Mamdani: Trotsky in New York

The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democrat primary for the NYC mayoral nominaton is not

as surprising as most people think. His major opponent was the unemployed former governor

of the Empire State, the disgraced Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo, the thrice elected governor

resigned under fire after numerous employees of the Executive Chamber of New York, subordinate to Cuomo, complained of unwanted sexual advances by their boss, the governor. Despite his continual denials, he resigned due to overwhelming public and political pressure. Since then, New York State has paid out millions of dollars in settlements with Cuomo's

accusers and has paid millions more in legal fees for him. These expenditures are of no benefit

to the taxpayers. His record is questionable. After he graduatd from law school, he had a lucrative legal pracice representing numerous NYC banks at mortgage closings, with his fees paid by borrowers who never hired him but were forced to pay these fees by the lending banks. The politically connected firm, Blutrich, Falcone and Miller had 28 year old Andrew as a partner

and did extensive lobbying and representing private interests before the state. Donald Trump was one of the firm's clients. It didn't hurt that the governor was Andrew's father, Mario M. Cuomo. Later on, Andrew graduated to the post of Secretary of Housing and Urban

Development (HUD) under President Bill Clinton. During his tenure as HUD Secretary,

immense pressure from the administration to broaden home ownershp led Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, government sponsored mortgage loan agencies, to promote sub-prime

mortgages. This well intemded program exploded in 2008 leading to a nationwide mortgage default crisis and near real estate collapse which spread to Wall Street and bank failures.

Teflon Bill and Andrew escaped without a word of blame. Andrew then went on to serve as

New York's attorney general and governor. He, as governor, supported bail-less release of accused criminals and the placement of covid victims into nursing homes leading to an untold number of deaths. He topped off his gubernatorial tenure by "writing" a book on his

management of the covid pandemic in New York; numerous state employees devoted state

paid time to the writing of this manuscript which earned a multi-million dollar payday for the governor. With this background, Andrew relocated to New York City to seek the mayoralty. Not remembering his own history, but more importantly not remembering what happened to

another former governor who was forced to resign, doomed his candidacy. Eliot Spitzer

resigned as governor in 2008 after a prostitution scandal. Spitzer sought forgiveness and redemption as he ran in the Democrat primary for NYC comptroller in 2013. He narrowly lost to

Scott Stringer who went on to win the general election. The voters were not as forgiving as he

had hoped. Former Governor Cuomo suffered the same fate in his recent primary bid.

Considering Andrew Cuomo's baggage and the unforgiving electorate, it is not surprising that

a "progressive" poltician bested him in the primary election. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic

socialist assemblyman from Astoria (Queens), supported and endorsed by the Working Families Party won the Democrat primary for Mayor. The interference of the Working Families Party in

the primary of another party is scandalous and outrageous. It is an example of the political

phenomenon called "entryism". That is the infiltration of a larger organization by a smaller

group of activists who by dent of their showing up, participating and being active, manage to

take over the larger organization. This is what is happening to the Democrat Party in NYC, and

is in danger of happening to the state party. Chuck Schumer, NY senior senator and

Democrat leader in the US Senate will certainly face a democratic socialist opponent the next time he is up for election. Despite various machinations to induce independent candidates to withdraw from the November general election for Mayor, Mamdani is the favorite due to the

overwhelming Democrat majority in New York City and the above described baggage of his leading competitor, Andew Cuomo.

The idea of "entryism" was discussed in two previous posts on this website, namely,

October 27, 2024 and June 30, 2025. The reader is referred to these posts which discuss the origins of "entryism" and the attempt by Leon Trotsky and his followers to take over the French Socialist Party in the 1930s. Mamdani's advocating "globalize the intifada" is reminiscent of Trotsky's call for world revolution. Of course, Mamdani's efforts right now are directed towards winning November's general election and he is moderating his positions and moving to the center to calm those who feel threatend by his radical left talk. After he wins, however, he will certainly return to his true beliefs. One can conclude that the Democrat Party faces a serious political challenge and that it urgently must react. Andrew Cuomo is not the answer. It may be too late for NYC.

Garry S. Sklar

Guttenberg, NJ

September 9,2025