Can New York City survive it?

Not long ago, the city of Chicago elected a new mayor.

And miserable Chicago voters are about it now.

Mayor Brandon Johnson took office in 2023. He took over after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was practically run out of town on a rail. Lightfoot was not a popular Chicago Mayor by any standard.

But today, the people of Chicago miss the halcyon Lightfoot days. Or any old days, really, before the voters of Chicago, in their wisdom, installed a mayor they knew was further left, more progressive, and more outspoken than the last.

Are the people of Chicago ever sorry.

Brandon Johnson didn’t break his campaign promises to the people of Chicago — on the contrary, he kept them. The higher crime rates, higher tax rates, and falling public school test scores are a feature of Brandon Johnson’s policies — not a bug.

Johnson never promised to govern from the center — and he hasn’t. Brandon Johnson told the people of Chicago exactly who he was before they elected him.

They did it anyway. But they regret it now.

“Johnson says the quiet part out loud about the CTU,” fumed the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune — not exactly known as a bastion of conservative political viewpoints.

The CT presented Johnson’s administration in a nutshell with the following anecdote: “‘I believe Rahm Emanuel referred to the Chicago Teachers Union as a socialist conspiracy,’ Johnson said Wednesday. ‘Did I get the words? But little did he know there was no conspiracy. We were just doing it.’”

“Doing socialism, in other words,” fretted the editorial board of the CT. “Johnson made these remarks at an event promoting American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s new book, ‘Why Fascists Fear Teachers.’ Johnson served as moderator.”

“It pays to be thoughtful in curating what events you appear at, let alone which ones you get on stage for, when you’re in such a high-profile job as mayor of Chicago,” noted the CT dryly, perhaps remembering Randi Weingarten as the public face of long-term public school closures. “Johnson chose this one, and that says a lot. So, obviously, do his words, which show not only his enduring allegiance to the union, but affirms publicly — and very candidly — the worldview that leadership is pushing.”

Johnson may be openly “doing socialism” in Chicago, but it isn’t working. Like all socialist experiments, it is failing. Judging by the long lines of furious Chicagoans waiting to confront Mayor Johnson and members of the Chicago City Council at every single meeting, the voters of Chicago don’t like “doing socialism” much either.

Incensed and irate, Chicago voters express their displeasure at the way Johnson’s policies have negatively impacted their communities. They write speeches, make matching shirts, and appear in force to rally against Johnson’s policies.

For all the good it does them.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has made plenty of changes in Chicago. Chicagoans complained about the large number of people getting shot in the city, the frequent sounds of gunfire, and illegal gun/gang-related activity.

Johnson responded by ending a popular local tracking program designed to warn citizens in real time when and where gunfire was being heard.

See? Fixing community issues is that easy. You don’t have to really fix anything. Just make it harder for people to complain about it, harder for police officers to do their jobs, harder for people to keep themselves safe.

Too many people in jail? Let them out. There. Fixed.

It’s too bad that none of it — absolutely none of it — has improved the quality of life for Chicagoans one single jot. It’s too bad that liberal Democrats can’t point to Chicago as a model of progressive governance.

“See,” the Democratic Socialists of America could say, pointing to the success story that is Chicago: “Look what miracles our policies have wrought under our wise and able governance. Democrats made this.”

Instead, the most Democratic Socialists can claim is something along the lines of “We only failed because we didn’t get enough money/power/latitude. After all we were able to accomplish with the vast amounts of money/power/latitude we’ve had, just think of what we could do if you trust us with even more.”

Yikes.

Instead, Mayor Johnson has delivered for the people of Chicago more crime, higher taxes, and lower test scores. People, sports teams, corporations, and businesses can’t leave Chicago fast enough.

And yet, New York City is about to roll the dice with another self-avowed Democratic Socialist who wants to export the failed Chicago model to other Democratic Party strongholds.

Zohran Mamdani promises all that Mayor Brandon Johnson has delivered for Chicago. And more.

Can NYC survive?

With Chicago in the process of turning into the next Detroit, not everyone thinks so.

“The Mamdani Exodus,” fretted Yoni Weinberg for Tablet.

The world isn’t divided into people who think socialism sounds nice and people who don’t. Everyone thinks socialism sounds nice. Everyone wants to “Imagine” a world where all of humanity shares resources equally and life is fair.

Unfortunately, that isn’t reality, and it never has been.

So the world is divided into people who believe the government is capable of consistently and capably administering a socialist model of governance long-term, and those who do not.

For those who fall into the former category, well. It took almost a week for authorities to get water to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.

The promised “government as savior” model held up by socialists and communists has never — never — fulfilled its promise. To think Zohran Mamdani, or Brandon Johnson, will succeed with these policies where everyone else has failed is naive.

The sadder but wiser voters of Chicago know better.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)