every day make it look more like a despotic religious regime, not unlike Iran.
9
Blind allegiance to Hillary Clinton led to Trump being in the white house. I guess democrats still haven't learned and there should be some legitimate worry over what Salazar really believes.
10
Voters on the far Left or far Right are more apt to view the world in absolute, on/off switch terms; they’re not very good at appreciating nuance or complexity. That is why they are easier to victimize with whopper lies and conspiracy theories. The same folks who are suckers for religious hucksterism are ripe for a new American form of political lying. We would all do better to judge our political candidates on their character rather than strictly on their policy positions. Then we might avoid obvious frauds like Trump or Salazar.
7
Its one thing to claim that anyone who claims Barak Obama, who had more than enough proof beyond any reasonable doubt, was not born in this country a birther. It is a total different thing to call those who pointed that there is no definite proof that Salazar is Jewish "birthers". To most people it probably didn't matter but what matters is the truth. If she lies in her campaign she could lie when she's in office.
2
Lies are lies. And Ms Salazar is not even 30 yet.
9
Hey, all they are doing is following Bernie’s playbook. Don’t forget, Manafort’s collaborator in disinformation and corrupt politics in the Ukraine was Bernie’s strategist in his odd jihad against Hillary Clinton. I dare say a fair number of so-called Democratic Socialists of America members either sat out November 2016 or voted for Trump. And being a liar is not the lesser of two evils. It means you are a con and in it for the money.
5
Gee, a lying politician. What a surprise!
I always had this delusional idea that politicians were people who went to law school, where they specialized in something like constitutional law so they really understood the underpinnings of our nation. Perhaps they had done some community organizing along the way so they understood the needs of the common folks. Maybe they ran for office and lost; ran again and won a U.S. Senate seat. All of that experience would forge a legitimate vision for our nation. It might be a more conservative or a more liberal vision, but it would be grounded in reality and tradition.
That's one trajectory. There are many other legitimate paths in government service as well, but I never thought I'd see the day when an incompetent buffoon would be allowed to ascend to the presidency by a witless and gutless electoral college that ought to have been revamped long ago. The day that happened, the very nature of this country changed--and, it's the electorate who want it this way. They just love that liars are "telling it like it is."
On that day, I shrugged. I knew people on the left of the divide would say, okay, it's time to fight fire with fire. If the flames consume the country, so be it.
Your guy, Trump, caused this, Ms. Weiss. He raised non-stop lying to an art form--and won. Americans just love, love, love a winner!
Trump has already damaged us beyond repair. The left is just making a bonfire of the detritus.
5
Really! This balances the political scene with Trump & Company??? If all this is true I wouldn't have voted for her, BUT she is hardly an equivalence to Trump (and his supporters).
3
All true but rather eclipsed by the fact that a blatant liar is about to be confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Perhaps the voters in Salazar's district are ignorant of her lies or don't care. But the Republican senators about to confirm Cavanagh are neither ignorant nor indifferent. They know exactly what they are doing and why. Additionally they are high elected officials whose only job is to care about the country and its well being rather than ordinary voters who often can't take the time to study up on issues and candidates, even though they should. Sorry, I can't get worked up about Salazar. She is neither ratifying the appointments of a deranged president or sustaining an illegal presidency. But let's talk about Salazar's biography or columnist Weiss' offense at Cynthia Nixon's choice of a bagel. Meanwhile Rome burns.
1
It's fair to hold Ms. Salazar to account for her falsehoods. It's more than fair to see those falsehoods as reflecting badly on her, both as a person and as a candidate. I don't think it's quite fair, however, to compare her to Trump. His lies are on a scale, both in quantity and potential to damage, that dwarf Ms. Salazar's attempts at self-reinvention.
Ms. Weiss also overstates things.
Salazar lied about her college time (bad, but common) and her country of origin (but her parents were Colombian immigrants, and it's how she saw herself).
Whether she is working class or not one can debate. Her mom was certainly a single mom who worked extra jobs to help her family get by. Me, I would call them middle class, but I think that stretch is more than forgivable.
Whether she's Jewish is a question so vague and caught up in various versions of Judaism that I don't think it can be called a lie. I say if she thinks of herself as Jewish, she's Jewish.
Also, I think Ms. Weiss has made her own slight misstatement. It's not Ms. Salazar's family who is attacking her words, but rather one brother. That's sad, but it's not the same as multiple family members piling on her, as Ms. Weiss's words imply.
All in all, I am not thrilled with Ms. Salazar's lies, but I find them forgivable, for now. I thought she was the best option (if not a great option). She needs to work to prove that she is better than them in the future.
2
If it’s taking such a long comment to respond to Salazar’s lies, you’re already on very shaky ground. Your comment is actually pretty funny although I think you’re trying to be serious.
Thanks for this column.
A fundamentalist who changes their spots will do it again. Lying about your own family??? Hold her accountable and she should take responsibility and apologize and clear it up. We do not need more fast-talking frauds of any stripe.
6
Bravo Ms. Weiss!
2
Liars of any stripe need to be called out. We must always strive for honesty and integrity in out politics. Salazar, if you misrepresented your background -step down.
4
She beat an incumbent endorsed by the mayor and Daily News 58-42. The Times can’t report on that but rather just rehashes attacks against her. I will get my news elsewhere.
2
Thank you journalists for staying on top of the truth!
1
I don't like the lies, assuming that Ms Weiss is accurate, but I don't live in New York State, let alone Ms Salazar's district. But they paid their nickel and made their choice. And from what I've read in these pages, being a liar isn't really a distinction in Albany.
What I do note id Ms Weiss' comment "It’s one thing to change your mind. And Ms. Salazar has on several fronts." Might I point out that New York's own former junior Senator, Hillary Clinton, had a few changes of heart herself, which the Times' editorial staff seemed to find acceptable at the time.
3
"Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against reality, usually on a battlefield." - George Orwell, IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE (1945)
3
OK, she may be a liar but what was the alternative? You know when leaders of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are convicted of corruption, it is enough to make you a cynical observer or voter. After all do we have a liar and a draft dodger in the White House? And as a Russian of Uzbek descent said so well after he was explain how corporate America used lobbyists to access the political world: "You mean you have firms with highly paid professional who are paid to bribe congressmen?" (Quote from Craig Unger, House of Trump, House of Putin, p. 118) He could have said the same of the lobbyists and politicians of Albany. Bari Weiss welcome in the real world of politic.
This is ripe.
Complaining that a young Democrat politician followed the playbook written by the establishment Democrats and lied through her teeth during her campaign is a bit much.
Is lying through their teeth reserved for Democrat incumbents?
Should the party approve lies so that only officially supported lies are spouted?
At least she did not scare herself with her own lies. That takes experience.
2
1. You equate a list of your own grievances about this candidate's personal inconsistencies into a narrative about what you imagine to be a broader political trend.
2. You provide no evidence for this trend, except for the behavior and popularity of the president, for which you have widely, and hilariously tried to account in other articles, without success.
3. You claim this imaginary trend is popular with a broader, amorphous leftist style of politics, for which you provide no evidence, aside from an interview in "Jacobin."
4. That voters should support a candidate who espouses these views, which indeed may be similar to their own, instead of those of the real-estate-industry backed incumbent is, to you, surprising.
5. You repeat the arguments already written about in right-wing publications like the NY Post and the Daily Mail (!) to undermine the credibility of the candidate before she's assumed office.
Good job all round, Bari. Enjoy Australia.
8
I saw that she apprenticed with Occasio Cortez. Cortez ran an agressive campaign. She tapped into the media outlets I look at. Since the public does not get a chance to really ask qustions . I hope you do more interviews and publish them.
1
She saw a winning template and poured herself into it even if it meant outright lying on many occasions. To win in heavily liberal districts, all you have to do is hit all the check boxes for different, oft-persecuted demographics: Jews, immigrants, women, latinas. Helps if you're young and a democratic socialist especially in such a "hip" place like Brooklyn. Rack up the points and win the prize.
Post-Truth is pretty much synonymous with politics. The whole "cheat to win" mentality is found on all sides and it contributes heavily to polarization while also being a cause of it.
Tell your supporters the lies they want to hear and you'll win.
6
"In less than a decade she went from being pro-life to pro-choice. From a conservative Christian Zionist to an outspoken advocate of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. From a registered Republican to a progressive insistent that she is “actively working to dismantle” capitalism and to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement." BW
Sounds, looks and smells like Enlightenment.
4
We live in an oligarchy, where truth is meaningless. She is just the democratic version of Trump: a liar, who only cares about the means to an end. Really, do none of us remember being 27 years old and knowing nothing, but saying anything? Well you got her now, good luck!
I am shocked, shocked!, that there are successful politicians who lie. Quick, call the herald tribune.
Shocking, another politician playing loose with the truth.
1
"Evil is evil mo matter who does it and yo whom it is done." The left cannot justify this lies on any ground and expect the world to change for the better for all. If it is proven she indeed lied repeatedly for political gains, she should be called to answer after the dusts of election has settled. The end does justify the means. You can expect any good from someone who couldn't tell you the truth.
1
Brooklyn deserves her.
Trump/Bernie 2020
1
Once again, Bari Weiss emerges as one of the very few NY times writers that has a true north around intellectual honesty. Instead of holding fast to a set of personal views, she repeatedly brings a fresh and challenging view to the news. The radicalization of political positions coupled with a means justifies the end approach is resulting in the complete loss of honest and values that transcend short term, self-centered politics. Instead the playbook that is emerging is clear, lie, lie, lie, pander, pander, pander. If politicians didnt like having a 20% trust ratio, they will now have to get used to a 5% trust ratio
3
"When they go low, we go high" has been replaced by taking
a page from the Trumpian playbook. Progressives are fighting fire with fire and winning by any means necessary including lying. As my kids used to chant: "Liar, Liar pants on fire."
So here we go again having to vote for the lesser of two evils.
2
Sounds like she'll fit right in. Maybe she can play cards with Trump.
1
This is rich coming from a person who denies that she began her political career publicly slandering and seeking the dismissal of pro-Palestinian and Arab professors who dared to disagree with her extreme Eretz Israel stance during her years at Columbia.
Now Bari Weiss is the champion of free speech and the arbiter of truth in a political world rife with hypocrisy? Ok...
If Ms Weiss can not recognize her own hypocrisy, we can at least be content that a pro-Palestinian nominee winning in Brooklyn has left a sour taste in her mouth. Those are called sour grapes, Bari. Enjoy them.
Too bad you didn’t choose to join the chorus attacking Salazar’s character before she managed to win a huge upset on the strength of her policy positions, grassroots organizing and advocacy for working class New Yorkers. This tide is rising.. so maybe next time you and Armin Rosen at the Tablet will have to start earlier in your mission to stand athwart history yelling, ‘stop!’
9
Serious inquiry: Is it OK for a white person to call out a progressive woman of color? Or is this racist itself? Someone please clarify the rule on this so I can either cheer or condemn accordingly.
4
Ahh... the glory of "less evil" voting.
Welcome to America 2018.
3
There's something very fishy about this opinion by Bari Weiss. I believe she's out LOOKING for ways to attack Salazar. Some truth in it all, I expect -- but are these the ONLY truths or half-truths about Salazar worth mentioning? Why this blood-filled assault on her? NYT likes the status quo, I get that, doesn't care for socialists, I dare say; but is nothing beyond them to distort about? I always remember how the NYT helped get us into Iraq -- twice, and the lies they laid on us at that time. Or let us say, at least, the lies about our missions there that even non-editors and non-reporters KNEW were lies, but the NYT did not. Does the Times have any regrets about those war fevers of theirs? And their attacks on Bernie Sanders? What progressive Democrats do they actually like?
8
Some of these allegations may be true. I don't know. But I do know that anyone who supports the BDS movement is going to be the target of a character assassination attempt using whatever dirt AIPAC and their kin can dig up.
15
Good work here. Keep digging and don't let up.
Like Mulder and Scully, "the truth is out there"...
don't go to sleep, while you sleep the change comes...
you lay down as one thing and arose as another thing...
or maybe it was real intellectual transformation...
Hey, lying has no party affiliation. The GOP are just usually a lot more deft with out and out falsehoods and propaganda than the left, as a group, are. The GOP knows more people in marketing and market research.
But the left has had its own doozies. The Reverend Al got his own real boost from the colossal lie of Tawana Brawley , a teenager who claimed she was assaulted by a group white police officers, which never actually happened. No assault happened at all, racist or otherwise. That fact, the fact that the whole base for racist accusations was a fantasy made up by a teenage girl, didn't stop Sharpton from exploiting it.
