Havana on the Hudson - Part 2

The Democrats had a great election night winning in New Jersey, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania and Georgia; Donald Trump and the Republicans had a terrible night as voters, especially Latinos, suffered from buyers’ remorse over their votes in 2024; and New York City, especially its large Jewish community, had a horrible night with the election Zohran Mamdani, the antisemitic socialist as mayor. With Mamdani’s plans to build socialism in New York, the city is now further down the road to becoming Havana on the Hudson. (See: https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2025/06/havana-on-hudson.html )

 

Mamdani plans called for a rent freeze, a massive public housing program, free childcare, free buses, city owned grocery stores, handcuffing the police, $30/hour minimum wage, and much higher taxes on businesses and high-income New Yorkers. For much of this he needs legislative action from Albany. Although most believe that action will not be forthcoming, you can’t count on the wimpy Democrats on holding firm against him. They could very well cave.

 

Mamdani’s program more than anything else is focused on reducing New York’s high rents. Building more apartments will certainly help, but that will not bring relief in the short run, and a rent freeze will actually raise rents on city’s non-rent-controlled apartments. Indeed, the only way Mamdani could lower rents would be for the city to return to hellhole it was in the 1970’s with crime running rampant. Although Mamdani said he would reappoint Jessica Tisch, the highly regarded police commissioner, they have yet to speak and one wonders what Tisch’s conditions would be for her to stay. In a straw in the wind Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker resigned today over Mamdani’s severe anti-Israel stance.

 

For those Jews who are complacent about Mamdani, I would warn them the Mamdani is anti-Israel to his core. Anti-Zionism is what got him into politics in the first place. My question is with Mamdani as mayor, who will protect the Jewish community from street and subway attacks and the defacement of synagogues which actually started last night?

 

Mamdani is no joke, this TikTok Jacobin will have real power and for those with the means it might just make sense to leave the city before it is too late.

When Will the Democrats Ever Learn*

 

From Virginia to New Jersey to Long Island to Minneapolis to Seattle the Democrats got shellacked in Tuesday’s voting. They forgot that America is primarily a centrist country and that they only have bare majorities in the House and Senate. Simply put, even as I write this, they are over-reaching in their attempts to pass the Build Back Better reconciliation bill in the House. They do not understand that you cannot rewrite America’s social contract with bare majorities; they need the majorities that FDR and LBJ put together in 1933 and 1964, respectively. Further Biden was elected to stop the craziness of Trump, not to usher in an overarching expansion of the welfare state. (See my Open Letter to President Biden Shulmaven: An Open Letter to President Joe Biden)

 

On a more local level the Democrats have forgotten the role of engaged parents in the education of their children. Although technically Critical Race Theory was not taught in Virginia’s schools, many of the aspects of the theory are being taught. It is obvious if you accuse all white people of being inherently racist, perhaps more than a few would be turned away and that is precisely what happened in Virginia. And it is understood that “defund the police” is an absolute loser.

 

If the Democrats are going to have a chance to hold their slender majorities in Congress next year, they are going to have to abandon the crazy town ideas of the “woke” left. The Squad and their acolytes live in very insular worlds. If they ever ventured out into the real world, they would realize how off-putting their ideas are. As long as Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer cozy up to them, the Democrats will be in a world of hurt in 2022. Better they should heed the words of Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

*With apologies to Pete Seeger

 

Donald the Destroyer

The Republicans are reaping what they sowed by getting into bed with Donald Trump in 2016. Simply put Donald Trump is systematically destroying the Republican Party. In Virginia a weak Democratic gubernatorial candidate won by 9 points and perhaps more importantly the Democrats wiped out a 36 seat Republican majority in the Virginia House of Delegates. In New Jersey the Republican leaders (Kean and Bramnick) in the legislature were reelected by unusually close margins and local Republican officials went down across the state as the Democrats reclaimed the governorship from Chris Christie's failed regime. And in New York the Republican County Executive lost his job in Westchester County.

What last night's election showed is that Donald Trump is not playing in the wealthy suburbs of of Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia. His very unpresidential behavior against a backdrop of removing the state and local tax deductions and his opposition to gun control means that across America's suburbs the Republicans tied to Trump are going to lose big next year and no matter how artful the district maps were drawn the Democratic Party is now the odds-on favorite to take the House of Representatives in 2018. Thus instead of being its savior Donald Trump has become the destroyer of the Republican Party.

Chris Christie's Temper Tantrum

Chris Christie proved himself to be Donald Trump's soulmate. They are both schoolyard bullies who if they can't have their own way they go off on their own. What Christie was saying with his endorsement of Trump today is that I if I couldn't take him, I am going to try my best that the rest of the Republican field can't take him down either, especially Marco Rubio. For whatever reason Christie can't stand Marco Rubio. Be that as it may, today Christie found his inner spoiled child.

Another reason is that Christie can't wait top get out of New Jersey. It is fast becoming a failed state like Illinois. He won't be Trump's VEEP, but he is certainly angling to be his attorney general. I would hope that voters see through all of this and give Trump the licking he so well deserves on Super Tuesday. I know this may be the triumph of hope over experience, but one can always hope.

Letter to the Star Ledger, December 1

The article “State’s corporate tax subsidies don’t pay off,” (Nov. 27) is absolutely correct in arguing that taxpayers pay a high price to generate a few jobs.

However, the author is wrong when she says the tax subsidies should be used instead to pay for more government.

If New Jersey is to make some headway in solving our unemployment crisis, it would be far better to lower all corporate taxes and lighten the regulatory burden on business.

It is no accident that New Jersey lagged behind in the past decade as years of Democratic administration policies exacted their toll.

David Shulman

"Spending controls are key," Letter to the Star Ledger, July 6

I wish Paul Mulshine would get off his Proposition 13 fixation. (“California dreaming on property taxes,” July 4). To be sure, New Jersey’s property taxes are way too high, but a Proposition 13-like solution is not the answer. I lived in California in 1978, the year Proposition 13 passed, and authored two academic articles (National Tax Journal and Southern California Law Review) on the subject.

Mulshine neglects two fatal flaws in Proposition 13. First, two identical houses standing side-by-side can and are taxed at substantially different levels. For example, it is not unusual to have one house taxed at $3,000 and another at $10,000 depending on the initial purchase price. Second, with property taxes cut back, California over-relies on volatile income taxes to fund public services. That is why the state is subject to periodic budget crises as flush times bring with them runaway spending that has to be cut back when an economic downturn causes a collapse in income tax receipts. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The real solution is spending control at all levels of government. The compromise agreement announced over the weekend is a good start, but no real reform is possible without significant reductions in pension and health care benefits for public employees.

Full URL:http://blog.nj.com/ledgerletters/2010/07/new_jersey_property_tax_cap_wo.html

Letter to the Star-Ledger, Nov. 1

Can’t spend anymore
Is Tom Moran out of his mind ("More state debt or more open space, what’s a voter to do?" Oct. 28)? A "No" vote on open-space bonds is a no-brainer. New Jersey, by any common sense definition, is bankrupt. We are California without the climate. Thanks to the combined efforts of past and present governors, the state is no position to borrow another nickel, much less $400 million.
Sorry folks, Trenton’s big spending party is over.