Death by Suicide

On January 27, 1837, a 37-year-old state legislator from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln was invited to speak before the Young Men’s Lyceum, a debating society in Springfield. Lincoln had serious concerns about the direction of the country, particularly the rise of Jacksonian politics that conflicted with some of our founding principles. With the Founding generation fading away and a new generation of leaders taking its place, Lincoln foresaw a dangerous moment for America, a time when overly ambitious politicians might be tempted to skirt the law to advance their own ambitions. Furthermore, Lincoln feared that the rise of mob violence – as evidenced by the recent killing of abolitionist printer Elijah Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob – might threaten the survival of the republic itself.

The assigned topic for that evening’s debate was "The perpetuation of our political institutions". Lincoln chose to emphasize the present generation’s responsibility not only to adhere to the principles that had served America so well since its founding, but also to convey those precepts to the next generation. A failure to do so, Lincoln believed, would inevitably lead to the nation’s demise and dissolution.

What follows is a brief excerpt from Lincoln’s increasingly prophetic remarks.

“How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.”

“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Fast forward 188 years and change locations from Springfield, Illinois to New York City… and we are about to witness Lincoln’s prediction come true.

For whatever unfathomable reason, like lemmings jumping off a cliff, Big Apple voters are poised to go to the polls in 15 days and cast a ballot for their own destruction. They have three prominent choices to govern their city of 8.8 million people: Democratic state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Republican activist Curtis Sliwa, and independent (and former governor) Andrew Cuomo. The winner will succeed Democratic incumbent Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race after failing to secure the Democratic nomination for re-election.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, leading Cuomo 46%-33% with Sliwa receiving 15%. If the poll is right, that means that just 6% of the electorate is undecided… and NYC is about to elect a full-fledged Jew-hating Marxist as its next mayor.

So, what happens when Mayor Mamdani takes up residence in Gracie Mansion? Well, here is a small sample of his outrageous and unworkable proposals that are sure to create a mass exodus of taxpaying citizens from Gotham…

Fare-free city buses… free universal childcare… city-owned grocery stores… a rent-freeze on rent-stabilized apartments… comprehensive public safety reform including replacing some uniformed police officers with social workers… and a $30/hour minimum wage by 2023. He also plans to cede control of much of the city’s school system and its 983,000 students to the teachers’ union.

In order to pay for all these freebies and enhanced social programs, Mamdani plans to increase taxes on corporations – which are already the highest in the state – and wealthy city residents, primarily those who own “more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Way to place the race card while simultaneously creating class warfare, Zohran!

Financial analysts predict that such punitive measures will cause upper class New Yorkers to flee the city for tax-friendly states such as Florida, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. According to Andrew Cuomo, if Mamdani is elected, “There will be nobody left” in NYC to pay the bill.

There are only two possible scenarios in which Mamdani is defeated. The first requires Republican Sliwa to drop out of the race and throw his support to Cuomo. As unappetizing as that option appears to be, it may be the only way to prevent the Big Apple from rotting to the core.

A recent New York Post poll shows Mamdani’s lead over Cuomo dropping to 44.6%-40.7% in a two-person race with a 4% margin of error. However, if Sliwa stays in the race, the same poll shows Mamdani maintaining a commanding 43.2%-28.9% lead over Cuomo with Sliwa tallying 19.4%. In other words, if Sliwa stays in, Mamdani is coronated.

A real longshot is if New York’s 1 million Jews finally wake up and decide to cast their ballots either for Cuomo or Sliwa and not for the Democratic candidate, which they have traditionally supported in past elections. Mamdani openly despises Israel, having called for “globalizing the intifada”, describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide”, and promising to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City. He has also refused to visit Israel and, as recently as the October 16th mayoral debate, Mamdani refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation.

And yet, polls show that whereas Cuomo leads among Jewish voters, a substantial number still plan to support Mamdani on November 4th.

Suicide from within, indeed.

(Thanks to the National Constitution Center for the excerpts on Abraham Lincoln.)