An air of understandable desperation has crept into nonsocialist commentary on the New York City mayoral race.
Zohran Mamdani, who approves of all left-wing policies from Jew-hating genocide against Israel to free buses and government groceries in the financial center of the free world, is heading for victory in the Nov. 4 election. It’s looking bad.
He is far ahead with 43% voter backing, compared to 32% for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom he beat in the Democratic primary and who is now running as an independent, and 19% for Republican Curtis Sliwa, a talk show host most notable for wearing the red beret of his uniform as founder of the Guardian Angels.
NO KINGS, NO PEACE, NO MONEY, NO WAY
The desperation of traditional New Yorkers is clear in urgent calls on Sliwa to drop out and give Cuomo a better chance of winning. A typical post on X came from Mike Davis, a former denizen of the U.S. Senate and a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. He wrote, “Dear @CurtisSliwa. It’s time. Drop out. Be a patriot. Save New York City. Endorse @andrewcuomo.”
There are many more like this. Both you, dear reader, and the socialists look at these people and can see the whites of their eyes. Sliwa refuses to budge, however, and gives unintelligible reasons why he should not be blamed for handing New York to a man who’ll ruin the city.
Mamdani’s election would indeed be a disaster for the Big Apple. It would drive out top earners who contribute 40% of income tax revenues. He’s going to ding them for 16.8% over and above their federal taxes. Their exodus with their money, plus his increased spending on socialist experiments that have been tried before and never worked, will bring financial crisis at the heart of global capitalism. Perhaps that is what the anti-capitalist Mamdani wants. (Note to self: Look for Chinese backing for his campaign).
His election would be a disaster not merely for New York City, which would be bad enough, but also for the country. It would drag the increasingly unresisting Democratic Party even further to the left under the lash of its militant and mostly youthful radicals. It would deny the nation a leftish party willing to govern within hailing distance of its traditional values and ideas. The Left in general and Mamdani specifically say they will change the country. And who can doubt them?
We are watching the Democrats capitulate right now. Look at the federal government shutdown. Militants have got the rest of the party on the run. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is so afraid of his left flank, which wanted to oust him after he voted to finance the government in March, that he has abandoned all compromise and is holding the country hostage. His ransom demand is that taxpayers fund COVID emergency Obamacare subsidies forever. It’s a big ratchet click toward single-payer socialist healthcare.
I have repeatedly referred to traditional Americans and what they want, in contrast to what the Left wants. This is partly because of startling findings in another survey conducted by Patriot Polling. On Oct. 20, it released data showing that while Mamdani holds a big overall lead, he is way behind among voters who were actually born in this country.
Among American-born voters, Cuomo is at 40%, Mamdani at 31%, and Sliwa at 25%. Among the 3 million foreign-born New Yorkers, however, the results are Mamdani with a whopping 62%, Cuomo 24%, and Sliwa 12%.
Voters may, of course, vote however they want. But it is notable that Mamdani is not wanted by those voters who have been in America probably longer on average and have grown up with an unalloyed preference for this country rather than another one. It is only among those who are less likely to be patriotically invested in America that the extreme leftist is favored.
What we are seeing in New York City is the impact of massive, unrestricted inflows of immigrants who have brought with them political beliefs and ideologies that do not square with those that made America the most powerful and admired country in the world. The people have less understanding, either rational or visceral, of the ways of America, or of its institutions and culture. So they find it easier to reject those invaluable inheritances from the past when offered the blandishments from a foreigner born in Africa only 34 years ago.
CHUCK SCHUMER’S SHUTDOWN AGONY
Mamdani is good looking, smart, and plausible. He wears a suit well and evades questions even better. But he is willing to rip America apart as much as he is willing to grin from ear to ear in photos taken with men involved in terrorist attacks on New York City itself.
That New York City could go from 9/11 to electing a man of such character and ideas almost beggars belief. To see it is a high price to pay for understanding how much leftists and their party in Washington have changed this country and intend to change it even more.