Having no shame is now stylish in politics
Republican J.R. Majewski of Ohio played up his background as an Air Force veteran but it turned out he hadn’t been in combat in Afghanistan as claimed. Credit: CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Bill Clark
Campaigns for public office have always featured doses of cynical marketing, hyperbole, negativity, rhetorical feints and bluffs. But nowadays, certain candidates who fudge or forge the basic facts of their lives seem to show little shame about it — even once exposed.
A Republican City Council candidate in Brooklyn, Anna Belfiore-Delfaus, allegedly fits this category. She’s identified herself all along as a city public-school teacher. She said she couldn’t return to work because she'd refused to comply with the former COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
But payroll data suggest Belfiore-Delfaus hasn’t worked in the school system since 2015 when she went on child care leave from her teaching job, according to the New York Daily News. “I don’t understand why anyone would do this,” a rival candidate, Ari Kagan, was quoted as saying of her evident deception.
One way of understanding it might lie in a growing belief across America that it just doesn’t matter — that there will be no harsh consequences for lying outright and so it might be a risk worth taking.
False self-profiles are a viral variant of the political lie.
To shore them up, the falsehoods can become rather elaborate. In one podcast, Belfiore-Delfaus even described email notifications of virus cases in her school building.
Of course, Rep. George Santos leaps quickly to mind. His fraudulent resume and personal background were exposed even before he took office. Since then Santos, untouched to now by authorities, announced that he’s running again on the notion that he serves some glorious public purpose in Washington. So far, he's gotten away with it, while awaiting outcomes of investigations.
Obviously, former President Donald Trump's presence had an impact on Santos from afar — so much so that at a January 2021 rally the Nassau-Queens candidate made up a story that he was a victim of massive voter fraud the prior year.
Trump, while under indictment in Manhattan, is also running again. This week, he was even endorsed by last year's New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, ex-Rep. Lee Zeldin.
Embarrassment is unfashionable.
With another national contest next year, the question is still asked: What are the consequences for Trump and his flock for their harmful 2020 election-fraud hoax?
Maybe none. And who knows — maybe the fake Electoral College members Trump’s campaign once enlisted in a contrived plot to cling to power can run successfully for office, too.
The cover was blown, but not all of them might be ashamed.
Another candidate who fudged his past is J.R. Majewski of northwest Ohio.
In his congressional campaign last year, the QAnon-friendly Majewski played up his background as an Air Force veteran. But it turned out he hadn’t been in combat in Afghanistan as claimed. And he was busted for drunken driving on a Japan air base, which likely kept him from an additional tour of duty, The Associated Press reported.
Majewski lost in November. But two weeks ago, he said he'll run for the seat again next year.
“This campaign is about the working-class citizens of Ohio,” he unabashedly declared. “This campaign is about putting America first.”
Assumed identities are nothing new in America. On Tuesday, for example, a fake Los Angeles "doctor" was charged with practicing medicine without a license on thousands of patients for several years.
But there does seem to be a special and alarming tolerance these days for the most audacious fakers running for office.
Voters beware.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
