I Suspect Jude Russo Has the NYC Mayoral Situation Nailed

In comments on another post, one of the anonymous trolls (probably the only anonymous troll, but he uses different names) makes a bet:

I bet you support the Muslim communist for NYC mayor.

My response:

Then you just lost a bet. I don't support anyone for NYC mayor. I don't live in NYC and take little interest in their local politics. But if I did live in NYC, I wouldn't vote in the Democratic primary or vote for the Democratic candidate.

I didn't follow the race in any detail, but apparently the outcome was wildly discomfiting to both the Democratic Party establishment and the GOP.

"Muslim communist" Zohran Mamdani defeated disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo, who may or may not continue running on some other ticket.

Incumbent mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent after he got caught taking bribes and worked out another bribe -- federal prosecutors would drop the charges if he'd harness the city government to advance the Trump immigrant abduction agenda.

I'm sure there are other candidates, but the only one I've noticed is Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a perennial GOP sacrificial lamb in NYC mayoral races.

Anyway, over at The American Conservative, Jude Russo observes:

A New York mayor has to do only four things well to be considered a winner: don’t mess with the public schools; keep the subway basically safe and in basically good repair; support the police as they crack down on sickos and crooks, even when that entails a little light brutality; and keep the city solvent. ... Mamdani seems in large part to define himself by opposing the Four-Point Way for mayors laid out above.

Sounds about right.

I've spent a total of one day in NYC, not counting short airport layovers. Outside the very bare basics, I'm simply not familiar with the city's Byzantine politics/governance. But given the city's history and Mamdani's self-identification as a "democratic socialist," I can confidently predict that if he's elected mayor, the voters who elect him will soon regret their decision.

Of course, I strongly suspect they'd regret electing Cuomo or re-electing Adams as well. The primary consequence of politics is societal dysfunction and NYC's local politics makes a great Exhibit A toward proving that charge.