Declaring My Independence - And Yours

My Appeal to Democratic Voters in the Bronx

To my neighbors in the Bronx:

I hold true the idea that we get the government we deserve.

I do not say that with pride. I do not say it with arrogance. It pains me to say it, because no one deserves to live under the conditions we find ourselves in now. No one deserves to be ignored, priced out, lied to, or treated as a guaranteed vote by politicians who have grown comfortable in power.

But after decades of disenfranchisement, corruption, no accountability, and depraved indifference, we have been pushed into a state of utter despotism. And when a government becomes destructive to the people it is supposed to serve, it becomes not only our right, but our duty, to alter it, to abolish its failures, and to declare our independence from it.

So today, I am declaring my independence.

And I am asking you to join me.

For decades, corrupt, stale, and spineless politicians have come and gone through the Bronx, asking for our votes while leaving our communities to carry the consequences of their cowardice. The toleration of it must stop.

This politics has led us here: casinos being pushed into the Bronx, successful institutions like All Hallows shutting down, and working New Yorkers who have called this borough home for generations being priced out of their own neighborhoods. When an old building falls, a new “luxury” building rises in its place, and the people who built this borough are told there is no room left for them.

That is not progress. That is displacement dressed up as development.

That is not leadership. That is surrender.

And I refuse to keep surrendering.

There is now a choice on the ballot. A real choice. A choice to stop compromising with a political machine that has failed us. A choice to stop choosing the lesser of two evils. A choice to declare your independence again.

I am not beholden to the same special interest groups that fund my opponent, Ritchie Torres. I am not a product of the same power structures that have molded politicians like Michael Blake into professional liars, willing to bend, twist, and reshape their views for whatever purpose their ambition requires.

The Bronx does not need more politicians who know how to talk. We need representatives who know how to fight.

For too long, corporate lobbyists and political insiders have used politicians like Ritchie Torres to buy your voice in the House of Representatives. In my view, he stands for nothing but a paycheck, a headline, and the approval of people who do not have to live with the consequences of his politics.

That cycle must end.

This campaign is about independence from corruption, cowardice and neglect.

Independence from the consultants, donors, lobbyists, and party bosses who believe your vote belongs to them before you ever cast it.

I am asking every Democratic voter in the Bronx to look around and ask a simple question: How much longer are we supposed to accept this?

How much longer are we supposed to watch our neighborhoods become unaffordable?

How much longer are we supposed to watch our institutions disappear?

How much longer are we supposed to reward politicians who have helped manage our decline?

After decades of descent into what I can only call a fascist dictatorship, I am done asking permission from the people responsible for the damage.

I am declaring my independence.

Now I am asking you to declare yours.

Break the cycle. Reject the machine.

Vote for your independence again.