What is a bit scary, is that Ms.Salazar's origin stories and her frequent metamorphoses mirror Steve Bannon, a true believer of the right, who was a true believer of the left previously. He kept changing until he found the niche that really paid off. I don't really want such flexible opportunism in my representatives. But ego, arrogance and vanity produces a righteous self projection, and I am sure I will see a lot more of it in the future.
6
Like trumps* true believer base, the Brooklyn yuppies who voted for weiss*, were infected by what psychologist Leon Festinger called Cognitive Dissonance.
"Democracy Dies in Darkness (WP)"
*Liars get the lower case.
1
How low the people can go as a result of TDR!
2
I live in her district and held my nose and voted for Dilan.
Salazar is a fraud. Shame on those who have supported her, despite the numerous articles that demonstrate that she is nothing more than an unqualified opportunist who lives in fantasyland.
I'll gladly open my wallet and pound the pavement to support any recall efforts.
9
This is the first Bari Weiss column I've read. I'm shocked at the level of discourse--and from scanning comments to find that readers take Weiss at her word. Many facts are missing and other statements are not factual.
I find it hard to believe that the Times dignifies such vicious fits of pique.
10
It is illuminating that It took Bari Weiss and a state senate race in order for the tut tutting “center right” to make their “both sides” argument. This reminds me of the famous Safire “blizzard of lies” treatment of Hillary that cemented the right wing strategy of taking every single statement that may not be 100% forthcoming and accurate and turning it into “see?! She lies about everything!!” I’m sure it will work again. Apparently the only way to run left of Paul Ryan in this country is to be as perfect as Christ himself. It would be interesting to see this treatment form some of the more sanctimonious members of the “center right” media brigade.
2
10 years ago it used to be depressing for us pro Palestinian human rights activists. Both Republicans and Democrats raced to outdo themselves in praise of Israel. People like Governor Cuomo travelled to Israel and groveled at Netanyahu's feet while refusing to meet with Mahmoud Abbas even though Abbas invited him to. I'm happy to see nowadays that anti apartheid Democratic politicians being elected.
5
From the title and first sentences, it sounds like Salazar just followed trumputin’s m.o.
2
When are you going to condemn trump in forthright terms like this? I don’t see NYT referring to trump as a ‘proven liar’ . It is very small minded and frankly, bullying to go after a relatively minor figure in this way but not having the guts to properly call out trump. For shame!
2
You state "Yes, he's distasteful and prone to exaggeration. But he's promising to pass policies we like. Supporting him is a price worth paying in pursuit of our goals." Surely you jest. Like Hitler, Mussolini, Peron and Chavez? They enacted legislation which pleased many people, and then what happened? And what are Trump's policies you like? Denying people health insurance? Making abortion difficult or impossible and at the same time cutting back on education and means of birth control? Cutting back on Medicaid? Lowering taxes on the rich and adding billions to the deficit?
3
For Bari Weiss, Julia Salazar’s real crime is that Salazar went from “a conservative Christian Zionist to an outspoken advocate of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.” Weiss made her name and career by being a pro-Israel activist and attacking those who support Palestinian rights and attacking those she does not see as adequately pro-Israel based on the Neocon and right-wing Zionist (Zionism comes in many diverse variations) definition of pro-Israel. The issue is that younger, progressive, more liberal Democrats who support Salazar, AOC, Sanders are not reflexively and blindly supportive of Israel like Weiss is. This growing progressive/liberal branch of the Democratic Party supports a democratic Israel, in a two state solution (Oslo was 25 years ago), a just peace and rights for both Israelis and Palestinians; they oppose Netanyahu’s Israel: one that moves Israel away from a democracy to an entho-nationalist theocratic state, that normalizes occupation and breaking international laws, that cynically exploits legitimate security and terrorism threats, marginalizes and scapegoats minorities, that steadily makes Apartheid like policies official. If you criticize Israel on these grounds, Weiss et al will smear you; Weiss has a long track record for smearing anti-Israel critics, pro-Palestinian rights supporters. I expect those hachet jobs at Tablet or WSJ op-ed page (Weiss’ previous employers), it’s disappointing to see it in NYT Opinion.
14
Bari Weiss criticizes a pro-BDS politician?
Color me shocked!!
11
Those democrats must be paragons of honesty if the most blatant liar Bari Weis can find is a candidate for NY state senate. The comparison to an administration headed by a serial liar who brought in criminals to run the country is a bit underwhelming.
6
Are you sure, Bari, you really want left-wingers to tell the truth?
Last time we checked, you wanted to see those people fired.
1
Fortunately people of NY state can oust the democratic socialist who lied, and lied, when her term in the office is over. If only we could say the same about Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh who will, if there's no justice NOW, be our top judge for life. The man who has, lied, and lied, and lied and lied 'under oath' about having no part in 'using' hundreds of documents stolen from the democrats. Brett was in on a 21st century DIGITAL WATERGATE
2
Quote: A known liar is now heading to Albany. At least she’ll be in good company?
Yes, unlike most of our politicians she is an unpolished liar.
2
She was elected for whom she is today. Now the NYT, that helped elect the Corrupt billionaire, by proclaiming that he had a 93% of NOT being elected and providing him millions of free publicity, is now holding up its corporate nose in disgust of a "socialist", maybe just maybe they fear that word too. We better get used to it for the future is arriving.
1
I think it's very fair to compare her to our Liar-in-Chief. She's just taking a page out of his book because it works. Kids watch, listen and learn. Shame on us!
4
There are female as well as male snakes. Now one is slithering to Albany. That the David Keyes sexual misconduct story was in the news the day before the election no doubt helped her candidacy.
5
Hope the citizens of Brooklyn enjoy their champagne socialist.
6
Wait a second: who is the author of this piece, and what exactly are his motives? Are we suddenly being plunged into the middle of a family feud? Is the brother credible? Has anyone actually investigated either the brother or the sister? How was the misinformation originally spread? This is a dreadfulmpiecenof journalism, way below the NY Times' usual standard. There is so much information missing from this story that it is impossible to judge one way or the other. A much longer and more thorough report is required. These few paragraphs throw out some accusations, make some insinuations, but provide no real background and no substantial evidence one way or another. Shame on the Times for printing such shoddy work. Get a real reporter onto this story.
11
@Allison
This is an opinion column about stories that have been covered in several major (credible, fact-checking) news outlets about Salazar. Google it. Then look up the distinction between an opinion column and a news article. Your welcome.
7
Is this the one who lied and said she was an immigrant even though she was born here? And lied about graduating from Columbia? Did she graduate from any college? Scotty, beam me up, please.
6
Thank you Bari. I can’t believe I’m contributing to someone that wouldn’t pass a background check at a normal corporation. The booths were empty. Please don’t ever leave the nyt. You’re the only logical person left at the nyt that’s not tribally blind.
4
Whoopie! Another win for the Venezuelan wing of the Democrat Party!
8
That Julia Salazar is a politician and would lie isn't in and itself the problem. Lies are an absolute necessity in politics; without them, nothing would get done and you'd have perpetual war. In fact, if a politician can't lie, and lie well, he or she would be worthless in politics, and should get another career.
The problem is that Salazar wasted her lying capital on a self-serving narrative that was so ludicrous and contrived it was found out almost immediately. This makes her not an ordinary political liar, but a truly vain, silly and stupid fraud.
And yet, like Trump, she got elected, which means the pathetic part in all this isn't her, but the voters.
4
Distressing, but not surprising.
Underneath our homo sapien intellect is the primal brain of a tribal ape.
Lots of shallow-thinking people on the far left, albeit not as bad as the far-right.
4
Does anyone else here that whining sound?
6
I find it interesting that the New York Times will say outright that Salazar “lied,” whereas it always uses softer terms (“misled,” “told untruths,” etc.) when discussing Trump.
2
Ugh. This is just such deflating news.
If you’re a liar, please run as a Republican!
4
Gack!
Love some of the comments in this forum this morning. The righteousness is laughable, given human political history. Oh, and then, there's that pesky NATIONAL EMERGENCY/CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS thing going on at Pennsylvania Ave.
But, that's OK. We'll pretend America actually still means something while half the country's population/institutions defecate on it. And in the meantime, let's debate twenty-something ethics standards while a 72-year-old Stalinesque Fascist at the Helm and shreds the Constitution right before our eyes. And we do NOTHING. Still want to talk ethics, integrity?
Just wondering many people THINK they've gone through life without sanitizing, embellishing, or at the very least, practicing a little hindsight bias re: their past.
If you believe you have, you're a liar.
2
Reading the comments to this piece is infuriating. The number of people defending this atrocious liar and their decision to vote for her is highly disturbing. Unless these commentors also voted for Trump because they value entertaining lies over truth, they are hypocrites.
A liar isn’t OK just because you think they agree with your world view. A liar can’t be trusted. If somebody will lie about their place of birth and smear their own mother by diminishing her educational attainment, you cannot reasonably believe anything she says. She claims socialist values? It’s just as likely she’ll join the IDC.
10
If she wasn’t new and attractive she would’ve lost. Voters do not use their brains anymore plain and simple
5
This columnist believes that Trump lies on a much grander scale and she also just believes her allegations of sexual abuse; all from a person more akin to Rachel Dolezal than Trump. Real credible "journalism.
She is a highly-narcissistic con woman and serial liar. Her command of and interest in policy is roughly equal to that of Trump's. It smells no better when it comes from the left than from the right.
15
Is being a liar the same thing as being corrupt? At least now our politicians are starting early and entering “the swamp” as strangers to the truth and not overwhelmed by lies and corruption once they take the oath of office. Come on in, the water is fine.
1
Very disappointing, but apparently true!
Lying has been the hallmark of Republicans, Trump, and his low intelligence minions and now taints their opponents.
1
If Bari Weiss had gone through a similar transformation as Julia, and had renounced her college crusade to suppress academic freedom for supporters of Palestine, her columns wouldn't be so awful.
"It’s the ideological equivalent of a cinnamon-raisin bagel with lox. Strange. But technically kosher." Haha, this is what you get when smug condescension masquerades as intellectual edge.
"Salazar was perfectly positioned as the Robin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Batman. She was a Colombian immigrant with a Columbia degree. A Jew of color and a working-class girl raised by a single mother without a college degree who had struggled to support her family." If voters in SD18 cared about a candidate's bio more than, say, stopping their housing from being decimated by the predatory developers who funded her opponent, Bari's argument would have found traction.
If you want us to believe the entire array of oppo hits lobbed at Julia *weren't* all sourced to right-wing Zionists, tell us who gave Armin Rosen his tip, and was it Canary Mission? I'm sure you know the answer. Fortunately, no one in SS18 shares your agenda.
11
This young woman is a liar. A known, proven liar.
Her influence at this point in time is minimal but the principle and precedent she sets is clear: liberals will vote for a liar if they think it helps their agenda.
It's one thing to claim the moral high ground, and it's another thing to earn it.
6
Heh. You know who else was raised Catholic but lies about his Jewish heritage to nullify accusations of anti-Semitism? Milo. Swap the politics and the stories are identical. To be an alt-right hero, Milo had to pal around with neo-Nazis. But he can’t be anti-Semitic because he has Jewish great-grandparent! ...whom he conveniently discovered. Similarly, Ms. Salazar’s aggressive anti-Israel stance isn’t anti-Semitic because she “converted” to Judaism! ...I just checked her Twitter account. Not a word on Rosh Hashanah. In fact, she hasn’t mentioned the High Holidays at all. I was texting my friends shanah tovahs and I’m not even Jewish. Don’t be surprised if she starts claiming she’s “queer.” Marginalized identities are currency for her cohort.
9
Why won't the esteemed NYT print a headline article on Brett Kavanaugh lies 'before' the Vote. Are you in on this charade that is this nominee confirmation process? A man tried to rape a young woman. The story rings true as a bell to the those who've been there. Even before the mostly 'buried' news of Kavanaugh's attempt at rape, that big gaggle of pre-teen girls surrounding him during his rigged confirmation hearings was so obviously a ruse and a Republican cover up. NYT where are you in all this? Please NYT don't deep six this topic. Brett's on court for our life time. Salazar a blip in time.
2
The left's fixation with the truth only surfaces when a republican is involved. Double standard? You betcha.
7
@AACNY: Hmmm... so it can't be a fixation? Nein?
Wow, Ms. Salazar sure sounds like a Zelig figure! After reading your article, Ms. Weiss, as well as several others about her, she comes across as quite the fantasist. When so many real Latin American immigrants are going through hell right now, it angers me to see this phony baloney trafficking cynically with this topic.
Given Ms. Salazar's opportunism and really big lies about her family and herself—this inspirationaI immigrant y 'mujer luchadora latina' persona she has crafted to help make herself electable in Brooklyn—I wonder whose interests she will really represent now that she has been elected. What a shame that in these Trumpian times, 'operadoras' like her actually look refreshing to so many of us progressive gringos.
