Freedom - Not Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
The New York City Democratic Mayoral primary last Tuesday should send chills down the spine of every freedom loving American. CBS projected about a third of registered Democratic voters turned out and, though it will take until July 1 for the city to release the first “ranked-choice” results, 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani had nearly 44% of the vote on election night. New York City uses a complicated system called ranked-choice voting that allows voters to select up to 5 candidates and “rank order” them from most preferred to least preferred. If no candidate gets more than 50% on the first vote, the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped and all of the 2nd choice votes for that candidate get distributed. This process continues until a candidate receives more than 50% and is declared the winner. There were 7 candidates in Tuesday’s primary and Mamdani’s lead was so compelling that Andrew Cuomo, the former New York Governor who left office in disgrace and was attempting a comeback as Mayor, conceded the election on Tuesday night.
Zohran Mamdani is an immigrant from Uganda who lived in Cape Town, South Africa. He moved with his parents to New York when he was 7. His father is a Professor at Columbia University and his mother is an Indian filmmaker. Mamdani received a Bachelor’s Degree in “Africana Studies” from Bowdoin College in Maine. Prior to pursuing a political career, he worked as a “foreclosure prevention and housing counselor” and a rapper. He has been a member of the New York State Assembly since 2020 and is a self-described Democratic Socialist. In the race for Mayor, Mamdani is endorsed by prominent Democratic liberals Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders. He is a real-life example of a liberal extremist trying to fundamentally change our country.
Mamdani is running on a platform of “affordability”, promising to freeze rent, and provide New Yorkers free bus service, universal free child care, and city owned and subsidized grocery stores. He wants to raise the minimum wage to $30/hour. The plan to pay for free stuff for everyone is to tax the rich, which can only be done by the state lawmakers with approval from the Governor. Governor Kathy Hochul has already nixed the idea because it will drive even more New Yorkers to low tax states like Florida, an exodus they are already experiencing.
If elected Mamdani would be the first Muslim Mayor of New York City. He is facing numerous accusations of antisemitism and, though he denies them, journalist Mark Halperin who is usually very reliable in his reporting, says a great deal of damaging opposition research is about to drop providing evidence that will be impossible to refute.
The race for New York’s Mayor is far from over. The winner of the ranked-choice primary vote will be on the ballot as the Democratic candidate in November. Eric Adams, the current Democratic Mayor who is embroiled in his own controversies, opted to be on the ballot as an Independent rather than risk losing the Democratic primary. There will be a Republican on the ballot and Andrew Cuomo has not ruled out running as an Independent in November.
Tuesday’s result has the national Democratic Party, already leaderless and wandering in the wilderness, stunned. They do not want to accept Zohran Mamdani as the new face of the Party. Republicans are thrilled and will be doing all they can to make sure Mamdani is seen as the new face of the Democrats. In a city that reliably votes Democratic, Eric Adams is happy to be (presumably) competing against Mamdani instead of Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa is hopeful that even he may have a chance, given Trump’s gains in New York in 2024.
We do know this. A charismatic 33-year-old, who is totally unqualified for the position of Chief Executive in a city with nearly 8.3 million people and a $16 billion budget, told enough people what they wanted to hear to shatter all expectations in the New York Democratic primary. If in November he is declared the winner of the New York Mayor’s race, an outcome inconceivable to any rationale observer, it will be absolutely critical that the election can be verified as accurately reflecting the will of the people. Election verifiability is the only path to voter acceptance of election results that make no sense to them. This is an important lesson to bring home to Wisconsin.
Leaderless in Wisconsin
According to anonymous members of the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, there is a movement underway to oust Chairman Brian Schimming for poor performance. Poor performance is apparently insufficient fundraising and losses in the two most recent state Supreme Court races to liberal candidates. Schimming confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he received a call from an Executive Committee member “suggesting to me that a majority of the Board is asking for my resignation” but countered that he had received “calls of support” from around the state and added that “support from Republicans across Wisconsin was in evidence at our successful state convention last month”.
Two weeks ago, every person on the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s mail list received a personal “handwritten” note from State Chairman Brian Schimming telling them that “If we put our winning team from last year back together, we will win tough races next year”. The note went on to say the really tough part will be to get the ball rolling now because we cannot afford to wait until next year. I was surprised to learn that I am “one of our most generous and loyal donors” and “every victory we have earned is a direct result of your support”. I have never given a penny to the Republican Party of Wisconsin other than the $25 it cost me to become a member. All of this lavish praise was followed with the big ask and some fearmongering about how the Democrats will try to block Trump’s agenda and how much money they will raise in pursuit of that goal. “We don’t need to match them” the note continued. “If each of us does our part Wisconsin will once again be the state that delivers yet another stunning conservative victory”.
Brian Schimming is fully aware that the greatest threat to our freedom is the unverifiability of Wisconsin’s elections due to more than 4 million names of ineligible voters on the Wisconsin Election Commission’s Registered Voter List. At the Party Convention he presided over last month, a resolution was unanimously passed demanding that the state legislators require that the Registered Voter List contain only the names of currently eligible voters. Not once has Schimming spoken publicly about this threat to election integrity and I personally witnessed him rebuff a convention goer who wanted to discuss the issue with him. He should be one of the loudest voices in the state calling for this to be corrected.
There are fewer than 18 months until the midterms and cheating will be the method of choice to secure Democratic wins in the state if our elections cannot be verified. Brian Schimming does have to go. But so does every state legislator, local elected official and Republican Party official at every level who is not making as much noise as possible to force the changes necessary for election integrity. The silence has been deafening. It’s time for us to insist that those who want to lead the conservative movement make election verifiability their highest priority.
The American people were treated last week to what real leadership looks like. It is authentic, capable, strong, and focused. And nearly non-existent within our political and government systems which are filled with pretenders and wannabes. Donald Trump provided the stark contrast between the dishonesty and inertia we are typically subjected to and impactful leadership that produces results. We can (and should) use it as a catalyst to ignite the fire in the belly of the electorate to replace those who have been corrupted by money and power with those who will represent and respond to the will of the people. Now is the time to seriously disrupt the status quo.
In the 1970’s we thought it was cool when Janis Joplin sang “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…” We were wrong. We have everything to lose.