Zohran Mamdanis rise should teach NYCs non-radicals to invest in the long game

Now that tossing $25 million into last-minute spending to promote Andrew Cuomo failed utterly to stop pro-Intifada, anti-cop socialist Zohran Mamdani from winning the Democratic mayoral primary, perhaps New York business leaders will finally realize that political “investment” requires an eye on the long game, and fostering an entire infrastructure that can produce credible centrists candidates.“Crying over Mamdani is, as they say, a bit rich when it comes from the rich,” snarked The Post’s Charles Gasparino, since the “city’s business class sat idly by” as the local left grew ever more powerful.New York magazine’s Errol Louis was even more on-point: “The same people dumping millions into last-minute attack ads should have been investing time and money to recruit, educate, and encourage young leaders.”Dumping a ton of cash in at the last minute can work when it comes to passing or defeating a single bill, or influencing any particular government decision — but altering the political climate requires steady attention and investment.“The city’s business community,” writes Gasparino, “is the most politically neutered class of people I have ever met.”Partly that’s just fear of sticking your neck out; partly that so many think of themselves as “liberal” or “progressive” without ever noticing how drastically the meaning of those labels has shifted; partly the knowledge deep down that they just don’t understand how politics works.And a “go along to get along” mindset in a Democratic Party-dominated city and state has resulted in very little pushback as the hard left came to dominate that party.The political-talent pipeline in this town is no longer about community-based clubhouses; it’s about social-service nonprofits and public-sector unions that feed off the taxpayers on a scale that dwarfs Tammany Hall’s wildest dreams.

Each in his own way, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg were political unicorns — Rudy rising ...