In 1991, the Republican Party faced a daunting challenge. A former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, had made it to the final runoff in the Louisiana governor’s race as a Republican, leveraging that state’s unique “jungle primary” system. His runoff opponent was the former Democrat governor, and notoriously corrupt, Edwin Edwards.
Republicans worked feverishly to disavow Duke, who ultimately lost to Edwards by over twenty points through a broad coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans. A major slogan from that campaign resonated: “Vote for the Crook: It’s Important!” New Yorkers should dust off those old campaign signs and plant them across the city’s streets to stop self-declared socialist and presumptive Democrat nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani of Queens, by re-electing Mayor Eric Adams, despite allegations of his past corruption.
Republicans might hope to hang Mamdani as an albatross around the neck of Democrats across the nation, similar to how Democrats and the media have tried the same with Duke over the years, despite his loss. However, whatever short-term political benefit Mamdani may hold for Republicans nationally, a victory in New York for a candidate who believes the government can and should run grocery stores would normalize a form of radicalism unprecedented in the modern American era.
Mamdani’s animosity towards capitalism, and his call to “seize the means of production,” a Communist revolutionary battle cry, should be enough to halt all New Yorkers in their tracks, no matter how frustrated they may be with inflation and the ineptitude of the Democrat Party establishment. If not, there’s even more to Mamdani’s madness.
The socialist from Queens has embraced open borders, taxpayer funded city bus service, transgender surgeries (including for minors), and child care, along with government price controls, a thirty dollar an hour minimum wage, wealth confiscation, and a property tax plan aimed at punishing white people. Such proposals would be comically absurd if they weren’t so vile and dangerous, not to mention a stark indictment of higher education in general, and Mamdani’s alma mater, Bowdoin, in particular.
Indeed, one must go to a liberal arts college or graduate school to embrace such lunacy, as evidenced by Mamdani beating his number one primary opponent, former governor Andrew Cuomo, by roughly 30 points among the higher “educated,” while losing by nearly as much to those without an advanced degree. However, the young college educated electorate that catapulted Mamdani to victory in the primary will look different in the general election. Older and less progressive New Yorkers will make up a larger share of the vote, and could block his election.
Compounding his economic illiteracy, Mamdani wants to partially replace police officers with social workers in what he calls a “Department of Community Safety,” a proposal that mirrors the radical “defund the police” movement. Such a concept will inevitably lead to an explosion in violent crime not seen since the early 1990s, when the city endured over 2,000 homicides a year, compared to just under 380 in 2024. Mamdani has already expressed support for closing local jails and opposition to enforcing quality-of-life crimes like turnstile jumping in the subway, a clear recipe for lawlessness.
The economic and public safety vision Mamdani offers will only accelerate the flight of human and financial capital from New York, a trend already underway. Like it or not, without Wall Street, the city’s tax base will collapse. And with his disastrous rent control policies, Mamdani will exacerbate the lack of affordable housing as developers follow investors and flee the city.
Mamdani’s tacit embrace of “globalize the intifada,” a terrorist dog whistle if there ever was one, is enough to disqualify him from running a bodega, let alone City Hall. When coupled with his vision for neutering the NYPD, Jewish New Yorkers in particular should brace themselves for a level of targeted violence never before seen in the city’s history. The pogrom that was allowed to run wild in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights under then-Mayor David Dinkins is but a taste of what is potentially coming.
Unlike Louisiana in 1991, when Republicans across the spectrum repudiated the candidacy of a former Klansman, today’s Democrat leadership is at least tentatively embracing the ambitions of a budding Communist. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the U.S. Senate, and House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, also of New York, have spoken positively of Mamdani without offering a full endorsement yet.
No endorsement should ever be forthcoming. Socialism is antithetical to the American way of life and its growth within the Democrat Party is a cancer that must be eradicated before it metastasizes. Unfortunately, a profile in courage through an endorsement of Mayor Adams is unlikely among those Democrats, since Mamdani may well represent the future of the party, particularly in large urban centers across the nation, an absolutely chilling thought.
While New Yorkers are rightfully frustrated with the affordability of just about everything, a charlatan promising free stuff while embracing anti-American radicalism will only push the city into the abyss. Instead, New Yorkers should do the country a favor and vote for the crook: it’s that important!
