THE MISSING LINK
That is a statistical analysis which does not automatically make Mr. Mamdani Mayor even though he will be running as the Democratic nominee and his surprise primary win has totally captivated the news media.
Young, like him, they mimic Mamdani’s young supporters in Brooklyn and the section of Queens which elected Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to Congress. The hard truth is that limited by the same inferior education they received, media people, journalists and columnists, know far less about running a government than their media predecessors years ago.
Long articles and interviews tell us that the negativity about glittering Zoran has to do with his race and ethnicity; with his very progressive stance: tax the rich, freeze rents, open city-run grocery stores, etc.
None of them ever mention his total absence of experience in running anything much less the city of New York. Do these “opinionators” believe that total inexperience means nothing? Do they think that because you can be elected to a State Assembly or even to Congress knowing very little about government means that knowing nothing about running anything qualifies you to be a Mayor who can actually run a city – any city?
Sadly, there is a genuinely sincere belief on the part of many older Americans that because there are college degrees today’s young people had the same elementary and secondary school education they received 60 years ago. Those sincere beliefs are simply wrong.
The education system which once did its job so well, stopped doing it well in the 1970’s and it’s been going downhill ever since.
That system is broken and has failed.
Today, business people report that despite their ease with tech, young people are often unable to think wisely, don’t know what they don’t know, have little ability to act with common sense, have little patience solving challenges, and when involved in government, fall flat on their faces.
In Brooklyn, the borough of know nothings in government, their mistakes as governmental leaders have actually killed children crossing streets with traffic patterns so stupidly laid out that they are dangerous.
There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance implies you know nothing about something. Stupidity is about knowing just enough to do it all wrong.
In Williamsburg, the 30 somethings in government want to build a piazza. The Borough President wants to build affordable housing in buildings that will kill the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and build a forest in areas perfectly suited for affordable housing.
THE NEW YORK CITY MAYOR’S RACE
As the Democratic Party seeks to find its lost identity in America, New York City, the most Democratic city of all, suffers from that loss most dramatically.
Part of that suffering includes the idea that using the historical term “progressive” truly reflects the genuine meaning of that word…which today it certainly does not.
More often, the term ‘progressive’ now reflects the influence of the Democratic Socialists in New York rather than Democrats who existed at the most liberal end of that Party’s activities.
The Democratic Socialists are not a political party but rather a political organization established in 1983 by a minister and professor of political science, Michael Harrington who was a protégé of THE socialist in American history, Norman Thomas who ran for President of the United Stated EIGHT TIMES over 32 years.
Harrington, whose book on poverty in America so impressed JFK and LBJ that they built their War on Poverty around it, knew that neither New York nor America WOULD EVER BE SOCIALIST and simply wanted the Democratic Party in New York to have a genuine ‘left wing’.
Sadly Harrington died before he could properly establish the Democratic Socialists as he perceived it and they remained dormant for 37 years. Then, just a few years ago, came the arrival of a young woman bartender who lived in Yorktown Heights in northern Westchester, the daughter of a dentist in the area, who despite being a college graduate knew so little about American government that she could not discuss the three branches of the Federal Government – Executive, Legislative, Judicial – but was running for Congress from a section of The Bronx and Queens.
The Democratic Socialists found the perfect person. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kept her lack of knowledge from the voters because her opponent, longtime Congressman Joe Crowley, didn’t bother mounting a campaign against her. He never once returned to New York to debate her.
Led by volunteers from the Democratic Socialists, she went knocking on doors throughout the Queens section of the district and won.
With the help of her “Grandpapa” Bernie Sanders, who also played the Democratic Socialist game as a Senator but never during the many years he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont and then a Congressman, AOC has become a player in Democratic Party politics – proving again how that party has lost its meaning.
THE PLAYERS
That a man who has never run anything – not even a lemonade stand – might get elected to run a city the size of New York is absurd; it is an example of a stupidity beyond comprehension.
To promise free busing is one thing: those who get on the back of a bus can often skip payment. But to elect a man who promises a tax increase on the rich to pay for free child care, a $30 dollar minimum wage, a rent freeze for a section of housing, and a group of city-owned grocery stores to lower the cost of food goes beyond reality and fits into the same mold as making Brooklyn a piazza or growing a mini-forest instead of building affordable housing.
Coming from a home where your Father, a Ugandan, is a long-time noted professor at Columbia and your Mom is a respected filmmaker in India, you have been influenced by brains and style.
Mr. Mamdani has shown both and a guile that takes him beyond truth into another place.
His success in winning the Democratic primary has triggered fear in the minds of those in the real estate business, in the corporate world and in the Stock Market.
There now exists a number of loosely formed organizations raising very significant money to mount a totally negative campaign against Mamdani. At this writing these groups have not announced support for any of the other available candidates. Their efforts amount to a direct move against the idea and the reality of a Zoran Mamdani Mayoralty. They still believe that money and a negative campaign will do the job despite the fact that many helped Andrew Cuomo with a $24 million ad campaign that did no more than give him a second place finish. Cuomo has chosen to now run as an independent and many will again put money behind that effort just to help kill a chance for Mamdani to bring his “socialist ideas” to New York.
Again, there is no mention of his failure to run anything and still know enough to run New York.
Being very close to a three term Governor, his Dad, and serving two and a half terms as Governor himself means that Andrew Cuomo knows government and how to run things. That knowledge alone does not make a Governor a Mayor – they are two very different jobs.
We believe this is true even though the Liberal Party and Andrew have had very bad moments in the past.
He is known as a tough guy but we believe he has been humanized by the problems experienced in the last several years. His entire life has been about government. He has the long experience necessary to deal with the many forces and factions that exist in New York.
Mayor Eric Adams has committed acts which not only got him indicted by the Federal Justice System but was the reason his entire top administrators simply ran away from very important, very lucrative jobs.
His deal with President Trump to let ICE roam around NYC has kept the reasons for that indictment hidden. It might yet show its face before Election Day in November.
The great NYPD no longer “protects and serves” – they capture after criminal acts take place. Never mind statistics which show crime is down. They have been doctored for years by Mayoral administrations and that practice continues.
Eric Adams has the ability to talk a very good game. He simply has little to show for it after four years.
Talking is what Curtis Sliwa does best. It is what he does very well for a living. Running the Guardian Angels and talking about New York and events in it on the radio does not mean he is prepared to be Mayor. He ran last time and barely received one-third of the votes. He is running again as a Republican in a city which no longer bothers to be Republican. Nothing has changed and so Curtis will do his best and receive fewer votes than last time because there are more players in the game.
Bloomberg spent millions and millions, bought the Republican and Independence parties and won. Walden can’t and will not.
The so-called “progressive” movement owned now by the Democratic Socialists has given us just enough of government – they are well represented on the City Council – to indicate that not knowing how to govern is not a plus.
Winning elections is always impressive. Failing after winning is something else again.
The Republican Party in New York barely exists.
The Democratic Party has lost its meaning and few Democrats in New York or nationally seem to know what to do about it.
That will change in time but for the moment New York must do better in many, many areas to be New York again. It is not what it was and New Yorkers know it. The choice is to be better or lose more people. There are 100,000 fewer children in its public schools…most families leaving during Covid.
Our current leadership reflects the holes in that bucket. We must find and support genuine leadership every time we find it…no matter the personalities involved.