6
Politics in the USA have changed since the 2016 primary season. They now are similar to the politics of the sham democracies of the world which are dominated by personalities and not policies. Truth be damned.
3
The Times really doesn't like left-wingers. They come down hard on Salazar for lying, but doubled down on their endorsement for the know crook Cuomo.
4
Government could be such a force for good were it not for the politics.
1
She's 27. "In less than a decade" would make her 18 and presumably living at home. A lot of people I know had their conversions in their early 20s. My early 20s were my agnostic years. I don't know anything else about Salazar, but frankly this kind of alarmism undermines the credibility of this piece.
9
Had I been aware of this, I wouldn’t have voted for her. Now I feel like I have been suckered.
However, I voted for her because I met campaign people who were canvassing in a local park who told me about her many progressive positions, including taking on ICE.
I’m not an immigrant, but many friends and neighbors are. ICE has been a disruptive fear for the whole city, going after people who are just trying to live their lives and breaking up families. ICE is also a threat to the city’s efforts to keep reducing crime, as the immigrant community will be too afraid to work with law enforcement.
I have a family and I need to take positions that will help keep them safe.
The incumbent she ran against had almost no visible presence, except for flyers and robo-calls, giving the impression he was just part of a machine.
5
Deceit is not a hardy crop. It requires fertile soil. Decades of feckless government and growing economic inequality have made people willing to make the post-Weimar trade: we don't need decency; we need action.
I was struck today by a TV analyst saying that bad storms create economic growth via the rebuilding effort. Such should no be the case. Rebuilding after a storm "should" have the negative effect of diverting resources from other useful work. But it IS the case, because our system cannot effectively allocate resources between private and public projects.
Bad government creates all sorts of distortions. Indifference to truth is just one of them. Where Ms. Salazar comes from isn't as important as where she's coming from. That's sad, but it's true, and that's the truth that matters.
2
Like many I’ve been breathlessly awaiting the next pointless overblown hot take on the evils of modern leftism from Bari Weiss. Not disappointed! Australia must be really boring.
9
I don't think that there is such a thing as "post-truth". People may be lying more and more, but "truth" is still truth.
10
I didn’t vote for Salazar because I’m comfortable with her lies, but I like her politics and (more than anything) Martin Dilan was a TERRIBLE representative. In fifteen years he took real estate developers’ money for himself and did nothing for Williamsburg.
7
@Elizabeth Spiegel
How can you determine her politics, if she's always lying?
Look at Trump for a clear example. He has no political guide, no true compass - either morally or politically - so we're stuck with someone who blows with the wind...who only cares about his own image. Not the lives of people, or the economy, or real domestic security and such. But how does it all make me look?
How do you know that once in office, Ms Salazar doesn't revert back to her Republican ways? She could easily become yet another Dem who sides with the Repubs...which we're trying to shed ourselves of in NYS!
While Dilan might have been a bad choice...not everyone lives in Williamsburg!
Character counts! But good luck, all the same.
1
@Elizabeth Spiegel
How do you know that her "politics" are not also lies? Liars generally have an agenda that usually does not include the good of those they are lying to. Think grifter or con artist. Or casino owner.
3
I too was disturbed by all her lies about about her background and degrees. Why would she lie about being an immigrant or being raised by a single mother without a college degree when she was actually born here, her mother did graduate from college and it was she, Salazar, who who did not graduate from Columbia as she claimed? The lies about her background seems to be purely manipulative, but lying about her academic qualifications would get her fired from most jobs yet apparently qualifies her to represent her district in Albany. The fact that her supporters ignored all this or say it didn't matter says almost as much about them as it says about her.
What is also disturbing is her vast changes in politics from being the head of a pro life group when she was in college to just a few years later claiming to be pro choice, and from being a Fundamentalist to a converted Jew. Yes, people do change, but with Salazar, I would wonder how many of these changes were authentic and how many of them were also changes of convenience. When I heard that she claimed to have been abused by a aide to Netanyahu I immediately dismissed it although it may prove to be true.That's the problem when you lie about fundamental information about your background. Whether or not you may now be telling the truth will always be suspect.
Too bad the man she was running against was also a sleaze. Couldn't we have found a more truthful candidate to run against him.
43
In this day and age it is very easy to confirm whether a person was born in Colombia or South Florida, whether a person graduated from college, and even if a person has a trust fund. Given this, I take it as a fact that journalists, Ms. Weiss included, fact checked the information provided by Ms. Salazar’s brother, which paints Ms. Salazar as a liar. Proven facts really do not care whether they were revealed by someone with an ax to grind, or whether they lean right or left politically.
Therefore, what we have here is just the latest example of how our partisanship is clouding our judgment. That Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Cynthia Nixon and the voters decided to look the other way in the face of facts is as disgusting as the GOP members of Congress standing by Trump after all his lies. It comes to show that willful blindness is not limited to the right. And it proves once again that when it comes to power politicians will do whatever it takes to achieve it. The future does not look good when the first thing we’re willing to sacrifice is the truth.
48
I agree with Ms. Weiss that the candidacy of Ms. Salazar will hurt the progressive movement by providing political fuel to the GOP right wing in coming elections. For the progressive movement to be successful it is imperative that candidates maintain a high degree of integrity and not stoop to the level of deceit practiced by many GOP candidates including the current administration.
49
Perhaps there was so much in the New York primaries for the media to choose what to cover that it neglected to provide enough coverage of this particular primary - maybe because it was only between two Democrats?
5
@LWK maybe because it is a state senate race?
1
Name a politician that tells the truth.
I dare you.
I double dare you.
4
@NY Coolbreez - really? You choose to create and equivalency between Ms. Salazar or for that matter Trump and people of far better character who may at some point have not told 100% truth? The world demands some intellectual rigor and not simply small minded justifications of support simply because you support the politics of a candidate.
13
@NY Coolbreez. David Price (D-North Carolina)!!!!!
@NY Coolbreez: Nuance still has its place, Ace.
This is sadly symptomatic of our political gridlock. Enough voters feel compelled and alienated enough to support tribal candidates who are ruthless enough to break through and win. Ethics and civility be damned. Trump and Mitch McConnell at one end, Julie Salazar at the other.
25
Salazar, Robert Menendez, Charlie Rangel, Wasserman and yes Hillary Clinton are perfect examples of why I left the democratic party. Trump may be an old ignorant bigoted cave man but he doesn't care if you know he is an old ignorant bigoted cave man. I have more contempt for those who pretend they are something they aren't and that they care about the people. Especially when in reality they are screwing us even more than Trump.
19
@Hellen
It is not Trump's lies that are so pernicious, it is his actions and policies that are killing us. At least the Democrats you name won't destroy our environment and people's lives.
10
@Hellen
You had me with your first premise (the Democratic Party is filled with hypocrites) but lost me on your second (these hypocrites are screwing us more than Trump).
I would contend that all politicians screw some people and reward others. From my reading, I see conservative politicians (a group Trump has aligned himself with) as screwing a greater number of people than hypocrite liberal (Democrat) politicians.
11
@Hellen
What I don't understand about some Trump supporters is that they understand they are supporting an "ignorant bigot" and it's okay with them. (So what does that say about you?) Trump also lies daily, so how does that play into the sincerity you seem to admire? Trump and his Administration have reached a level of cruelty that should make people of every political persuasion throw up.
Ive seen politicians like that elected all my life, better Media to expose them these days, but I'm amazed how many of my fellow citizens they take in
11
These many far leftist socialists are going to get a heavy dose of reality when they find that most Democrats are in the center.
They believe they are "winning" because they win (a few) Democratic Primaries and because they tell each other that they are on a roll.
As much damage as Trump has done to America, it pales next to the damage that Socialists will do. They will make us into another Venezuela (which if you recall was Bernie Sanders' idol).
9
@Dan Relax, Dan, there is zero chance of the US turning into Venezuela. If there is any tendency in that direction, it comes from the oil oligarchs, but... well, it's not that complicated.
What the Democratic Socialists might turn us back into might be something like the unionized America of the 50's, only without the racism and sexism, and with all new technology... it's more interesting than many people can imagine
7
@John Bergstrom
John--the Democratic Socialists are absolutely not directed toward turning us "back into" the unionized America of the 50s. They, instead, focus on (and I hate to say it, but it's true) "free stuff."
Going back to the unionized 50s is a pipe dream. It existed because of world conditions that are no longer what they are now--mainly that the US was the only country "still standing" after WWII.
We need a different vision.
As a life-long Democrat I am in favor of laws that create unions and strengthen them. However, that is, as I say, NOT what the Democratic Socialists are after. They big emphasis is on re-distribution, which is a non-starter for most Americans.
Democratic Socialists have no clear vision. No proposals to pay for all that they say that they want. It is like watching children trying to re-shape the world.
1
@Dan: Calm down. Take some smelling salts, find your fainting couch and sooth your vapors. And then turn off Fox, go back to school and read up on economics and political science. And try thinking before you emote. It actually works, Ace.
3
This story reminds me that too much democracy, or at least certain aspects of it, can be a bad thing!!! Back in the days when politicians in smoke filled back rooms chose candidates, the electability of the individual was given a prominent position in the decision process. Now, everything is done by primaries. Goodbye smoke filled back rooms; hello true believers. The extremists of the Left and Right are taking over the major parties, because it is mostly the true believers that turn out for the primaries. Say what you will about "super delagates", Hillary had a better chance to beat Trump: Bernie would have been trounced. Trump now owns the GOP. The party of FDR, HST, and JFK is now up for grabs. If the Democrats tack to the far left, while the Republicans remain on the right, people of good will in the middle (most of us) will be in for a couple of rough decades. Perhaps it is time for a new centerist party to emerge, attracting people who have a real interest in discussing their differences with civil discourse, and not by accusing the other of evil, stupidity, or greed.
19
You must forget very quickly - Bernie beat Trump in most polls, but the boys in the back room knew better.
3
@ d ascher
You also forget - Hillary was beating Trump in polls right up to election day. I seem to recall this paper give Hillary a 97% chance of victory.
@Jack Kay The centrist party can't happen soon enough. The democratic socialists (i.e., socialists) may have to become even more prominent to get enough fleeing non-socialist Democrats to force the issue, as I assume that they will have trouble joining what the Republican party is/has become.
Or maybe Trump will fall and the Republicans will moderate in the face of the openly socialist/open borders (abolish ICE) Democrats. I think we'll then see a land-slide for the Republicans, and the centrist third party will be delayed indefinitely.
Listen: Serena Williams just wants to be allowed to act out like the boys do and get away with it. Why should we begrudge Ms. Salazar when she wants to engage in Trumpian mendacity? It's all so interesting - hahaha.
5
Anyone who has spent five minutes in their life talking to your average liberal isn't surprised by this. The entire Bernie left is, to coin a phrase, full of "it". They're wrong about nothing, take no responsibility for anything, and expect everyone else to pay for what they think society needs. God forbid THEY do anything like work hard, sacrifice, etc.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that they'd vote for an outright liar. The left in this country is absolutely no different than the right. The middle is becoming pretty lonely.
16
As your average 60 blue collar liberal who has worked hard, sacrificed and lived an honest life I take exception to your categorization of liberals as people seeking a free ride. In a society where the wealthy and big business use the rest of us as commodities and low rent wage slaves while gaming the political and financial systems for social domination being liberal is an act of self defense. As a liberal I want a living wage (& yes it can be defined), affordable and accessible health care, a future for my grandchildren not tied to a phony meritocracy based on unrelenting competition, an environment not sickened by toxins and greed and a foreign policy that actually promotes humanities welfare and survival. If that puts me in the “Bernie” camp so be it. Oh and I was once defined as a moderate, I didn’t move the “middle” did.
44
@Mike - Your overuse of the broad brush minimizes your claims.
4
Since 2010, 175 politicians have been convicted of crimes. 17 of which are from NY, and 12 of them Democrats. Not exactly a stellar performance by any standard.
I wouldn't be to concerned about Ms. Salazar for the moment, she's only a liar.
3
I believe this young woman is still trying to find herself in the world. Can we give her a chance to serve the people of her district? If she's horrible, vote her out.
10
Many young people spend their 20s trying to find themselves in the world. Most manage to do it without lying about every aspect of their lives. This young woman may be heading to Albany but if she doesn't find truth soon she'll be heading right back home (wherever that is) after a censure or expulsion for lying.
13
@Nic really? Ok I understand political views can change over time. I can understand when you’re young maybe you support abortion and as you get older you don’t, or visa versa. Totally understandable, but what does “trying to find herself” have to do with lying about where you were born, or what your economical upbringing was, or you and your moms education, etc...
