Corporate leaders rolled over to Zohran Mamdani's rise when they should have tried to stop him

New York Post

4 hours ago

The calls began literally the minute The Post ran a headline Monday morning that Zohran Mamdani, the noxiously anti-Israel, socialist, lucky sperm kid, somehow found himself polling ahead of Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary for mayor.
'That poll can't be right, or is it?' was the question I kept getting from some top business types, both those located here and others who have major operations in the city.
They may not be crazy about Cuomo (his sharp elbows as governor still sting), but they fear that a loon many times worse than incompetent comrade Bill de Blasio is on the verge of running Gotham.
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Yes, I explained, Mamdami might win, and if he does, you only have yourself to blame.
The simple fact is that the city's business community (with some exceptions) is the most politically neutered class of people I have ever met.
They occupy the Wall Street c-suites, they own real estate empires and a lot more so they have money — tons of it. They should have power since they have lobbyists and campaign cash to spread around and influence politicians.
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And yet they have done nothing as the Democratic Party moves so far to the left that the epicenter of finance and free markets could be on the verge of a Trotskyite takeover.
There are exceptions.
New York-based Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman is a true patriot for standing up to the leftward drift of his former party, voting for President Trump and using social media to address all things woke.
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The great entrepreneur and businessman, John Catsimatidis, is a true New Yorker, having made his fortune here, and he never hesitates to speak his mind. He owns Red Apple Group, the holding company for WABC, where non woke, free thinking flourishes (full disclosure: I'm a regular guest).
I asked John why he's such an anomaly. His response was what you might expect from a self-made man born in Greece and spent his youth working at the family grocery store in West Harlem: 'These guys never learned to be tough. We raised a lot of people in the last 20 years that tiptoe through the tulips.'
I then asked Kathryn Wylde, president of the city's largest business group, the Partnership of New York City, why John is such an anomaly and most of her members are so weak in repelling the likes of Mamdani.
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She says if you run a business you have a lot to lose taking on the freaks in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Trumpism is ascendant for now but certainly not on a state level. If Mamdani wins, he is mayor and there is a fairly large regulatory apparatus he controls. Better to acquiesce and hope for the best.
She also claimed it would be counterproductive — business opposition fuels Mamdani supporters.
But here was an alternative for the business bros. Why didn't every major bank and real estate firm in this city, through ad spends and social media postings, point out the obvious downsides of this guy's loony policies — socializing grocery stores, $30 minimum wage, taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery, decriminalizing nearly every crime, globalizing the Intifada — and explain what they would mean for average people in this city and the country.
As in more job losses, higher taxes, crime, and disorder.
Who knows, they might just change things around here instead of acting like lambs to the slaughterhouse.