Submitted by Joanna Swomley, Greenwich, August 3, 2020
Two weeks ago, the Twitter account “Ryan Fazio for State Senate @FazioPAC” began tweeting out racist content reminiscent of the vile messages we have come to expect from Trump and his allies.
You have to have been asleep for the last three years not to notice the similarities:
Mr. Fazio admitted that he has been aware of this account, yet he chose not to issue any public statement condemning the account or its contents – until his opponent Alex Kasser made an issue of it.
Now that she has done so, he is apparently ‘offended.’ In a widely distributed e-mail he asserts as fact – citing no evidence whatsoever – that a nebulous “detractor” has “obviously” concocted this account “to smear me” and that it contains “vile insane messages that I would never subscribe to.”
The problem with that statement is that the conclusion is not obvious at
all. To the contrary, the vile messages, using words like “infestation” and “beautiful statues” are the precise language of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller and others in the Trump administration.
Compounding the problem, Mr. Fazio has never condemned Trump’s tweets, language or the racism they represent. And he retweeted a tweet advocating that Trump (whose racist views are well-known) should remain in office for decades.
Given all that, it is certainly plausible and fair to conclude that the Twitter account was created by a racist supporter of Mr. Fazio’s. However, who actually created “Ryan Fazio for State Senate (@FazioPAC)” is, in some ways, irrelevant. Since this abhorrent language and these sentiments show up regularly in the President’s tweets, a true leader would have spoken out and
condemned them long ago. Sadly, Mr. Fazio has not done so to this day.
Republicans who value our democracy recognize that silence is complicity. The Republicans who formed the Lincoln Project have urged voters to reject the current Republican party as morally bankrupt and a threat to democracy. Their solution? Rid ourselves of Trumpism by voting Democrat until Trumpism everywhere has been defeated unless the Republican
candidate has firmly and unequivocally denounced Trump and Trumpism.
As with the Presidency, the State elections this year are also a referendum. In this case it is a referendum on who and what Greenwich is and wants to be. Senator Kasser has been clear on where she stands and what she believes when it comes to Trump and Trumpism. The silence from candidate Fazio and his fellow Republican candidates on this subject is deafening.