IMO that has nothing to do with “growing up” and more to do with have a physiological disorder in which you have to lie and manipulate to gain the trust of a group of people AND do it with a smile. Do me a favor and look up “sociopath” and let me know what you think.
4
@Nic I agree. Furthermore, who is Bari Weiss? She writes in an extremely critical mode about a young woman who has won the favorability of voters in her district. Weiss is throwing garbage on Salazar before the fact.
I’m not a fan of liars,but the Hobbesian choice presented here shows her to be the correct choice. The IDC was nothing good for New Yorkers.
18
@John
FYI, Her opponent was not an IDC member, whatever his faults.
1
Julia Salazar lied so much about her personal background, I wonder how truthful she is being about her politics?
Is she really all in for "racial, social, and economic justice"? (as Ocasio-Cortez likes to say when the cameras roll)
Or did she just notice that the DSA handbook is a current hot seller in hipster Brooklyn and employed it to get elected?
This seems like a really obvious point, but I almost never hear it.
61
@sk Well, it certainly looms in the background. A person who has changed positions so dramatically in the recent past may suddenly discover Lyndon Larouche, or some esoteric guru. Or maybe not. Not so much that she is lying about her real beliefs now -- although that's a possibility -- as that her beliefs seem ephemeral. Well, I guess we'll find out.
7
Did anyone else notice that one of her campaign videos was a ripoff/redux of the Reagan classic "it's Morning Again"? Dear Lord. I live across the street from her campaign headquarters, got pummeled non-stop with Julia ("hoolia" when they came to my door) cards. No thanks. At one point I was very excited then learned more. I'll take a high integrity moderate over a wildly shifting, chronically exaggerating lefty anyday.
16
I struggle to understand why some lies about one’s life are easily forgiven but others—seemingly no worse—have catastrophic consequences for the liar.
Rachel Dolezal worked for the NAACP in support of African-American issues, married a black man and had children, seemingly all with good intentions and effect. She was dedicated to liberal causes. But she wasn’t black at birth, she merely identified as black, and her life was destroyed.
Richard Blumenthal lied about his military service (claiming combat experience in Vietnam). He stole credit from and basked in the glory of brave soldiers who did fight, and die. Once, this would have resulted in shame and resignation, but he still serves in the Senate.
To me, the latter seems worse than the former.
Now comes Julia Salazar; she seems to want to tick every box to conform her background to a preferred identity. She alters fundamental facts about her background (like Dolezal) and fabricates credentials (like Blumenthal). Why? Did she think her ideas and efforts weren’t good enough? Has identity politics forced a need to conform to a “type?
So when is it ok, or at least forgivable, and when is it not?
14
@JG
What's worse? To have lied about partaking in a criminal war we were falsified into or actually taking part in such inexcusable violence?
@JG Interesting questions. At least Dolezal had a real consistency in her chosen identity -- and in Blumenthal's case it wasn't a core feature, he wasn't being president of a veterans organization... but Salazar seems to be blowing in the wind at this point -- not so much that her identity is false, but that it keeps changing. Where will she settle down?
5
@JG
Rachel Dolezal lied and used an old tactic that for years has been used by white people to rob Native Americans of the few benefits they obtained .Where she is from it was and still is common for white people to pretend they had or have indigenous blood to claim tribal and land rights. It is why many refuse to take DNA tests to prove their Native ancestry.
Rachel Dolezal was doing the same thing to Black Americans and trying to rob them of the few benefits they have. On top of it she insulted Black women by denigrating their history to just curling her hair and darkening her skin.
This is why Party loyalty is so wrong. The Party shouldn't win, the people, armed with the truth should win. Beware the True Believers of anything.
39
@Jamie Keenan
It was a primary.
I find this so disconcerting, disheartening, and dangerous to our democracy (oh God, please pardon the alliteration - completely unintentional). No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, we need to be educated and invested voters, skeptical (but not cynical) of those who want to represent us. We can all do so much better. And we must.
31
The last two presidential elections showed that character in candidates is neither necessary nor sufficient to garner support or to result in good policies. Mr. Obama was an exemplar of good character who nevertheless used executive orders and the presidential bully pulpit (rather than legislation and political compromise) to achieve his goals, thereby alienating a large portion of the electorate. It’s a waste of the limited characters the NYT allows for comments to discuss Mr. Trump’s character, but the policies he has championed have been largely embraced by Republicans and have relied less on executive orders. I think the increase in identity politics over the last decade is a big driver of why many people are less focused on the character of the persons they elect to represent them. The goal of identity politics is to secure a share of a pie that many Americans believe isn’t growing. It’s driven by economics. And that motivation drives voters across the political spectrum to unequivocally vote their self interest (the Democratic Party has successfully transformed a substantial number of White voters into a voting bloc, rather than the diffuse group they used to be in the past). When Americans felt that growth would lift everyone, identity politics mattered far less, especially for Whites. There’s no way to reverse this trend now.
4
@Shiv Please note, Obama turned to executive orders only because the Republicans in congress blocked every attempt for him to pass anything. The ACA is one of the rare exceptions and the Rs tried their best to prevent its passage and have made it a crusade to overturn it. They haven't any idea of what to replace it with.
Obama could have done nothing and be called a do-nothing president, or use his executive authority to accomplish what he could.
And Trump and cohorts (or should I say his henchmen) are bent on overturning absolutely every good thing Obama accomplished in spite of the vindictive of McConnell.
7
What an interesting spin on events. The GOP made it very clear that they would not cooperate with Obama on anything the day after he was elected. They hardly wavered from that position - opposing most things he said or proposed mainly because they came from his mouth (could it have had anything to do with his being not of pure Aryan stock?). They eagerly "cooperated" each time he made use of the military (gotta support "the troops", as if "the troops" took a vote and decided to go to Afghanistan on their own).
Trump has had virtually nothing to do with any of the very few legislative "accomplishments" passed by Congress. He didn't initiate the tax cut nor do any effective lobbying for it, nor shape its final form. He did his usual incoherent huffing and puffing, but the GOP with majorities in both houses of Congress didn't need any prodding to pass this - they just need Trump to remember to actual sign the legislation and not get distracted by the cameras. His incoherent bluster failed get the repeal of Obamacare passed in the Senate.
Most of what he's "accomplished", he's done with regulatory changes and Executive Orders. The one Executive Order he has so far not gotten to is to declare that Obama was not really President because he was born in Kenya. That must be because the secret cabal that surrounds him keeps hiding the pen.
8
@Shiv Gosh the old 'if only Obama said the right thing, talked to the Republicans, compromised with them, then all would have been well and Republicans and Democrats would walk together into the sunset' meme. Bull, Republicans from day one decided to oppose any and everything Obama did, even when they had previously supported it. Obama compromised with Republicans even to to point of using a Republican Healthcare plan as a basis for the PP&ACA. He got nothing back. And as a last insult, they would not give Garland a hearing and vote.
Obama couldn't have used 'legislation and political compromise' because to do so requires willing parties on both sides. He and the Democrats were willing, Republicans were not.
1
Salazar, Ocasio-Cortez and DSA are Christmas in July for Republicans and Fox News. The right LOVES stories of entitled leftists from rich families playing identity politics. Those screaming Yale students were darlings of the right. DSA may think they are generating new energy for Democrats but they are really only rearranging deck chairs in deep blue districts. For every new DSA voter in gentrifying Williamsburg and Astoria, the Democrats will lose a voter in PA, FL, or OH where they need to win in 2020.
15
This is a necessary editorial. As soon as I read about her lies I would never vote for her. I'm sorry to read Ocasio, and other still support her.
26
This used to be called telling it like it is. Bari Weiss, by again using her platform to expose hypocrisy wherever she finds it, validates this reader's opinion that hers is a voice to be reckoned with far, far into the future.
33
"Politics as usual" is now dead in America.
Whether that is a good thing or bad thing, only time will tell.
If Ms. Salazar has been able to lie herself into office, fabricating her life, it is because Trump has been successful in discrediting the mainstream media.
A healthy Democracy must have information to function. That is the role of The Press. But when The Press cannot be believed because the president has poisoned the public's confidence, then democracy fails and liars are elected to office.
Based on this op-ed, I see no reason to believe Ms. Salazar is a left, Democratic Socialist; she is likely a covert Russian Republican. Good luck Brooklyn.
13
@jabarry
The press cannot be believed due to their own incompetence and deception. This has nothing to do with Trump and started long before him. How soon people forget the media's complicity during the Bush/Cheney reign.
2
Ok, but now that she has a good job, and there will plenty of people to mentor her for her lack of knowledge, can we hope she will stop her lying?
1
Any reason to believe this will happen? Why should she stop since it worked well. and a multiple occasion liar is usually a habitual liar, and such habit usually doesn't stop as we all know.
2
Reading Bari Weiss's Op-ed, I was upset that Salazar lied so blatantly about her background. Then I decided to dig a little deeper. Reading a very "neutral," week-old piece in Vox, I discovered that the story is far more complicated than Ms Weiss would have us believe. (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/5/17806484/julia-salazar-...
Judging by the vast majority of comments I've read here, most take Ms Weiss's assertions at face value. They should not.
14
@Rick
The fall back ploy of all liars.... claiming the lie is complicated.
3
@Rick, Because Vox is capable of total objectivity? Ha. She blamed her staff for the misrepresentation of her education. That's strikes me as a new low for Albany.
3
@Rick: I read the article and it was unpersuasive at best. If she said one of the untrue things she said, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. But there are too many untrue statements to simply brush away. She's a liar, plane and simple.
4
Funny, that. If Salazar had been brought up as a Muslim and had "seen the light" about the "evils of Radical Islam" Ms. Weiss and her ilk would be falling over themselves to welcome her, and to overlook the curious inconsistencies in her biography. If Salazar had been a member of the Communist Party in the 'fifties and had "seen the light" about the "evils of Komm-U-Nism" she'd probably have had an editorial position very similar to Weiss's own.
8
"She has principles. And if you don't like them, she also has other ones". (Groucho Marx)
29
Somewhat similarly we saw the same when feminists who came out in force to support Bill Clinton in the wake of Monica Lewinsky, and all his womanizing and lying. Meaning that people have a tendency to look beyond their own moral code and support candidates that are in line with their politics. Sadly, there is a strong means justifies the ends which seems to be taking over the entire political landscape, which means that character no longer matters, or matter much, anyway. As long as I get what I want is all that counts now. It only gets worse from here.
The death of character leads to the birth of autocrats and tyranny.
16
@Sparky
Partisanship makes fools of people. This includes the media.
2
The reason Ms. Salazar won was because the incumbent she was running against was a member of the rightfully despised Independent Democratic Caucus; if she'd been running against someone else it's likely she wouldn't have won. People went for the new, presumably lesser of two evils.
Still, given what is being revealed about Ms. Salazar's background, has no one considered the possibility she is a sort of political fifth columnist, that she's running a con, and that once elected to the legislature she will revert to her illiberal past? Wouldn't be the first time that the reactionaries have tried that kind of tactic. That alone would have given me pause about voting for her.
8
@Glenn Ribotsky
I hate to get all factual here, and I hold no brief for Mr. Dilan, but he was NOT a member of the IDC.
But I share your concerns about Salazar.
While it is disconcerting that Salazar invented much of her past, that her supporters rely on the same rationalizations and fantasy conspiracy theories they otherwise denounce when emanating from Republicans, there is a simple fact to bear in mind. Salazar is in all likelihood heading to Albany, one of the most corrupted legislatures in the US where the state budget is still decided by the “three men in the room” and, to be effective at all for your constituents, the individual legislator must bend to the will of the party leader. If she thinks that federal policies, relating to abolishing ICE for instance, can be influenced from Albany, then she is beyond naive - and about sixty years too late.
The question is: will Salazar challenge New York’s rotten insider system and lead the fight for ethics reform and good government? For that, she will need many allies. In her favor, oddly enough, she was elected in spite of her multiple (and easily uncovered) lies - so these revelations should be no impediment. Whether she will be able to withstand temptation or drown in the fetid swamp that is Albany like so many others remains to be seen. The real test of her character and ambition lies ahead of her. Although she has already failed the personal integrity test, that is a bond she will no doubt share with several of her soon-to-be fellow legislators. Let’s see what she is able to accomplish for the people who elected her, as they remain her most important audience.
3
@Charlie in NY: No state in the USA wants adult supervision from Washington.
If we must label things, maybe her rise (and Trumps brand) can be called "feel good politics" rather than Post Truth. She paints an autobiography that resonates with voters, regardless of its veracity and gives them the fleeting sensation of solidarity. Trump's fictions so far are more dangerous and have more traction. But let's not kill off truth -- and private citizens' desire for it -- just yet. It may make some ugly appearances soon and then we'll really be screwed. I think the example of Salazar's rise has more to do with just how powerful the currency of victimhood has in left wing circles (just as in right wing circles but with a different script) that emanates from the Identity Politics that have defined liberal platforms and splintered huge swaths of people and defined them by the color of their skin or their heritage. When you have powerful stories of victimization who needs facts? Millenials who disregard these facts, are but a symptom, not the problem.
