The only one who offered any serious solutions, instead of corruption or communism, was Curt Sliwa, the sole Republican. Sadly, Sliwa's chances are nothing like what Republicans enjoyed in New York City before and after 9/11. From 1993 to 2001, New Yorkers had given Republican Rudy Giuliani the reins of the largest city in the country. He cracked down on crime, he brought back business, and he restored in New Yorkers a sense of pride for their city.

His successor, media mogul Michael Bloomberg, continued the Giuliani legacy of posh gentility, upscale standards, and moderate liberalism. He focused on crime reduction, prioritizing the best interests of all citizens. Bloomberg routinely rode the subway to work, proving that the stations were safe.

Everything went downhill with Democratic Bill de Blasio. For whatever reason, New Yorkers welcomed a communist to take the mayor's mansion. And yes, he was a communist, a sympathizer of Central American drug lords and dictators. What were New Yorkers thinking? Not much, apparently, as they willfully endured de Blasio's unprecedented permission of crime, corruption, and, of course, communism. And when you allow collectivism of any kind, you see crime and corruption come together in one big conniption of crap.

After Mayor Blah Blah, Gothamites seemed to have learned their lesson, and they elected a former police officer and state senator—and former Republican!—named Eric Adams. He put more emphasis on fighting crime, and he pushed back on some of the wokeness, although not enough. After all, he was still a Democrat when he served as mayor, and he still promoted a whole bunch of the Democrats' major progressive talking points to stay in good graces with the generally liberal hoi polloi. While de Blasio was unkind and contemptible, Adams was personable but relatively incompetent. Of course, corruption issues dogged him, too, but New Yorkers were willing to give someone who was a little less crazy a better chance at governing the city.

Still, Democratic politicians running (or rather, ruining) New York City inevitably unleashed a long subway of failures. They run on pragmatic platforms, but they will cower to all the progressive lobbying and donor groups really running city political machinations. Sure, more common-sense Democrats are getting elected to the city council, but along with their few Republican colleagues, their stalwart opposition to the communistic madness accomplishes very little.