When I first ran for public office for Erie County Comptroller, I remember discussing my upcoming run with my late mother Arlene.
She was a lifelong “Kennedy Democrat” who supported labor unions, the working man and woman, Pro-life, and as middle of the road as you can get. Arlene Mychajliw was one of those “Blue Dog Democrats” that Ronald Reagan courted to win two consecutive races for the Presidency.
I distinctly remember how perplexed my mother was when I said I would be on the GOP ballot for the independent position of Taxpayers’ Watchdog.
“Oh boy honey, I don’t know if I’ve ever voted for a Republican before, I have no idea what I’m going to do,” she told me.
At the time I thought “if my own Mother isn’t voting for me, I’m in trouble.”
The pained look on her face dissipated as soon as I told her I would also be running on the Independence line on the ballot, that she could vote for me there.
“Oh thank heavens sweetheart,” was her happy reply.
Thankfully, I won that race in 2012, in an Obama Presidential election year, and won two more county-wide elections.
I was reflecting on my late mother being a hard core Democrat, and that if she were alive today, she would be resoundingly rejected by the extreme radical progressives that hijacked the Democratic Party of 2025.
Case in point, here is then United States Senator Hillary Clinton discussing illegal immigration:
“I think we gotta have tough conditions. Tell people to come out of the shadows. If they’ve committed a crime, deport them. No questions asked, they’re gone,” said Clinton.
Here is United States Senator Charles Schumer talking about the need to weed out fraud, waste, and abuse within the walls of government, especially when it comes to Medicare:
“How do we wring that waste out, that fraud, abuse…if we are going to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare, it does mean we are going to cut some of that out. We want to cut the bad stuff and keep the good stuff,” said Schumer in 2010.
President Obama even assigned then Vice President Joe Biden to slash fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal budget:
“Getting rid of the deficit will require some tough decisions. That includes cutting back on billions of dollars in programs that people care about,” said former President Obama.
Democrats did not defy “their own” when they called for slashing spending and eliminating waste, but they are protesting loudly now that President Trump and Elon Musk are doing the same.
My late Mother would have agreed with Clinton, Schumer, and Obama on their reasonable positions on illegal immigration and cutting spending.
Not today’s Democrats. They are so extreme that Senator Schumer was forced to cancel a previously scheduled book tour because he had the audacity to work with President Trump to keep the government open instead of shutting it down. The radical left is now calling on AOC to primary Schumer for his seat in the Senate.
Extremists in the Democratic Party hate and despise both President Trump and Elon Musk so much that they fight against the very same principles put forth by Clinton, Schumer, and Obama, only because the same ideals are now being shared by Trump and Musk.
The real fraud are the Democrats of 2025, who will stop at nothing to oppose progress and great successes for America, just out of hate and spite for the Tesla founder and the 45th and 47th President of the United States.
My Mom died in 2013 and I half jokingly say she’s voted for Democrats in every election since then.
I’m not so sure now.
Maybe she’d cast a ballot for a Republican for the second time in her existence, especially after seeing how much Democrats in disarray despise America, how much they hate our President, and how they oppose the beliefs they fought for just a few years ago, only because they are being shared by a Commander in Chief they want to fail.