3
Thank you and please keep doing this kind of reporting. One of my greatest fears right now is that Democrats will not learn from the cautionary tale of the Republicans and wind up with an obstreperous, radical rump party attached to their body politic, one that will obstruct and block and go off and pout if its demands are not met: A Tea Party or a Freedom Caucus of the Left.
16
@Peter Aretin
So right! "True believers", wherever their spot on the political spectrum, are the same at heart, believing their great righteousness excuses their totalitarian impulses.
1
Thank you, Bari, for getting the word out and speaking the truth about Julia Salazar. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
By the way, I believe I was the woman on Twitter, under my real name, who suggested you write about the Intellectual Dark Web. I'd like to thank you for that story, too.
I would like to see the NY Times put you on their Editorial Board.
15
If these claims are true, then Ms. Salazar has a lot of explaining/clarification to do. But the problem with this article, to me, is Bari Weiss. Ms. Weiss is one of the "Israel can do no wrong" crowd and she goes after anyone who dares to question that assumption with the ferocity of a rabid dog. Judging from her focus in this commentary, it's hard not to wonder if Salazar's evolving political positions are what is really getting Bari Weiss' goat.
13
@Shaun Narine This opinion piece is about Salazar and her lies about her family and background. It has nothing to do with Israel and Salazar’s changing views.
To accuse Weiss, given her often expressed skepticism about specific Israeli policies, of being part of something you call the”’Israel can do no wrong’ crowd”, only exposes a certain obsession on your part about Israel being central to every discussion no matter the topic and inventing conspiratorial cabals whose membership are so broad and fluid as to be meaningless.
17
@Shaun Narine
You have just demonstrated "viewpoint" logic. You don't like Ms. Weiss' position on Israel so you attack the messenger.
5
I think lying is pervasive in our- be successful and shine or be a loser culture. From high school admission essays to job interviews. We’re expected to rack up insincere fodder for our resume. We expect lying. A person who doesn’t lie looks lackluster and doesn’t get the job.
3
@Patrick Murphy
I find this a bit sickening to those of us who have won fair and square. We all lie, here and there, over the course of our lies, but padding resumes on job applications or writing fake essays to gain college acceptances are lies that are too big and deserve the consequences if they are found out.
My son just graduated, as Valedictorian, from a rigorous school and was accepted to Harvard, Yale, University of Cambridge and others. He adamanently refused help throughout his entire school career...even coaching for the SATs. He refused editing of his application essays. He never asked for help or a tutor. We had no pull at any college he applied to, no money, no legacy, no fame or national prizes and no special status to help fulfill commitments to underserved areas of the academic landscape. At the one school where someone wrote a letter on his behalf as an alumnus, my son withdrew his application. He would have given up all of his acceptances if he had to pad or embellish any aspect of these applications. Of course he has his flaws but I bet there are enough kids out there like my son who haven't cheated, or padded to come in first and "get the job!" He had equally like minded-friends who did not fare as well. But the others who gained something they didn't deserve already have the makings of "losers" due to questionable ethics. They are widely disrespected for gaming the system and their false laurels may account to their sheepish grins.
Thin and pretty works most of the time.
9
On second thought, let's change that to:
Thin and pretty gets the job done every time.
4
It seems to me the only people willing to run for elected office on the left or right are people willing to lie or stretch the truth. I think since everyone is human and thus flawed, those considered for elected positions should be judged on their positions and how they will promote the greater good, regardless of their embellishments or distortions of the events in their personal lives. If the measure of the person running is their complete honesty or integrity we'd have no elections at all since no one could meet the standards of expectations set so high that being a human being eliminates them from the race.
That having been said although it would be nice to have someone perfect running for any office, it's not going to happen. When the left puts too much focus on things of this nature, the right lies and cheats their way into power and look what we get. A national disgrace with no connections to reality. Take a close look at Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Trey Gowdy and those in Trump's orbit. Is this what the "truth advocates" on the left are willing to accept for years to come because someone new and yet to get their bearings in political office on the left is who they have to combat what's become of our political narrative with a minority of right wing nuts controlling all branches of government? I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm giving her a break and will not rush to judgment before she has a real chance to govern.
1
@Robert Westwind: People get what they expect from politics: utterly corrupt liars and narcissists peddling dubious influence.
@Robert Westwind
Extremism appears to warp values that we spend a lifetime being taught and, in turn, teaching our children.
The end does not justify the means; cheating is wrong (and a grievous offense that has ruined not only school careers but the careers of people in every walk of life). Lying is a terrible thing: look how many governmental officials are serving prison terms for lying. Public servantsn all branches of government, teachers, scientists and doctors, bankers, writers. I cannot remember hearing about a good outcome for people who lie and get caught (Manafort's punishments stem from his lies.) People who lie on resumes lose their jobs; college acceptances are rescinded when lies are uncovered. Even tiny lies ruin friendships, marriages and many different types of relationships.
How in the world is it okay to start by "giving her a break...before she has a real chance to govern." Notwithstanding your proclamation that she will in fact "govern" (which sounds a bit hyperbolic) why is it okay for her to lie?
There is an enormous difference between being a "perfect" human being...an unattainable ideal, no question. But a liar who has invented a narrative is no different from what any of these other people you condemn have done.
Of course all people lie...but we all have to accept the consequence of our lies...
But to reward a liar by electing her to office is no different. It's extremism at all costs...and this mentality is unacceptable.
After reading the deep background hidden within the comments section it looks like our biggest problem is a lack of candidates with moral integrity. This is a larger problem than politics as usual. This is a result of raising self-absorbed children in a world that tells them an Army of One is a good thing. The only place in America where good is being carried out is locally - the people who give up their union-earned weekends to pack and distribute groceries to their less well off neighbors, the volunteers who help our new immigrant neighbors learn to speak English or use a computer better. I could go on but we all know these people or are these people. The reality is that we as citizens are accepting way too low a level of human being as our chosen leaders. If we want to change this situation we need to work hard at acquiring more data on the candidates (easier than it used to be in the age of the internet), then all go out and vote. Then pick an issue that you feel fiercely about and go out and fight for it. It’s that simple. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
7
She's 27.
Ten years ago she was 17.
People change a lot during that time, and I'm glad she has evolved politically to become a democratic socialist.
That's not called lying.
However, the writer Bari Weiss has an agenda: it's to discredit Ms. Salazar, presumably because of her support for BDS and her support for the usual causes championed by progressives.
The establishment corporate Democrats would rather have Mr. Trump in office than a progressive. That much is well known. These same establishment Democrats post-truthed us into a war in Iraq, to make money for their donor class. They continue to post-truth us today.
17
@KS She's making factual misstatements that can be checked against reality. How is that a smear campaign and not straight-up dishonesty?
18
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but thank goodness she’s going to Albany and not Washington. She lied about attending Columbia. That would get her fired from just about any job. As a friend used to say, “She’s not a quality person.” I’m sure she’ll prove that soon enough.
20
@KS In what universe does political evolution require the wholesale rewriting of your family background? Salazar’s demonstrated dishonesty, or political evolution as you call it, could suggest a cold and calculating mind whose purpose is to appeal to the perceived winds of political fashion for the narrow purpose of being elected. Salazar may be the personification of Groucho Marx’s line “these are my principles, and if you don’t like them, I have others.” Only time will tell, but the fact is the electorate gave her an opportunity. Let’s see what she does with it.
6
We say we're dealing with a political spectrum, but it's more like a political ring, where the far Left and the far Right merge together and overlap. There's some difference in their easy answers and easy demonization of some sort of evil minority - immigrants, the 1 percent, corporations, elites - but sometimes there is no difference. The Sanders Left and the Trump Right both hate globalization, for instance. Both also love a cult of personality.
14
@A. That's a gross overgeneralization. Many progressives are focused on policies, not personality at all. This will become evident to you when, in all likelihood, many who supported Bernie back Warren in 2020.
Also, I would argue that the majority don't hate globalization, but do believe that trade agreements should be used to 1)provide assistance to those misplaced due to disruptions resultant from the agreements, and 2) provide leverage to force better working conditions in areas engaging with the US.
This sort of intellectual laziness, IMO, plays a not insignificant role in preventing our country from making real progress in important areas such as healthcare, education, etc. where we perform among the worst of all developed nations in the world...
All of this aside, Ms. Salazar should not be held up as a representative of anything given her apparent history of being unable to tell the truth.
2
@A.
And the Trump and Hillary people did not love a cult of personality? Sanders at least was consistent over the decades. And he attacked the elites, the 1% and corporations, as he should. Like he did for DECADES as he rose in the political firmament. He alone, was consistent, not changing his story to accommodate the political advisors.
As for the other two, Trump has a disruptive, outrageous style, and Hillary, well, hasn't much of a personality, more like platitudes for the public.
2
Salazar reminds one of the movie, "All About Eve".
SHe is a breathtaking case of a character disorder. The pathology, long familiar in mental health practice, presents a fragmented, Narcissistic response to challenges great and small.
The symptoms include delusional formulations. Consider for a moment the plot of another movie, "Gaslight". Only switch the roles of persecutor and victim. We can anticipate many moments of drama in Albany. But then, pathology is normal there.
Still, a a Progressive, I mourn this moment. We have warmed a serpent on our breast.
36
It's one thing to hold your nose and vote for someone whose policies you may not agree with. But character isn't political. Just because the Republicans don't have standards doesn't mean we shouldn't.
38
Yes the behavior of Harris, Feinstein and Booker during the Kavanaugh hearing was exemplary.... your side is soooo much better then the other’s.
Deluded hypocrites across the board.
2
Please follow this up with something about her opponent and the IDC. Dilan lost because he has been the landlords’ and developers’ best friend for years. And it’s clear even if the Times does not want to state it clearly that the IDC was inspired to begin with by real estate money - pure and simple. The city continues to experience an unprecedented housing crisis with record levels of homelessness. This has occurred because the city continues to bleed rent regulated apartments and developers have used tax breaks (tax breaks!) to build luxury condos. There are parts of Manhattan today that are eerily dead because no one lives in the expensive apartments they have built - someone owns them, yes, but they don’t live there. By not pointing out how disastrous this development policy has been over the last 30 years, the Times, in my opinion, is complicit in it. So please, run something about the IDC and how the cost of taking it apart was really not too high if it means one truth-challenged candidate is a consequence.
20
People like her are the biggest danger of a post-Trump era. If we let him turn us into him, we are lost.
22
"truth-challenged"? The poor kid, it must be tough going through life with such a disability. I wonder what triggers she'll have to avoid in Albany? I'm sure she'll find a good support group.
4
So you're saying that a 27-year old political candidate changed her mind about dozens of things since she was a junior in high school?
This seems highly unusual.
17
@TSK you mean like where she was born, if she graduated, whether her mother graduated college? I’m liking the trust fund socialist best.
7
@TSK there's a huge difference between changing your mind and outright lying. Was she not aware of the fact that she was born in the US? Did she not realize she didn't actually get her degree?
3
It might be interesting to know something, anything, about the eight-term incumbent she beat. That is probably an equally compelling story.
25
This presupposes that which politician is elected will actually have any measurable effect on the lives of ordinary Americans. But isn't this what corporate Democrats always offer? "We're not as bad as the Republicans" has us where we are today.
2
From the information in this article, It seems that Ms. Salazar will fit perfectly and comfortably into the New York State Legislature.
5
The new normal in tribalist politics seems to be lying, and Salazar presents an almost comical example. Her mother graduated from Columbia, not her? I would guess that much of the rest of her biography was similarly fabricated. But the real shocker is her switching so seamlessly from radical right to radical left. It doesn't seem to matter what constitutes good governance for these new politicians -- only what sells.
16
Hillary Clinton supported Goldwater—people,especially young ones are allowed to change.
2
@John C Clinton never lied about where she was born, her heritage, or the socioeconomic status of her parents.
Very distressing. But some of the problem is Cuomo, who doesn't seem to want to understand that there is movement inside the party, and he needs to deal with it (can he get a strong ethics law through the State legislature, now that the IDC seems destined to disappear? does he want to?). One can only wonder how the primary would have turned out, had Cuomo had to face a real candidate, someone who had handled a budget larger than $800,000; who knew that New York State extended north of 125th Street and east of Brooklyn.
