By Cliff Kincaid
Those who think the Republican Party is on the ascendancy should take a hard look at New York City, the nation’s financial capital, and the base of operations for global capitalism. Raising the white flag of surrender, top Republicans like President Trump and conservative billionaire John Catsimatidis want the Republican in the mayor’s race to drop out so voters can choose between a corrupt former governor and a Marxist/Muslim.
I do not understand how this furthers public acceptance of conservatism on a local or national basis. Whatever happened to “Fight, Fight, Fight?”
I thought part of Charlie Kirk’s legacy was walking into the lion’s den to confront and educate the other side about conservative values. How do you do that if you drop out?
What the president does not understand is the appeal of the “communist,” a Muslim by the name of Zohran Mamdani, and why the other Democrat in the race, Andrew Cuomo, is a loser who is going to lose again because he is tainted by corruption.
Mamdani is going to win and the Republicans better come up with an answer, other than labeling him a communist and a Muslim.
Cuomo’s answer is that Mamdani has no administrative experience, but Cuomo resigned under fire, facing charges of sexual harassment and killing old folks through his COVID policies. Cuomo ought to be in jail.
If Mamdani is such a threat, and there is evidence he is directly linked to the Shia religious ideology that governs Iran, the better solution is to arrest and deport him. But I doubt the Republicans in the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice and the FBI have the guts to do that.
So they cower on the sidelines and throw their support to Cuomo.
I find Trump’s behavior in this race mystifying because Republican populist candidate Curtis Sliwa’s platform is like that of Trump, only on a local basis. He may lose the race because Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans in the city but going down to defeat with a Trump-style candidate is not necessarily a bad thing. Sliwa is a good man with a forceful and powerful vision for the city who has long been devoted to public safety and believes in the rights of the law-abiding over the criminals.
I thought this was President Trump’s platform.
From a Republican perspective, Sliwa represents what is good and wholesome. He is being criticized for running as a perennial candidate, repeatedly, but so what? That demonstrates his commitment. Trump ran in a crowded field and won. He did not let the Democrats dissuade him. When they rigged the 2020 election and tried to bankrupt and imprison him, he ran again.
The conservative billionaire John Catsimatidis has been on various Fox programs calling for Sliwa to drop out of the race and let Cuomo take on Mamdani one-on-one. That yields the contest to one corrupt candidate against a Marxist-Muslim, offering New York City voters no real choice.
Sliwa offers voters a real choice, just as Charlie Kirk confronted the “progressives” on the college campuses.
Trump can throw around the communist label all he wants but Democrats in the city do not trust Cuomo and want someone who is different. They did not like current Mayor Adams, another Democrat, either, who is now backing Cuomo.
If you talk to Democrats in the city, you quickly realize why Mamdani is such a “fresh face.” It has nothing to do with his communism or Islamism. It has everything to do with the corruption of the mainstream Democratic party.
Cuomo left office as governor under a dark cloud, having sexually harassed many women and having sent COVID-infected patients into old folks’ homes, killing 15,000 people. Then he wrote a book on his “leadership” in the crisis, making $5 million. It is incredible that he thinks he can and should win under these circumstances.
No wonder Democrats picked Mamdani over Cuomo in the primary, prompting Cuomo to run in the general election as an independent.
The current mayor, Eric Adams, is plagued by corruption charges, and the Trump Administration in a curious maneuver dropped its investigation and prosecution of him. There was speculation he would drop out of the race and take a job in the Trump Administration. Instead, he persisted in the race until last week, dropping out and endorsing Cuomo. Still, observers do not think that helps Cuomo much because Mamdani is so different and appealing.
The fact is that Democrats do not think Mamdani’s communism or Islamism is more important than the corruption of the Democrats they have already rejected.
Trump says, “I’d rather a Dem than a communist.” That was the headline in the New York Post over a story about Trump’s preference in the New York City mayor’s race on November 4. He is choosing disgraced Cuomo over Mamdani. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa was completely dismissed by Trump as a serious or legitimate candidate.
What the president does not understand is the appeal of the communist. He is attractive because the Democrats, like Cuomo and Adams, are considered so corrupt.
Another factor is that the cost of living for ordinary people is so high that they are willing to take a chance on a candidate the president of the United States calls a communist. They are not persuaded to vote otherwise by Trump’s name-calling.
Republicans say a Mamdani victory will backfire on the Democrats because he cannot deliver on the free goods and services he is promising. But that is not the plan. As someone who monitors the activities of the socialist/communist Democrats in New York City and covers their conferences, I understand they do not expect Mamdani to succeed but to fail. They will then blame his failures on Trump and the Republicans and of course the billionaires. And that will be attractive to his fellow Democrats, consolidating his position in the party and accelerating his movement as the springboard for the next national Democratic Party presidential candidate.
- Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org
