Dems and Dumber

Trump Makes His "Luck"

Yesterday, June 24, was a big hot mess of a moment in New York—and probably one of the most successful days of Trump’s presidency. Zohran Mamdani, a socialist who believes in “global intifada” and a host of silly programs, won the Democratic mayoral primary. Now, every single Democrat in the country will have to decide whether to support him or not…or weasel out—the worst option—by saying, “I don’t live in New York” or some such thing. Trump and his gang will be pleased as punch. Meanwhile, NATO issued a puling statement praising Trump and vowing to meet his 5% defense budget goals. (It remains to be seen if the US, which currently spends less than 4% will comply). And Iran appeared to have caved—for the moment—as well. It seems Trump may get away with his one-and-done bombing gambit, however successful it may or may not have been.

Let’s talk New York first: it was a metaphor for the current state of the Democratic Party, a choice between socialism and zombie-establishmentarianism. It will be said by profundity-seeking pundits that the left-wing of the Democratic Party has all the juice right now. Yes, yes, but compared to what? The moderate establishment offers polenta, as Mario Cuomo once suggested. In this case, stale polenta, Mario’s son: Andrew. The general election will offer another socialism v. zombie-establishment match: Zohran Mamdani v. Eric Adams, who has presided over the city vaguely, while indulging illegal benificences from the country of Turkey and partying harder than necessary.

Cuomo was gracious in his defeat. Mamdani had run a very good campaign, he said. I would say: The Duke and the Dauphin, the famous grifters in Huckleberry Finn, also ran brilliant campaigns—until they were caught. Mamdani, aside from his vile and comprehensive anti-Zionism, offered a rent freeze, free bus transport and government-run grocery stores.

Let’s look at the latter: Historically, the most successful grocery stores in New York were family-run by new immigrants, first the Italians and more recently the Koreans. There was a reason for that: everybody in the family was willing to work 24/7 for whatever pittance of a profit they could snag, without the hindrance of wage or assorted workplace regulations. They worked for the future: the Balduccis, Gristedes, DeCiccos and others built supermarkets from fruit stands. There are Koreans in medical school now because their parents slaved for them and sold the very best quality stuff in their stores. The fruit and vegetable stands of New York are Exhibit A in the American Dream, achieved.

Momdani’s thesis—ancient and wrong—is that if you cut out the middle-man, the wholesalers and such, groceries will be offered at cheaper prices. This is the socialist fallacy. Any number of myopic-lefties will cite local food coops in university towns, run by volunteers. Very crunchy, but dependent on the idealism of young people, which is transitory. Absent the profit motive, what actually will happen is that excellence of service and product will vanish. Government employees will run the stores; in New York that will mean public employees unions will preside—with strict hours and work rules and wages. There will be no—zero—incentive to serve the customer who arrives at the end of shift, or mop the floor whenever it’s needed (in New York, the janitors have negotiated the amount of times they’re required to mop the floor). Failure, a massive waste of money—and the departure from the city of every middle class person with a bicycle—will ensue.

You’ve seen the utter failure of left-wing mayors in places like San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. The teachers union mayor of Chicago is chugging along with popularity ratings of less than 20%. New York already is run for the benefit of its employees, not its citizens. I can’t wait to see how Mamdani handles the crumble when ideology rubs up against reality.

Meanwhile, Trump thrives. NATO has swooned for him. He has appeared strong, fearless and able to steer public attention away from TACO moments on tariffs and brutal immigration raids. Just look at how the Democratic establishment has responded to the Iran attacks. It is best provided by Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the New York Times: He hopes the bunkers were busted, but spends most of his space talking about all the things that might go wrong. I can niggle some of his points, but this is the voice of responsible statesmanship. I have a question, though: Where is the WOW? Where is the happiness—the joy—over a remarkable military feat. We don’t know how successful the raid was. An initial intelligence assessment says, not very. But no one knows what happened under the ground yet. And the confidence and pride of the Iranians, and their room to maneuver, have been crushed by the Israelis. They are certainly acting no mas this week. They may be foolish enough to try to revive what’s left of their program, and their military, especially their air defenses and their nuclear program. They’ve been stupid like that in the past. But they’re going to think twice before they take on Israel/US in the future. We’ll see. Meanwhile, Trump celebrates…and the world sees that America can act in a restrained, but powerful way. You think the Chinese didn’t notice? We may, at times, be a stupid tiger, but not quite a paper one. Tom Friedman, as usual, offers the case for measured optimism in an insightful column. But measured optimism is simply not in the Democrats’ playbook.

Again, it’s strength v. weakness. I am not saying the Democrats should be warmongers, but their reflexive anti-military reaction is just too predictable, and intellectually slovenly, and boring. The Democrats fluster and fester. They are unable to use the words American and Greatness in tandem, even when it is justified—with some exceptions like Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who was pretty terrific on CNN.

I remember being young. sort of. I remember my passion…and the accessibility of easy answers. I understand the excitement someone like Zhoran Mamdani can summon on the party’s spritely young left (even if they are an increasingly small component of their demographic cohort). And a part of me would say, “Ok AOC and Zohran, give it your best shot in 2028,” if it weren’t for the fact that the alternative is so dreadful.

As for Trump, he should learn a lesson from this: military success is ephemeral. It may capture the headlines for a few days—and it may cause substantive readjustments in how the world sees us—but it will be a distant memory soon enough. The Brits tossed Winston Churchill right after he won World War II in favor of a thuggish socialism that clobbered British enterprise for 30 years.

I remember congratulating George H.W. Bush on his Gulf War success. An over-enthusiastic editor plastered the headline, “President for Life” on it. Bush turned out to be President only for another couple of years, the Gulf War very much forgotten. Bill Clinton moved the Democratic Party toward the people—tougher on crime, on welfare reform, on balanced budgets—and trampled the history of that Famous Victory. He was far more energetic than Bush, which counts.

It is important for Democrats to find the American people once more. They will not want commissars running grocery stores. They will not support “intifada” in any way, shape or form—though the Israelis have been outrageously sinful in their assault on Gaza. Americans don’t want illegal immigrants—for the moment, until they realize how valuable those folks are. But they certainly don’t want illegal immigrants brutalized. They do not want race-based preferences. And, with the Supreme Court, they certainly don’t want sex change operations on offer to minors.

There are Democrats out there—Auchincloss, Elissa Slotkin, Josh Shapiro, Mikie Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger and Wes Moore—who understand this. There are far too many, though, who do not. I am no longer amazed by this, just disgusted.