3
People are allowed to change their minds and their opinions. Yes, Salazar might have problems with truth and accuracy, but one should separate outright lies from ideological changes. The problem is more when someone is not allowed to change their opinion, and like much of America, the author seems to think that 'once an opinion, always an opinion', similar to the insanity of our politicians holding fast to outmoded ideas for fear of being flip-floppers ala John Kerry. Being wrong is okay, changing one's opinions and feeling are okay, but what is wrong is not recognizing errors, or even worse, not being allowed to evolve and grow.
6
@James Igoe As the author pointed out, she not only changed her mind about important issues, she fabricated details about herself and history. These alternative facts made her more qualified to be Trump's press secretary than a senator.
28
Read the darn column. She lied. Repeatedly. It wasn't about changes of opinion. I actually think the writer was being kind - Salazar's behavior is every bit as concerning as Trump's, even if for different reasons. We (the Resistance) CANNOT go down this road. Our salvation is a return to a respect for truth and facts, not a descent into the sewer with the Trumpers.
34
@Michael Hogan - I was really only responding to the change of heart in a political and moral sense, from anti-abortion to pro-choice, and I did acknowledge her lies and misrepresentations. I was raising another concern, America's unwillingness to understand nuance, to accept changes when facts change, rather her lying per se.
Someone ought to launch a write-in campaign. Someone who clearly fabricates so much about her background is not worthy of a place in government regardless of her age or positions.
64
Ideology. Ideology seems to matter more than integrity . Getting even with those who see both sides. Or reach across the aisle. She's young. She's attractive. She openly lies and sees it doesn't matter. It's about ideology . We're talking about Her not her opponent. It's about her integrity that appears to be going towards integrity Heaven.
15
"Over the last decade" - and she's how old, 27? It is quite possible that she is finding her way as young people do. Let's watch and see what she does for he district. It has to be better than what her predecessor did.
9
@Lynne I was young once and no one ever recommended lying as a way to find my way. It seems she has a deep character flaw. Your last two sentences could have come straight from the mouth of a Trump supporter
8
A career in politics has always attracted certain personality types, not always savory. Until this article I was undecided about Cynthia Nixon (as were, no doubt, many others). Now, am relieved she didn't win. Which is why this piece should have come out prior to the election.
27
It’s probably worth mentioning something about the record of Salazar’s opponent, don’t you think? Martin Dilan didn’t exactly come through for his constituents over the years, especially when it came to skyrocketing rents in his districts.
24
@NA This is about Her not her opponent.
7
The old deflection - what about. Ideological insanity isn't restricted to the cult of Trump.
3
What is going on with these candidates...fabricating their life stories in order to get elected. It is one thing to 'evolve' politically, it is quite another to lie to the public about college degrees, socioeconomic status, where and how you grew up, your family, etc.
It seems the far left is not immune or opposed to using underhanded tactics typical of the establishment they oppose. Insodoing they undermine themselves and the trust they seek from people of good will. Perhaps they will evolve personally and morally as well as politically?
54
I don't know the candidate in question. What bothers me is the naive way even Bari Weiss throws around the term "Democratic Socialist." That is an oxymoron. It’s as if there is no history of political parties or political struggle outside America. Americans seem to feel free to throw words together in whatever combination suits them. I wonder how many so-called DSs even know who the Wobblies were. I'm a registered Democrat with a strong inclination to social policies: that makes me a Social Democrat! I've worked in Sweden and met hundreds of Social Democrats there. The full name of the party (translated) is Sweden's Social Democratic Workers' Party. On the other hand, Swedish socialists, not hiding behind a "democratic" qualifier, bounced around among minority parties with names that included Communist and Trotskyist. Their current title is Arbetarmakt, Worker Power, affiliated to the League for the Fifth International (L5I). Democratic Socialism is, to me, an example of doublespeak. Here it may be inadvertent, for I have trouble imagining Bernie Sanders, after a quarter century in Congress, as a table-thumping Socialist.
27
@Des Johnson
It strikes me that the implicit point here is that socialism is tied historically to class interest rather than to a set of policies. If so, I quite agree.
Given this, working-class power ("social democracy") is democratic by definition, albeit that has not been true of movements bearing the name.
That is, "democracy" means rule by the people, which can only be rule by the working class. This has so far not been achieved. Real democracy remains in the future.
I believe social democracy conventionally refers to short term policies favorable to working-class rule (communism) in the long run, although since World War I the two have become disconnected.
@Haines Brown
I think the definition of "socialism" in our time needs a different modifier. You can't argue that "Democratic" is bad. But hook it to socialism and alarms go off. And we really need to recognize that pure "Democratic Socialists" promote the idea of state controlled means of production - a disqualifier for almost everyone else in America.
"Social Rights" party makes more sense to me. The rights of shelter, water, food, health care, education, infrastructure and equal protection by/from authorities.
Or..... "Human Rights" party?
1
@Des Bari Weiss is not "throwing the phrase around". The organisation - which endorsed Ms Salazar - calls itself the Democratic Socialists of America www.dsausa.org
Their lack of understanding of the fact that socialism is not a democratic endeavor is something you'd need to take up with them.
4
"In less than a decade"
Julia Salazar is 27 years old. Are we really about to hold someone to their political positions when they were 17? I don't think many of us would like to be held to that standard.
I don't approve of any of the lies that Salazar told, but any sort of moral equivalence between her and Trump is absurd. There is a pretty clear distinction between spinning your own image for political purposes and rejecting basic facts when they interfere with your vision of reality. Virtually all politicians do the former, while only the worst do the latter.
But regardless of that, the specifics of her conversion to Judaism could not interest me less. We should be voting for policy, not personality, and this article does not even attempt to make a meaningful critique of Salazar's platform. The dramatic details of Salazar's own personal life might be an issue of concern to Op-Ed writers, but not to actual voters, as evidenced by her victory.
12
"Julia Salazar is 27 years old. Are we really about to hold someone to their political positions when they were 17? I don't think many of us would like to be held to that standard."
So are we gong to give Brett Kavanaugh a pass for an alleged drunken attack when he was in high school?
6
@Jacob There is a direct parallel to Trump's election. We were all incredulous that Trump could lie so much without facing any political consequences. Well, this woman's election proves that Democrats are capable of that, too.
8
@KRB re: Brett Kavanaugh -- it's good question about whether or not something done as a minor should disqualify someone from receiving future honors/achievements. Many juvies are tried as adults, particularly minority youths, others have their records sealed. Many make one mistake and never repeat it, for many others an act at 16 or 17 is the beginning of a life of criminal behavior.
I think Kavanaugh ought to be rejected but not because of something he did in HS as ugly as it was (unless he has been doing similar things since) but because of his legal and scholarly record -- he is a legal dinosaur who has no place on the court. He should not have been given a 'pass' at the time if he actually did this (though I imagine the criminal system in Montgomery Co. would have) but juvenile crimes/mistakes are just that.
I dont find this surprising. Bernie Sanders modeled the alt-left lying strategy in 2016. He lied about his Yea vote for the Libya resolution while demonizing Clinton for the UN consortium. He lied about his Yea vote for the 1995 Federal Crime bill while blaming Clinton for nationwide mass incarceration, a situation resulting from state actions not the feds. He lied about supporting auto workers, voting No on TARP, a bailout that has resulted in a $86 B profit for the Fed government. The alt-Left wants to win as badly as the alt-Right, and their "progressive" integrity is reflective of how low they will stoop.
40
Salazar isn't trump but she's going by the Republican playbook that was written long before trump declared his candidacy. It goes like this. "Do anything you can to achieve your goals. Tell any lie. Deny that you lied when you're confronted with evidence of those lies. Attack any critics or opponents. Discredit them in any way possible, no matter how ugly the allegation and no matter who it hurts, even if it's a member of your own family. Repeat your lies as often as possible with as much emotion as possible, ect."
That said, I'm surprised at the breadth of her lies but I'm not at all surprised that she lied or that her supporters refused to see her for what she is. Bernie Sanders didn't tell as many lies but he misrepresented himself and his abilities every day. His supporters seemed to equal trump's in their cult-like devotion and their refusal to even consider that he might be lying to them regularly.
Extremists on either end of the spectrum don't govern. They grandstand. The more Salazar acts out in Albany, the more deliberately blind and devoted her supporters will be.
36
On the "all politicians lie, so no big deal" viewpoint, I do recall in the not so distant pre-2016 past, politicians in other states being disqualified for mis-representing their background in the same ways Ms. Salazar has. The principle is that someone who has been careless about or deliberately falsified such information for their personal advantage is likely to do so on bigger matters. One of Trump's biggest lies is that he cares about working people when his actual policies work primarily to benefit the wealthy like himself. Yes, politicians often do try to get away with lying, but it is the job of the press and the voters to call them on it!
26
Wow someone in politics lied to make themselves look better to the voters....Hmmm never heard of that before. On the other hand it is pretty pitiful that Ms. Salazar's supporters are acting like Trump's fans and accusing the media of conspiracies.
22
What percentage of politicians is scrupulously honest at all times?Even Gandhi and Martin Luther King had some imperfections. I don't condone what Weiss says about Salazar, but perhaps it's not as black and white as she makes it seem.
If she does tend to exaggerate to be more appealing and win, at least she is now a progressive. Hilary was a young Republican. Some people do sincerely evolve their world view.
Why don't we see what happens when she is in office before believing it's as disgraceful and hypocritical as Weiss says. Wonder if Bari has any skeletons?
4
@David Shapireau Exactly how does one evolve in knowing where they were born or what socio-economic strata they were brought up in?
4
@David Shapireau
1. "At least she is now a progressive"; a progressive liar?!
2. "Why don't we see what happens when she is in office"?! What a great idea!
3. Lies are not "skeletons". And now you're threatening the journalist?!
Sloppy "arguments" all around… .
4
@David Shapireau its more than bending the truth. salazar fabricated her entire life history
5
As a member of the DSA living in the 18th District I have to say I'm very dismayed that Ms. Salazar won. I saw her name on the ballot, took a minute to Google her and her opponent and promptly decided to cast my vote for her opponent (who is frankly also pretty awful). It's frustrating that the DSA would support someone with such glaring character flaws because 1) they probably will not make a good elected official and 2) it undermines the credibility of the organization.
It's shocking that a liar like Salazar is the best the left wing of the party could do in my district. I would have more confidence voting for a small child or a golden retriever. Maybe the most upsetting aspect of her election to office is that it exposes an uncomfortable truth: that people like me in far left districts such as Brooklyn's 18th are just as easily duped by skilled liars as those on the right.
145
@John Malister Perhaps Ms. Salazar will read these comments and vow to make amends for untruths, then settle down and work for her constituents. We shall see.
2
@John Malister
While I agree with your post, I'm also dismayed that you didn't research the candidates before entering the polls.
3
I don't like liars, but then again, it depends on what you're lying about. I really don't care (much) if Trump lies about his net worth, about his business acumen, or the size of his inauguration crowd etc. I do mind that he lies about climate change, how about the fatalities in Puerto Rico, about the nature of immigrants. So far, the only lies Salazar has told as far as I can tell is about her own personal background. I don't like that but this does not rise (or I should say sink) to Trumpian levels. W lied about his Vietnam War era service, Bill lied about inhaling and sexual activities, Biden plagiarized, and I know of a very find member of congress who at point point claimed a degree that was never fully earned. Has Salazar lied in this campaign about the social, economic and political realities that New Yorkers face? I don't think so. So, she may not be my poster child for democratic socialism but I for one am glad she will be in Albany.
31
@David A. No, the truth matters. Scoring lies on some personal rating system is playing into the liar's hand.
9
@David A. So we pick and choose which lies are acceptable to us. The value, the ethics, of truth itself has become irrelevant - truth is now fluid and malleable and can be changed to justify any position.The need to change one's life story to somehow enhance one's political position suggests a personality problem or at least an ethical one and as we see in Trump may not, in the end, provide the coherent sought after legislative output.
5
If Julia Salazar lies about easily verifiable facts like her birthplace, her education, her mother's education, her background - she has no regard for truth and she is no better than Trump and no less dangerous.
97
I'm just worried that when Salazar is running for POTUS she'll be disqualified for not being US born. She obviously wasn't dreaming hard enough or far enough ahead.
7
"The right has been damaged beyond belief by its embrace of Mr. Trump."
Really? On which planet? Surely not Earth, where they control every branch of federal government, along with most state-level power for good measure. Are you serious? Maybe you mean that pundits are apoplectic, but "damaged beyond belief" doesn't seem to apply to the state of our right wing here in the United States. On planet Earth, I mean.
56
Just wait a little less than two months and you will begin to understand.
1
Could it be that the incumbent was so bad that Salazar was the lesser of the two evils?
