When Hurricane Idalia recently struck Florida, threatening massive devastation, you saw something far too rare in our civic life. President Biden, a Democrat, was joined by Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican sharply critical of Biden, in surveying damage and committing to work together on recovery efforts.
Gov Ron DeSantis, a Republican challenging Biden’s re-election, did not join the President who had issued the declaration unleashing federal recovery resources. Perhaps DeSantis remembers the torrent of criticism former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received for standing with President Obama after Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York.
Well, Gov. Christie was right then, and Sen. Scott is right now. There is a time for politics, and there is a time for government.
We are lucky on Long Island, where we elect both Democrats and Republicans, depending on the year and candidate. Nassau Republican chair Joseph Cairo and Democratic chair Jay Jacobs, who is also state Democratic chair, compete vigorously in elections. But when campaigning ends, they consult regularly over civic issues and picking members of the judiciary, which should be the non-partisan branch of government.
We live with this civility every day in our law firm, Abrams Fensterman, which includes attorneys serving as law chairs for Democratic parties in Brooklyn and Westchester, and another who is vice-chair for Nassau Republicans.
One of our partners, Frank Carone, took leave to serve as Chief of Staff to New York City’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams before returning to our firm.
And Nassau’s Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman served in our firm for seven years, even running for the U.S. Senate while here. We are proud to have called Bruce our colleague.
We are competitors in partisan politics. We are not enemies.
Nationally, a lack of civility has led to such civic atrocities as an actual assaultonourCapitoltopreventthe orderly transfer of power. That is not politics. That is an authoritarian affront to our standing as “one nation under God, Indivisible…”
We have enemies in places like Russia, China and Iran who delight in observing our divisiveness. It makes us weaker, not stronger.
When Jay Jacobs and Joe Cairo can work together even as they try to defeat their partisan opponents, they show that politics and government, while intertwined, need not undermine the best interests of Nassau County.
We all pledge allegiance to the same flag, which is both red and blue. Let Long Island be the beacon for the nation.
Howard Fensterman is the Managing Partner at Abrams Fensterman, LLP.
