Digital Digest
Author: FiNC Team
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The Talented Mr. Ripley, Actually George Santos
The Need for a New Way to Do Politics
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Representative George Santos Will Plague Congress For Years
![\"\"](\"https://futureis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FiNC-Digital-Digest-Representative-George-Santos-Will-Plague-Congress-For-Years-240x300.jpg\")
On paper, newly-elected Congressman George Santos of New York’s Congressional District 3 seemed to embody the modern American Dream for the Republican party. Santos was a conservative son of Brazilian immigrants who made his fortune on Wall Street and then dedicated his life to public service. George Santos, a member of the LQBTQ⍅ community, was able to pull himself up by the bootstraps, become a success, and go on to win his 2022 midterm election contest. He flipped a blue Congressional seat red in a President Joe Biden plus eight district. But over the course of his campaign, concerns about the truthfulness of Santos’ resume, religious affiliation, sources of income, and even his family history got louder and louder.
The New York Times published an article that fully exposed the fictional life George Santos created on September 22, 2022. The article revealed Santos never graduated college and did not work for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, among other statements in the candidate’s bio. Since December, Santos has been besieged with questions about his embellishments and whether he feels remorse for defrauding voters. Santos has remained steadfast in his denials and refusal to apologize. The new Congressman is now a political punching bag and anchor for the new Congressional leadership. George Santos could plague Congress for years to come. As the investigations and calls for resignation get louder, Santos highlights a bigger problem in American politics. Who is left to properly vet candidates for public office if politicians are willing to lie through their teeth to get elected to public office? ? Also, can technology help narrow the distance between a politician and the truth?
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Actually George Santos
How much did George Santos embellish his background? The Intelligencer published a breakdown. Santos lied about:
- Attending Horace Mann High School in the Bronx.
- Graduating from Baruch College with a degree in economics and finance.
- Being a star on the Baruch volleyball team.
- Attending New York University; Santos did not graduate from any institution of higher learning.
- Working on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.
- The sources of his personal wealth made on campaign disclosure firms, including a $700,000 loan he made to his own Congressional campaign.
- Creating an animal charity called Friends of Pets United.
- Whether his mother died from cancer related to the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
- His grandmother was not a Holocaust victim.
- Four of his employees perished during the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida.
- Claiming that although being raised in the Catholic church, he’s Jew-ish”
The national mainstream media has consistently reported about Santos since December, but the midterm cycle ended on Election Day in November 2022. Why were the Santos lies only revealed after the fact? There are a few reasons – the lack of robust local news coverage, negligence by party committees, and no independent third parties whose responsibility is to vet candidates for public office.
In New York, the 3rd Congressional District includes parts of Northeastern Queens and Nassau County on Long Island. Traditionally, and as recently as 15 years ago, the newspaper of record covering the Santos campaign would be Newsday. But like hundreds of local and suburban newspapers around the country, the influence of local newspapers has plummeted. From a high of nearly 400,000 in weekday circulation in 2011, the current weekday circulation of Newsday is 201,347. Newsday simply did not have sufficient resources to uncover the Santos web of lies. The only publication before the New York Times to question Santos’ biography was the North Shore Leader in September 2022. But its readership is only 20,000 and its reporting was ignored until the Times and Washington Post stories broke. Santos was able to slip through the cracks of the New York media and win a congressional seat.
The Need for a New Way to Do Politics
Without the local media actively investigating Santos’ background, vetting could have been done by one of two entities – GOP organizing committees or independent third parties. The Nassau County GOP acknowledged it did not vet the candidate well enough. Santos submitted his résumé and financial disclosures and was interviewed. At a recent press conference calling on George Santos to resign, Nassau County GOP Chair Joseph Cairo Jr. said he believed the Queens GOP had vetted Santos before their meeting. The Queens GOP had not, and he lied again during Santos’ meeting with Cairo. Santos claimed to be a star volleyball player for a college he never attended.
American voters need a credible and independent alternative organization to use all the modern tools available to vet candidates for public office and publish their findings. The most efficient way to do so is by using technology. Candidates’ public biographies, statements, financial disclosures, fundraising sources, and other data should be properly analyzed, published, and accessible to all. A whole new group of digital activists could be created. While there are independent news sources that try to compile information on candidates, the Santos scandal proves more needs to be done. There’s a need for a digital democratic revolution that empowers voters with real-time data that helps eliminate the influence of corporate donors, dark money, and super PACs. It can happen and it is happening.
The Future is Now Coalition (FiNC) is a grassroots tech and political hybrid organization building tools and platforms designed to change how Americans engage with politics. Top of our priorities is becoming a provider of fact-based complex data to help inform voters about candidates. With organizations such as FINC in place, perhaps the truth about George Santos would have been revealed earlier. Voters could have learned the truth rather than been defrauded. As it stands now, George Santos could plague Congress for years to come and his local constituents face years of ineffective representation.
