Jerry Nadler Beats Carolyn Maloney in East Germany’s Primary – WSJ

August 25 | Posted by mrossol | Democrat Party, Law, Policing, The Left

Source: Jerry Nadler Beats Carolyn Maloney in East Germany’s Primary – WSJ

New Yorkers spent Tuesday evening switching channels from the “subway series” between the Yankees and the Mets and the “limousine liberal series” between Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney to win New York’s 12th Congressional District.

By the time the Yankees completed their two-game sweep of the Mets, it was clear Mr. Nadler had retired Ms. Maloney from politics with a surprisingly easy win. Tuesday’s vote and events of the past two weeks have revealed a lot about the political realities of New York City.

For 30 years, Mr. Nadler has represented Manhattan’s West Side, which a friend of mine once likened to living in East Germany. Ms. Maloney, also a 30-year fixture, represented the real limousine liberals in the co-op canyon neighborhoods of the Upper East Side.

The state’s Democrats made an over-the-top try earlier this year to gerrymander the state’s political map to all but obliterate New York’s Republican congressional delegation. But a judge tossed it out and the map redrawn by a court-appointed specialist hilariously forced Mr. Nadler and Ms. Maloney to compete for the 12th District. It was like making Tweedledum run against Tweedledee.

The campaign was something out of Monty Python, with Ms. Maloney pushing her pro-abortion credentials by saying “you cannot send a man to do a woman’s job.” Mr. Nadler ran as Donald Trump’s impeachment tormenter.

Adding to the entertainment, Mr. Trump himself belly-slammed into the campaign in its final week. Taking time away from the FBI’s invasion of his Mar-a-Lago estate, Mr. Trump posted a sham endorsement of Ms. Maloney and mock praise for Mr. Nadler. Jerry Nadler, Mr. Trump said, is “high energy, sharp, quick-witted, and bright,” but “Carolyn Maloney is the better man.” Carolyn, he wrote, “has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

New Yorkers could use a laugh. The grim East German analogy isn’t so far-fetched. New York City is now a far-left, one-party state if measured by election outcomes. Though a city of more than eight million (and that number is falling), almost no one bothers to vote. Turnout Tuesday was about 8%. That is why four Democratic Socialists in the city won their primaries for the state’s Senate.

In a burst of hope over political reality last year, the New Yorkers who live in the city’s poorest neighborhoods got law-and-order candidate Eric Adams elected mayor. But a series of recent crimes are a case study in the perils of one-party rule, especially when that party represents progressivism’s see-no-evil ideology.

On Aug. 11, a subway cleaner was brutally beaten after he intervened against a man harassing women. That’s not news. Subway assaults are routine. The news was that the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Janno Lieber, and the subway workers’ union felt compelled to convene a press conference, pleading with the Bronx district attorney to enforce a law that would ban the attacker from the subways for three years. The injured worker’s sister said she hopes the attacker gets “the max.” He won’t. The minimum is progressivism’s goal.

The next day, video near a restaurant caught a muscular man sucker-punching another man, leaving him in a coma. Initially, the man was charged with attempted murder, but progressive Bronx prosecutors downgraded the charge to misdemeanor assault and harassment. The alleged perpetrator walked free without bail.

After the New York Post publicized this travesty, Gov. Kathy Hochul—who has mocked calls by Mayor Adams to reform the state’s no-bail laws as a “political slogan”—claimed she intervened with the Bronx district attorney to reinstate more-serious charges. The victim’s niece, Daisy Gomez, said to the Post of his attacker, “We want him behind bars and to do time—not like five years, more than that.”

Again, small chance. The district attorney knows that Gov. Hochul’s intervention was cynical and meaningless, an attempt to offset criticism by her Republican gubernatorial challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island. Gov. Hochul has the authority to fire these district attorneys but won’t, for fear the progressives who carried the city Tuesday would abandon her in November against Mr. Zeldin.

The following day, Aug. 13, a Ghanaian taxi driver who chased five people fleeing their fare in Queens was beaten to death. He was the father of four. This crime also was caught on video for New Yorkers to see on the evening news. Another press conference was held, this one led by the head of the taxi drivers’ union, who said, “Stop considering the rights of the criminals above the rights of the victims.”

In all these public outpourings, with the exception of the MTA chief, the members of the victim’s families or the representatives of the unions and organizations speaking for them are black or Hispanic. They want “the max.”

Their pain has no resonance. Progressive criminal-justice theory has become an ideology of sudden death for minorities at their jobs or walking on a street. The cycle of crime, fear and tears grinds the city down daily.

Mayor Adams has been complaining about the busloads of migrants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is sending to New York, a “sanctuary city.” Sanctuary? From what?

Write henninger@wsj.com.

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