New York City is faced with a momentous decision as socialist Zohran Mamdani advances to the mayoral election, promising free services while critics warn of economic disaster and his anti-Israel stance. The article highlights the grim reality as Mamdani, who just won the Democrat primary, could potentially become mayor of the city’s greatest city in November. The article suggests that the upstart 33-year-old from Uganda is an avowed socialist who is promising free childcare, free bus transportation, rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, and other unworkable policies of the sort that drove Venezuela, Argentina, and other one-time great nations into financial ruin. He is also a proud backer of the Intifada, and an unrepentant antisemite.
The article also notes that college-educated young people, especially, think Mamdani’s program is wonderful; just don’t ask them who will pay for it. While, my staunchly anti-Trump Democrat friends are outraged, my Jewish friends even more so. They cannot imagine how their party has lurched so hard left. But they did nothing to stop it. Most do not engage in local politics; most have no idea who represents them on the city council, or in the state legislature, or even when the local elections take place. Ask them; you’ll be shocked.
The article elaborates on the Republican side, who are inert and defeatist, running Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and an all-round Good Guy as their candidate; they know he has as much chance of winning as I do. In 202, when he went up against Eric Adams, who was not an especially strong candidate, he won less than 28% of the vote. Republican energy and leadership have disappeared in New York; the party does not even field candidates in many races. It is a disgrace.
The article also discusses the shocking win by Zohran and defeat of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a scandal-plagued candidate who ran a miserable campaign, has many authors. Jews failed to organize their community to rally around candidate Cuomo, whose early lead proved deceptive and evaporated just weeks before the primary. Jews were not paying attention to the young anti-Zionist Muslim who advocates for ‘globalizing the Intifada,’ does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, and has threatened to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in the Big Apple.
The article further points out the main factor behind Mamdani’s upset victory: the subversion of our education system, which has infused generation after generation of gullible young people indoctrinated with Leftist claptrap, teaching them that capitalism is evil and exploitative and that socialism is the better path.
The liberal elites who lead and fund our academic institutions have, for decades, cheered on the progressive professors who convinced America’s youth that our country is systemically racist and that ‘social justice’ demands the toppling of our economy.
The article also states that the leaders of our banks, real estate businesses, and media companies have virtue signaled by adopting unpopular and unproductive DEI programs, did not raise their voices to say this is wrong. These companies endorsed leftist candidates to assuage their white liberal guilt, without seeing the end game.
The article emphasizes the responsibility of proud Ivy League alums sent checks to their alma maters year after year, hoping to vault their offspring into those hallowed halls, ignoring what their kids were learning. When The Crimson reported that 82% of Harvard’s faculty self-identified as liberal or ‘very liberal,’ and less than 2% conservative, were they concerned that their kids might hear only one side of the story? Did they know that Karl Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto’ was one of the most frequently assigned texts in our colleges?
Americans have ignored for decades the leftward drift of our schools and the decline in scholastic standards. Both are contributing to the creation of a generation truly ignorant of how the economy works, the history of failed socialist regimes, and the founding, enduring principles of the United States.
The article concludes by stating that here is what must happen now: New Yorkers of all sorts must coalesce around one candidate. Either Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams – both of whom are likely to run as independents — should be convinced to bow out of the race, as well as Curtis Sliwa. As Cuomo said after the primary: ‘There are about 5 million voters in New York City, there are about 8 million people in New York City, and about 1 million people vote in the Democratic primary. So, it’s not, necessarily, representative of the city at large.’ He’s right. Mamdani could lose in November.
The right-leaning Chicago Tribune recently ran an editorial titled, ‘New Yorkers, take it from Chicago — we’ve seen this movie before, and the ending isn’t pretty.’ The paper wrote: ‘Most of Mamdani’s ideas are shared (at least in principle) by Mayor Brandon Johnson, and many of them are popular in blue cities. But experience has taught us here that far-left candidates do not make for effective or popular municipal executives in today’s stressful economy.’
Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow believes that winning the primary will be the high-water mark for Mamdani; he thinks that as voters learn more about him and his dangerous policies, they will reject him. It is notable that Google searches in New York for ‘socialism’ soared after the vote. People, and especially young people, do not even seem to know what the term means.
I hope Kudlow is right, but for that to happen, New Yorkers must become engaged. Historically, we have not been good at that. Perhaps the threat posed by Mamdani will change that.