21
@Independent: Let's get rid of this "lesser of two evils" nonsense. It is a right-wing trope to sour voters and suppress the vote. It's been used to describe 2016 voters who could not hold their noses so as to vote for the lesser of two evils. How easily the right-wing puppeteers sold the notion that Hilary Clinton is evil. She is not!!! How easily duped so many were and are.
4
I knew Ms. Salazar was a liar, sort of a small-scale Trump, well before the election. And yet, I saw people on Facebook saying, she's great, she's an immigrant and a Columbia graduate, she's left all her right-wing views in the past, basically just repeating her lies for her. They weren't interested in the truth because she was telling them what they wanted to hear, just like Trump does with his people.
Cynthia Nixon wasn't a liar, but she had no idea how to implement the policy notions she had, and central to her platform was doubling the NY state budget without having the faintest idea how to raise that money. So I knew, well ahead of the election, that she was incompetent, inexperienced, and narcissistic, and her post-election griping shows the narcissism fairly clearly.
But 33% of Democrats bought into Ms. Nixon's foolishness, and 20,603 voted for an obvious liar. This goes to show that Democrats can be just as dumb and self-delusional as Republicans, and I think we should all remember that going forward.
As for me, I regret not going into politics in my twenties, because it sure is easy to profit considerably by doing nothing more than lying constantly to a gullible public.
107
@Dan Stackhouse Not all who voted for C Nixon did so with a desire to see her win. It’s because she didn’t have a chance that many voted for her to protest Cuomo’s hubris. It,s just like the Republican House repeatedly voting to repeal ACA while Obama was President, they knew it wouldn’t happen so they could send a message to their base without real consequences.
5
@Upstate Guy
Stop! That is how we got Donald Trump sitting in the White House. Protest votes backfire when people are "sure" it's safe to "send a message."
2
@Dan Stackhouse:
Yeah, but Cuomo is a know crook and how many voted for him?
It seems as though Salazar is a liar. Or delusional. Nothing to celebrate there.
Though I supported Ocasio-Cortez, her willingness to keep supporting Salazar after all this mess has come out makes me question her somewhat (I was less supportive of Nixon and Stringer). I supported OC because she seems genuine and willing to challenge society’s economic elite.
OC’s willingness to look past rampant (and honestly, somewhat bizarre) fabrications makes me wonder if she is blinded by identity politics or willing to support anyone who seems to have similar politics.
Neither is flattering. I hope that this is just the impetuousness of youth... she’s got a long career ahead of her.
21
@Objectively Subjective
Have you examined the lies of Ms. Cortez, about her own background, and her response when confronted about her lies? Like this Florida character (she's hardly a New Yorker!), Cortez accused those confronting her lies of being "racist"!
I do believe it is best to judge the quality of ideas as well as the quality of character. Both matter. And the ideas of these characters are even sillier than their characters. They are perhaps well-intentioned, but there is no foundation to them. Best example is Open Borders. Sweet idea. But:
How many? Who? What effect will the labor of the hundreds of millions who would like to come here have on the wages paid to Americans? (In aggregate, their effect is similar to that of scabs breaking strikes... but these millenial children were staring out the window when their teachers tried to teach them about the history of the American labor movement.) What effect will the loss of "the best" from Mexico or wherever have on the country they're leaving?
But scatter-brains like Salazar and Cortez (and Sanders) can't think beyond slogans when conceiving and advocating policies.
3
A famous New Yorker once said: "Truth isn't truth".
Sometime it's hard to stand up for the untruth, but if you believe in the belief it's what you've got to do. /s
So is their any reason on earth she can't come out now and say "Sorry" and "Now I'll tell you who I really am"?
What is the definition of dogma?
Now if this was a trial in a court of law, we would want to see documentation proving the claims made in the article - or at least certified photocopies of the same. The truth may in fact be somewhere in the middle - Ms Salazar is probably at worst a lesser evil and at best a mildly flawed good person. On the other hand, I would share the concern of the writer about a potential Trumpification of both main parties, although there are probably a few thousand more likely candidates for the post of Trump-buddy than Ms Salazar...
I wish Julia Salazar well. I think this energetic, 27 year old woman has a bright future. But, we'll see. She's going to have an opportunity to show what she can do in Albany.
I'm disgusted by the efforts to undermine her. But, tribalism is increasingly prevalent in the Jewish community. It's sad.
8
@leedynamo Somehow you have turned your defense of a politician who was dishonest for personal gain about all major aspects of her personal history, wealth and education, into your own attack on the Jewish community. Your viciousness toward the Jewish community is not defensible. Why did Julia Salazar misrepresent her religious identity - because it appears she did, in the service of her hostiity to Israel and the Jewish people, because BDS is designed to make Jewish life in Israel unsustainable, just as the Nazis did when they excluded Jews from employment with the Nuremberg laws? You need to own up to your own bigotry. Julia Salazar made up a Jewish conversion that doesn't seem to really have existed, and misled people to imply she grew up as a Jew. Regardless of what group she chose to lie about, why is it okay in your eyes to lie about your heritage?
2
@leedynamo Lying is lying - her lying about her personal history was to accomplish what? Revealing this information is appropriate. If this undermines her, perhaps she should have considered telling the truth in the first place.
5
@leedynamo
You think somehow this is related to tribalism in the Jewish community? This comment makes no sense at all. She is a liar - and lying about her religious background is just one lie of many. She also lied about being an immigrant and a college graduate. Does acknowledging those lies make college graduates and actual immigrants tribal?
7
Why another hit piece, Bari?
I have lived in this district for 30 years and Martin Maleve Dilan has not worked for their district, he has worked for himself. He is a hack.. and IDC. We are done with him.
Julia Salazar has excited this neighborhood with a breath of fresh air. Have there been inconsistencies? Yes, there have. And she has addressed them. They are inconsistencies one would expect from any young person as they mature and their world view becomes more nuanced through life experience.
I wasn't sure about voting for her and asked my neighbors for more info after hearing rumors, and particularly after receiving a mailing from Dilan, smearing her...
Don't just read Tablet although that is a good article.
Read the Rolling Stone piece:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/julia-salazar-ne...
the Jewish Currents piece:
https://jewishcurrents.org/conversation/julia-salazar-in-her-own-words/
and this Medium piece:
https://medium.com/@susan.l.kang/the-real-scandal-of-the-julia-salazar-c...
then check out NY Magazine - which has run several more,
But this hit pice?? unbecoming of the Grey Lady and "news that's fit to print"
47
@Ellen You expect a young person to forget where she was born, that her mother did graduate college and that the young person herself actually didn’t? That sort of forgetfulness usually comes much later in life.
63
@Ellen
And there's this, from her Jewish classmates at Columbia, published in The Forward: https://forward.com/opinion/letters/409680/we-are-julia-salazars-former-...
Looks to me as if Bari Weiss (late of the WSJ) has a political ax to grind.
And to compare lies whose total can be counted on one hand to the 4229 the Washington Post calculated as of August 1, as the author does in the opening sentence, simply shreds her own credibility. I should have stopped reading there, but a quick calculation suggests the answer to the question "one wonders how many Salazarian claims Julia Salazar has spoken" is something on the order of 0.278 (5/180 days campaigning).
7
@Ellen as evidence you point to puff pieces who never questioned the salazar's falsified life history? she was born in america to an american mother. she grew up in an upper middle class and keith hernandez was her neighbor. she was an anti abortion radical. she was a christian zionist. her father was not jewish. hillel doesnt do conversions. she has used her "jewishness" as a cover for comments that border on anti-semetism. cant ignore reality
9
More and more people, no matter what the issue, seem to have no use for the truth when it runs counter to what they believe. This reminds me of the debating technique where the participants attempt to speed-talk their opponents into submission.
9
It’s time for all of us to read, or reread The Open and Closed Mind by Milton Rokeach. It’s a good reminder that the either end of the political spectrum can be trouble. People responded to this candidates lovely story and idealized her for it, turns out idealizing candidates is a dangerous thing to do. My fear is that her story looks manufactured to appeal to the young left , hope they wake up and realize she has hoodwinked them. Who though does that leave for them to elect.
14
The drive to control the narrative has always trumped the desire for truthfulness, when the two diverge. Even the often-cited anecdote on Diogenes isn't altogether true. He's still my hero although I also like Attila.
2
Pitiful situation. It would appear to get elected you either need to be money bags, a great story (even if it isn't true) or both. Don't just have credentials, that's not enough. It has to be one of strife and struggle. Oye vey. Glad I was too mediocre to win much past team lead at work.
1
This outcome is another reason to value experience at lower levels in candidates for a particular office. Vet wannabes as early as possible to allow them to truthfully correct their mistakes, or be cast aside.
Now, from afar, it seems that Ms. Salazar will do little damage to the State of New York. Indeed, the article implies that she will find kindred souls in Albany. But if she intends to continue a political career, she will have to defend her claims and statements consistently each time she runs for election. As Mark Twain noted, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
8
Perhaps she won because her opponent, as a registered democrat, voted against democratic norms and the community finally got wise the his shenanigans? Her life story pales in comparison-to her opponents voting record and results for the people of his district.
38
@Robert Jaffee that would be it - Dilan has been a political hack who has contributed to the demographic shift in the neighborhood - linings own pockets along the way.
This is another in a series of Bari Weiss hit pieces.
Along with the #metoo women she seems to despise.
Salazar's inconsistencies have been widely reported and she has answered. Voters made a choice. To me, that someone would change positions between the ages of 17 and 27 would be a sign of maturity and growth, as she realized deeper complexity than the average teenage brain can readily see in an issue.
and better yet -- she won!!
We, in her district, where there has been inadequate attention and representation to the needs of residents, await a breath of fresh air.
12
@Robert Jaffee Which "life story" of hers are you referring to.
7
Dillan was supported by big developers and always supported landlords over tenant rights. Citizen groups backed Salazar and she promised to support tenants over big developers.
She also ran on decriminalising sex workers, which will help thousands of women who've been victims of crimes come out of the shadows.
There are plenty of other issues that separated these two candidates.
Salazar won because she was right on the issues, not because she embellished her past.
55
@George Bernard This is exactly the same argument that Trump supporters are now making for having voted for him. I guess we are all the same.
24
@Phil we are all the same except that some of us don't go marching in white supremacist marches, run down protesters, nor chant "you will not replace us, Jews will not replace us", don't tear apart immigrant families and kidnap their children, deregulate every last national park, open carry...
... shall I go on??
1
@George Bernard the reason for concern is that anyone who is loose with the truth on her background may likewise falter on the issues you agree with once elected.
11
New York State and our nation have historically been reluctant to abide the left. But Socialists have widely shared concerns and aspirations that are vital to discussion, debate and legislation. A few avowed Socialists in Congress cannot be a bad thing.
13
@john g
She's running for a State Senate seat. She is 27. Why does the article lead with the junk about her evolution/changing positions on issues?
@Polaris the point of this article was not her politics or if she will be effective in Albany. It was pointing out the fact she created a personal history that was untrue and that many on the left are acting in a simi9lar fashion to Trump supporters in defending her by accusing the media and others of conspirasy. Like justice, asking for the truth from politicians can has to be blind and not based or liking or disliking the politician.
223
@leedynamo They led with that because it looks suspiciously like she was tailoring her ideology to the demographic of where she wanted to run. Even to the point of manufacturing her own biography.
This is standard politician's behaviour, at least in France, and the recent years did not suggest it was any different in the USA.
Politicians lie: this is standard practice in a line of work where image is everything.
We are used to advertisement lies: nobody actually believes the claims in an add for a car or a slimming diet, or any money making strategy suggested by a bank.
Why then would we believe politicians? They use the same techniques of communication, sometimes run by the same advertising companies...
Another case of image winning over reality...
21
@Jean Roudier
Lying about where you were born (and your socioeconomic status) to try and fit into a “desirable” category in identity politics is not the same as a deceptive TV advertisement. It speaks to a distorted sense of reality - and calling it “race politics” when she was called on it was juvenile - more identity politics trying to cover up her obvious lies.
This woman will last in Albany about as long as an ice cube in the middle of the summer in Bushwick. The thing I find most disheartening (as an outside observer) is that the people of her district had such poor options - and that there is no Republican or other opposition. The people of her district are the real victims here.
7
Some have argued that 'Convictions,’ are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. I would submit rather than concentrate on the minutiae of a local campaign and assign fixity to what may be the truth, a more historical overview to the role of truth and lying in politics will show that deliberate falsehood and the outright lie have been used as legitimate means to achieve political ends and have been with us since the beginning of recorded history. Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings. I would argue that there is a despotic character to truth when it enters the political realm. For truth peremptorily claims to be acknowledged and precludes debate, and debate constitutes the very essence of political life.
3
@Contrarian - while it may be true politicians often lie to achieve broader aims, it's hard to remember a time when candidates lied openly and without shame, and still won their elections, and people did not seem to care about the truth. A little white lie is one thing - when everything is a lie except for the 'ideology', that makes a candidate truly dangerous.
