by Frank Holmes, reporter
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wants to bring her socialist revolution to the whole country, but in a rare moment she’s setting her sights a little lower. She wants to start with New York City.
AOC and her political allies plan to win control of its city council in next year’s elections and use it as a platform to defund the police, confiscate homes, and enact the $93 trillion Green New Deal.
The local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) detailed its whole plot in a 13-page strategy paper for turning the Big Apple socialist red.
Next year gives them the perfect opportunity for a citywide takeover: 35 of the 51 city council members are term-limited. With so many open seats, the socialists hope to run candidates like AOC and win city elections—or control the moderate politicians who do.
The socialists threaten to primary everyone who refuses to go along with their anti-police agenda.
The DSA’s “tasks and perspectives” paper says its top issue is stripping police of the resources they need to fight back against angry mobs.
Defunding the police “will be a key issue in the 2021 election cycle,” the group promises. Current council members already voted to cut $1 billion from the police budget—but DSA complains that’s not enough, and the council “merely moved money around.”
To win its endorsement, candidates have to promise to slash the NYPD’s budget by at least $3 billion, or roughly half.
That sounds just like AOC, who said, “Defunding police means defunding police,” or cutting its budget down to zero.
But getting the police out of the way is just part of the DSA’s plan.
The group plans to tighten its control of unions that represent the city’s public workers: the United Federation of Teachers, District Council 37, and the New York State Nurses Association.
If they control those unions, socialists can shut down schools and hospitals if they don’t get their way.
Once in office, the DSA says its newly-elected officials will pass laws that “cancel” rent thanks to the coronavirus.
They have no clue what the health landscape will look like after the 2021 elections, but they admit they’re using the global health crisis as an excuse to bleed landlords dry.
If the owners can’t collect rent, they’ll have to get out of the market—and the city can convert their private property into public housing, Venezuela-style.
The socialists’ plan to have the city rent these properties out and use the money to finance their lavish government programs, like the Green New Deal and a new plan for Canadian-style, single-payer socialized medicine.
But even seizing and renting out every apartment in New York City won’t be enough money to fund their plans, so the group says its members will float a “demand on the state government to tax the rich, putting us directly in the cross hairs of Andrew Cuomo.”
The ultra-liberal governor has continually warned his fellow Democrats that the state is bleeding its citizens, who are leaving and moving to states with lower taxes.
Gov. Cuomo said he personally begs former New York residents, “You got to come back! We’ll go to dinner! I’ll buy you a drink! Come over, I’ll cook!”
Cuomo promises former NYC residents, “We’re going to clean up the graffiti. We’re going to fix crime.” But that will be a lot harder to do with no police force. At least 1.4 million people have left New York state since 2010, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy—and it’s cost the city dearly. New York City already has a $9 billion deficit, an “economic crisis” according to socialist Mayor Bill de Blasio…and Cuomo warns that “raising taxes on the rich” is “the worst thing to do.”
The Democratic Socialists could be a first step for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to make her first big push into national politics. The Bronx congresswoman thought about running for mayor of New York City in the past, and it would help her to control the city council before she walks onto the job. AOC would use Gracie Mansion as a stepping stone to the Senate, and then the White House…that is, if there’s a New York City left. The crime rate has already spiked. Murders in June increased 130 percent over last year and burglaries rose 118 percent. Shootings rose 205 percent since New York City shut down its plainclothes anti-crime unit on June 15. That shouldn’t surprise anybody. Democrat-controlled Minneapolis saw a record-breaking murder rate and violent crime surge 20 percent after it voted to abolish its police force.
Compare that to the tough-on-crime approach of Rudy Giuliani, and continued by Michael Bloomberg. In 1990, there were 2,245 murders in New York City. In 2012, there were 333.
A socialist takeover of the city council, defunding the police, and giving city residents lousy healthcare won’t help the people of New York City—but will let the DSA consolidate its power, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may just export the socialist experiment nationwide from her base in New York City.
If she can make it there, she can make it anywhere.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”