Representative George Santos Will Plague Congress For Years
Author: FiNC Team
![\"\"](\"https://futureis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FiNC-Digital-Digest-Representative-George-Santos-Will-Plague-Congress-For-Years.jpg\")
On paper, newly-elected Congressman George Santos of New York’s Congressional District 3 seemed to embody the modern American Dream for the Republican party. Santos was a conservative son of Brazilian immigrants who made his fortune on Wall Street and then dedicated his life to public service. George Santos, a member of the LQBTQ⍅ community, was able to pull himself up by the bootstraps, become a success, and go on to win his 2022 midterm election contest. He flipped a blue Congressional seat red in a President Joe Biden plus eight district. But over the course of his campaign, concerns about the truthfulness of Santos’ resume, religious affiliation, sources of income, and even his family history got louder and louder.
The New York Times published an article that fully exposed the fictional life George Santos created on September 22, 2022. The article revealed Santos never graduated college and did not work for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, among other statements in the candidate’s bio. Since December, Santos has been besieged with questions about his embellishments and whether he feels remorse for defrauding voters. Santos has remained steadfast in his denials and refusal to apologize. The new Congressman is now a political punching bag and anchor for the new Congressional leadership. George Santos could plague Congress for years to come. As the investigations and calls for resignation get louder, Santos highlights a bigger problem in American politics. Who is left to properly vet candidates for public office if politicians are willing to lie through their teeth to get elected to public office? ? Also, can technology help narrow the distance between a politician and the truth?
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Actually George Santos
How much did George Santos embellish his background? The Intelligencer published a breakdown. Santos lied about:
- Attending Horace Mann High School in the Bronx.
- Graduating from Baruch College with a degree in economics and finance.
- Being a star on the Baruch volleyball team.
- Attending New York University; Santos did not graduate from any institution of higher learning.
- Working on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.
- The sources of his personal wealth made on campaign disclosure firms, including a $700,000 loan he made to his own Congressional campaign.
- Creating an animal charity called Friends of Pets United.
- Whether his mother died from cancer related to the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
- His grandmother was not a Holocaust victim.
- Four of his employees perished during the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida.
- Claiming that although being raised in the Catholic church, he’s Jew-ish”
The national mainstream media has consistently reported about Santos since December, but the midterm cycle ended on Election Day in November 2022. Why were the Santos lies only revealed after the fact? There are a few reasons – the lack of robust local news coverage, negligence by party committees, and no independent third parties whose responsibility is to vet candidates for public office.
In New York, the 3rd Congressional District includes parts of Northeastern Queens and Nassau County on Long Island. Traditionally, and as recently as 15 years ago, the newspaper of record covering the Santos campaign would be Newsday. But like hundreds of local and suburban newspapers around the country, the influence of local newspapers has plummeted. From a high of nearly 400,000 in weekday circulation in 2011, the current weekday circulation of Newsday is 201,347. Newsday simply did not have sufficient resources to uncover the Santos web of lies. The only publication before the New York Times to question Santos’ biography was the North Shore Leader in September 2022. But its readership is only 20,000 and its reporting was ignored until the Times and Washington Post stories broke. Santos was able to slip through the cracks of the New York media and win a congressional seat.
The Need for a New Way to Do Politics
Without the local media actively investigating Santos’ background, vetting could have been done by one of two entities – GOP organizing committees or independent third parties. The Nassau County GOP acknowledged it did not vet the candidate well enough. Santos submitted his résumé and financial disclosures and was interviewed. At a recent press conference calling on George Santos to resign, Nassau County GOP Chair Joseph Cairo Jr. said he believed the Queens GOP had vetted Santos before their meeting. The Queens GOP had not, and he lied again during Santos’ meeting with Cairo. Santos claimed to be a star volleyball player for a college he never attended.
American voters need a credible and independent alternative organization to use all the modern tools available to vet candidates for public office and publish their findings. The most efficient way to do so is by using technology. Candidates’ public biographies, statements, financial disclosures, fundraising sources, and other data should be properly analyzed, published, and accessible to all. A whole new group of digital activists could be created. While there are independent news sources that try to compile information on candidates, the Santos scandal proves more needs to be done. There’s a need for a digital democratic revolution that empowers voters with real-time data that helps eliminate the influence of corporate donors, dark money, and super PACs. It can happen and it is happening.
The Future is Now Coalition (FiNC) is a grassroots tech and political hybrid organization building tools and platforms designed to change how Americans engage with politics. Top of our priorities is becoming a provider of fact-based complex data to help inform voters about candidates. With organizations such as FINC in place, perhaps the truth about George Santos would have been revealed earlier. Voters could have learned the truth rather than been defrauded. As it stands now, George Santos could plague Congress for years to come and his local constituents face years of ineffective representation.
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Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on reddit
Share on tumblr
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Share on pocket
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