7
Salazar sounds like the sort to mold herself into whatever container she needs to fit. Though I'm not entirely a fan, Ocasio-Cortez seems much more passionate about her beliefs. If Ocasio-Cortez holds Salazar close, I don't imagine that Salazar will do too much flip-flopping while in office. The hoards of progressive fans continuing to shower her with attention and adulation probably doesn't hurt either.
9
@T C If Occasio-Cortez holds Salazar close"… just as the "adults in the room" protect us from Trump?
Good job in further strengthening author Bari's argument for the extreme left's resemblance to the extreme right.
5
@T C, Yeah, and people can grow.
We need not worry too much about Salazar in Albany; for sure she will be a voice for "changing the system from within".
Tongue-in-cheek, of course.
16
Indeed, most likely she'll lead the "Independent Democrat Caucus 2.0", taking money from the rich and voting with the Republicans.
7
What I find very strange about this article is the authority with which Bari Weiss speaks. Please remember, Bari is someone who does not know Julia. Bari is someone who read other reporters coverage of Julia and took that as the truth. The blind trust she tries to portray leftist groups as having is just flat out wrong, as anyone on the ground would know. Julia has worked with many of the groups who support her for years. These people really know her. They support her because they have seen her integrity in a direct way. Bari has an image of herself as someone liberal, but her actions speak otherwise; as as someone doing the hard work of actually passing progressive legislation on the state and city level I can say with total confidence that Julia Salazar’s election is one of the best things to happen in recent history of those of us who want to see progressive ideals put into real legislative measures.
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No offense, but what I find strange about your defense is that you ignore the fact that Ms. Salazar lies quite blatantly about her past, and thus she has no integrity.
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@B "My family immigrated to the US from Colombia when I was a baby, and my mom ended up raising my brother and me as a single mom, without a college degree and from a working-class background. My family wasn’t at all politically active, but my mom really had a chip on her shoulder and developed pretty conservative reactionary politics, so that was what I was exposed to growing up."
That is a quote of Salazar speaking to a reporter at a friendly, supportive, online magazine. Do you know where you were born? I do. Did your mother lie to you about your educational background? My mother told me she hadn't graduated from high school. When you were twenty-seven, did you know the difference between a working-class home and a middle-class home? I knew that working-class people didn't provide their children with trust funds.
Do you know what a sociopath is? I do, and I can assure you that Julia Salazar exhibits a number of the characteristics that indicate that personality disorder. She uses her charm and lack of conscience to manipulate people into believing what she tells them even when their is incontrovertible evidence that she is telling lies in order to gain power and prestige.
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Ah yes, good old Alternative Facts. You have your truth just like Bari Weiss has her facts.
Guess it's a good thing her facts about Salazar's educational and religious background and family socioeconomic status are also the facts shared by the latter's own family.
At some point doesn't it get tiring to constantly replace knowable realities with tribal "narratives"?
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Salazar behaves like a real person and will serve real people.
We're done with airbrushed politicians who lie with their policies.
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@Michael That is exactly what they said about Trump.
Salazar and Trump are both outrageous liars with zero respect for the truth. They both flip their alleged beliefs to suit their purposes. Such people have no principles, they are not the bricks from which a healthy democracy can be built. Their presence in positions of power rots the moral fabric of society. If we don't have truth and a basis of agreed facts then we are lost.
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@Simon White
You've confused the chicken and egg. Trump could only win because people had already lost all trust in the two corporate parties and media.
Salazar's policies are how that trust is won back. People don't care about her personal life.
Spoken like a true supporter of Donald Trump, but on the Left. People are people no matter their beliefs, I suppose.
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When mentioning “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Batma,” it would be good to explain who she is (even though I know, I think!) We are not all political junkies at every waking moment.
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I’ll look forward to New York Times’ journalistic article on this, as opposed to Ms. Weiss’s op-ed. Given the axes I have seen her grind in the past, and the links she has provided here (Tablet?), I’m going to wait and see.
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@citybumpkin Wait and see for what? I suggest that you read the Tablet articles. The facts are laid out in those articles.
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She'll fit right in up here in Albany amongst her more "experienced" colleagues in the Senate.
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Yeah, yeah.
When Ms. Salazar runs on a presidential ticket with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, we'll talk. Until then, don't even mention her in the same breath with Trump.
His lies are gargantuan, dangerous, and non-stop.
And comparisons with relative small-fry, like Ms. Salazar, merely cheapen the debate, and obfuscate the reality.
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@SSS I respectfully disagree. It’s not as though she lied about some backdrop
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@SSS Let's mention her in the same breath as Roy Moore, trump's endorsed candidate for a Senate seat from Alabama. Roy wanted to gain the prestige and power that comes along with being a US senator. So, when he was confronted with accusations of molesting teenage girls, he denied that he had done any such thing. When he was confronted with evidence that called his claims into question, he continued to deny that he had done the worst and what was true had been misinterpreted. He asserted that the allegations were really nothing but a political attack by his opponents.
Of course, Salazar's actions were not at all like Salazar's lies. But her lies were nearly identical to his. And they lied for the same reason. Both said what they thought they needed to in order to gain power and prestige. Moore needed to tell the lies. He couldn't run on being a sexual predator whose preference was teenage girls. Salazar didn't need to which makes her willingness to lie about such easily checked facts all the more disturbing. People who tell these kinds of lies and get away with it, become people who tell big lies. What is the point of electing people who so obviously can't be trusted from the beginning?
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@SSS. Excellent rationalization!
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So the young folks are learning from Trump's moral example. Told you so.
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I am reminded of the bit of doggerel that goes something like: "treason never prospers, for if it prospers, none dare call it treason." Winning covers a multitude of sins.
I wonder how it took so long for her story to unravel - did the press buy into her account of herself because it seemed like a good story to run with? Were they more focused on the horse-race aspect of it all, the democratic socialist against the party hack, than they were on fact-checking?
There was no secret who or what Trump was long before he came down that escalator - yet neither the press nor his opponents were able to get any traction against him on that.
The difference with Salazar now is that she will be given no slack, and there will be demands the Democrats take responsibility for her. IOKIYAAR is alive and well. If Salazar doesn't have an email scandal in there somewhere, well too bad for the press.
And going by exactly when this became open knowledge, did it come out in time to affect voter opinions - or like Trump supporters, were they just desperate for a change and so tired of the incumbent that they didn't care?
At least she seems able to re-invent herself, hopefully for the better. Trump is not capable of that. Besides, she'll fit right in in Albany, Weiss remarks.
But let's be fair. These days the press doesn't seem to have time for digging deep or looking past the next soundbite. The 4th estate has rendered itself irrelevant. Deal with it.
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@Larry Roth Trump used to vote democrat, and hold progressive views. He re-invented himself plenty....
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@Larry Roth Tablet Magazine, among others, has been factually all over Salazar's "story." If you want the details go to https://www.tabletmag.com/ and google her name.
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Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. Trump proved that the truth doesn't matter.
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So as we can see, the far Left can look past a candidate's many lies to elect them if they back the "correct" things. Just like the far right.
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@leftrightmiddle: Wrong. There is no "far Left" yet in this country, bar a handful of people without broad influence. The Democratic Socialists, in particular, are at the very most as far left as Paul Ryan is far right (but he has no principles).
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@Thomas Zaslavsky, Excellent point. I too am tired of the bogus "far left" references. The far left in the US are the Jill Stein fanatics and the sectarian party militants.
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How is this a surprise? Generations of Democrats have supported corrupt politicians, putting them in office again and again and again, notwithstanding. And even be sanctimonious about it. What else is new?
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What happens in Brooklyn stays in Brooklyn. I’m not seeing a nationwide trend emerging from this anomaly.
‘Forget it, Jake; it’s Chinatown.’ Or too hipster for its own good Brooklyn.
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It looks like the voters chose a small liar over a big liar. And let’s face it, sometimes the choices are just short of revolting, especially to those who see voting as a citizen’s moral responsibility.
On the other hand, I wasn’t there, and it’s not fair to judge from a distance. For all I can tell, Lesser Evil is the new Good. Stronger together than Evil alone. A concept that can rally the responsible in new and exciting ways.
But I have a feeling that Ms. Weiss is right on this, and that the Democratic Party really could have done better.
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@Global Charm It's a primary - this is how the parties sort out who runs in the general election. The party may have a favored candidate, but the whole point of the primary is to give voters registered with the party to pick the candidate, not someone in a back room.
The party could have done better by not automatically serving up the incumbent. And what does it tell you that the GOP didn't even bother to field an opponent? Seems like he was their preferred candidate too.
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@Global Charm.....you said it....the lesser evil is the new good. Our standards and objectivity are distorted, so that the anti Trumps might be over-idealized. That's one of the worst Trump effects on our politics.
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@Global Charme What I find interesting about Bari’s argument is that she feels perfectly comfortable to cast judgment on Julia’s character based on false and hazy reporting from other reporters. It seems that the very thing Bari is condemning- a lack of integrity when it comes to telling the truth- is a hallmark of her overly simplistic and sensationalistic journalism. Please wait and see how Julia will act in office. The policies she pushes for and the way she acts in her district will show you her character.
"Youth must be Served"
but in this case the
"Truth is left an Orphan".
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Ms. Salazar appears to be more confused than evil.
Her history suggests a person searching for an identity.
She seems to want to believe an idealized and self-created personal narrative, rather than accept her real life story.
It is now important for the progressives to explain the truth regarding Ms Salazar. Otherwise the recent exceptional accomplishments of people like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez (who I admire beyond words) will be tainted.
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@John I'm a pre-boomer (born 1941) who has always voted Democrat. I agree with your conclusion that a post-truth candidate is worse than useless -- damaging, to be blunt -- to the progressive causes she supports.
But please, can we avoid sweeping generalizations about an entire generation? This candidate's weakness is her own personal problem, nothing to do with when she was born. Her age peers deserve to be judged each on their individual merits, not smeared in one big lump.
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I respect her honesty, her intelligence, and that she gives a damn and got involved.
I am very impressed with I see her discuss policy. She holds her own with reporters in ways that are not scripted, but are, in fact, rather informed.
And John… I am an old boomer who spent a good part of my life connected to federal government work and think she can make a difference in DC.
Also… this idea that she and others like her are leftist militants is way overplayed. She is really not all that different from FDR.
Let’s give her a chance.
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@John I too admired AOC until she started to be interviewed about issues by the national press. She is an inch deep. I fear you are right and all she accomplished was to bring down a good congressman who might have been an alternative to Nancy Pelosi.
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Thanks for this important story. The ends do not justify the means, whether the candidate has a (D) or an (R) after his/her name. For the past ten years I've voted Democratic but if I lived in her district I'd never vote for Salazar.
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@Arthur Larkin It is an important story, but I'd be interested in the specifics.
Clearly, if the political rookie has told lies on the level of imagining sniper fire in Yugoslavia, or stopping planes on the tarmac to "discuss the grand-kids," there is definitely a problem.
But then, it may depend on what your definition of the word "is" is...
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Martin Dilan, the incumbent in that district has received hundreds of thousands in donations from real estate and as a result, during his leadership the district lost over 20% of rent stabilized housing. In a district that is predominately composed of low-income residents of color, Dilan's actions to protect real estate have had devastating effects on his constituents.
So even though she has lied about her identity, at least she will serve her constituents. Her win is something to be celebrated.
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@Sal You HOPE she will serve her constituents rather than serving herself, in whatever guise she next chooses to adopt.
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Why on earth would you think that she will serve her constituents? When she lies to achieve power? She has done nothing to validate this baseless claim. Let’s wait 2 years, and if you’re right then I’ll give her credit where it’s due. But please, do not fool yourself into thinking that just because she said something in a campaign she will be of service to anybody. Not with her history of lies. I’m sure you’re better than that.
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@Sal This is exactly what was stated in the opinion piece; Salazar is a liar but that's okay because she is on "our" side. No one can win going down this path.
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One thing is certain: she won't be paid anywhere near as much attention by the right as the left pays to Trump. Not just because she's less important, but because … it's been done.
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@Richard Luettgen Huh? Of course she is less important. She will be one of 435 members of the House of Reprehensible's. A first term member with almost no power. Trump is the President. The most powerful human being on the planet.
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@Concernicus You missed a word there, I think. RL said "not *just* because she's less important..."
He acknowledged that she wasn't as important, but was suggesting that wasn't the only reason she'll get less attention.
@Concernicus
Its the NY State Senate, where she defeated a democrat who voted with Republicans. Not the Congress.
She is quite phenomenal in dishonesty. Maybe she and Trump could ally themselves together? The image does not appeal.
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