Photo courtesy of Francis Chung via Politico//AP
Not long after George Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, he was exposed as a pathological liar. Santos lied about everything, from his education and career to his mother’s death due to 9/11 (she was in Brazil in 2001) and his grandparents’ persecution in the Holocaust (there is no evidence of this). In New York and across the country, Americans lambasted the congressman-elect to step down before his inauguration. Even the Nassau County GOP called for his resignation.
After his lies were exposed, Santos was accused of skirting campaign finance laws, leading to complaints with the Federal Election Commission and New York state.
While Santos has made a national name for himself as a liar and con man, will any of this really matter to an electorate that has the memory of a goldfish?
In politics, name recognition is everything and George Santos has it. When Republicans in the 3rd District go to vote in 2024, will they even care about Santos’ “exaggerations?”
In a party that has openly embraced using lies and misinformation to win, it seems hard to believe that Santos won’t have a bright future in the GOP. The radical right, including representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, have promoted baseless conspiracy theories claiming mass shootings were faked, Jewish space lasers lit forest fires and 9/11 was an inside job (that may or may not have killed Santos’ mom). Greene isn’t alone in Congress; Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy reportedly said, “I will never leave that woman … I will always take care of her.”
Beyond the GOP, our entire political culture has been built on deception and corruption. Members on both sides perform in front of the cameras and do little behind closed doors. Democrats and Republicans make hoards each year by pseudo insider trading, and both take billions of undisclosed dollars in shady donations each election cycle. Our representatives have put their ambitions ahead of their constituents and tricked U.S. citizens in the process. The difference between George Santos and the average representative is that he lied before he was elected – the others have more patience and lie while in office.
In the current state of polarization, a Republican would rather have the lying George Santos as their representative than a “radical-leftist” from the Democratic party. Partisans have vilified anyone who doesn’t embrace the party banner. Voters have been told not to question the status quo out of fear it will lead to the victory of the “awful” opposition.
When Joe Biden made his first run for president in 1988, he was compelled to drop out after it was revealed he had plagiarized a speech by a British politician, lied about his success in university and falsely claimed to have written law review articles about Roe v. Wade. Throughout his 2020 campaign, Biden made ludicrous statements like when he claimed he was arrested in South Africa for opposing apartheid. Biden’s career of lies led him to become, as the New York Times termed it, the “Storyteller in Chief.”
Even if George Santos doesn’t become president in 30 years, he’ll have a bright future in politics. Republicans haven’t signaled they’ll dissociate with the representative; in fact, they have assigned him to committees – a privilege Greene was stripped of.
If Santos plays his cards right and embraces the establishment, the Republican Party will surely fund his re-election in the swing district. If his voters make the right decision and boot him, he can seamlessly slide into the private sector. Lobbies, think tanks and media networks clamor for ex-representatives with big names, no matter how disgraced.
George Santos is now one of the few representatives that has national recognition. Americans don’t trust most of Congress, and in a party that openly embraces lies, Santos is in with a fitting crowd. The new representative speaks to Mark Twain’s timeless remark, “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
