Democrat Anguish Will Only Get Worse

By John Kass

Sunday June 29, 2025

From New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the big cities that are led by Democrats are dying. And the Democrats who lived there know this. It presses down upon them.

And the recent ascent of the surging wild-eyed communist Zohran Mamdani over the tired and listless female groper and grandma killer Andrew Cuomo in the New York Democrat mayoral primary? It’s a gateway into the anguish of the Democrats.

“People go to cities and states where they can invest money and get a return on their investment,” billionaire grocer John Catsimatidis told Fox News after Mamdani’s stunning victory. “That’s what capitalism is all about. They’ll take a vibrant city and kill it.”

The left has already killed Chicago. Los Angeles was burned by fire and riots. New York still has a pulse, but the communist will squeeze the vibrancy of the city that never sleeps. And if things don’t go his way, his army will tear the city apart. Some of us have seen this movie before. It ends with illiterate cave dwellers wandering past the broken Statue of Liberty, unaware of what it once meant.

Those who remain in the dying cities are left with the festering Democrat trinity: decaying civic infrastructure, high violent crime, crushing high taxes. And public schools controlled by the Democrat storm troops of the teachers’ unions that can’t even teach children to read and write as the AI revolution sweeps down on the globe while raking away the illiterate chaff.

Others who loved their towns and urban life are desperate to get out, left to feed on anguish as they flee. Only those who can’t leave remain. It is the dystopian nightmare.

If you get your news from corrupt left wing legacy media, you might not know this, but the big cities have never recovered from the do-nothing George Soros prosecutors who refused to prosecute violent repeat offenders, the prosecutors playing the race card again and again to win elections and re-elections.

Likewise, the cities never recovered from the destruction and looting of the Black Lives Matter riots in the 2020 “Summer of Love.”

The three major cities are led by hard leftist socialists if not outright communists, and their goals are to defund the police, reduce or abolish the jails and prisons, promote universal healthcare, end cash bail, decriminalize drug possession and fight federal immigration enforcement targeting illegal migrant aliens.

And the decay spreads, as the great cities circle the drain. Those who love those great cities are left with an increasing sense of dread.

That’s why I selected August Friedrich Schenck’s painting titled “Anguish” as the opening image for this column. It depicts a mother sheep, a ewe, mourning the body of her lifeless lamb. They are surrounded by a murder of crows. They edge closer to feed on the carcass. They are pitiless.

What feeling does it give us?

Grief and despair. And helplessness.

The same emotions I feel after loving the dying city where I was born.

All this should be no surprise. It was written. After America spent decades embracing illegal immigration as Democrats hunted voters and corporate Republicans hunted cheap labor. Sentimental leftists embraced illegal immigrants who did not have the slightest affinity with the United States—except appetites for federal welfare—the end should have been apparent. And corporate media whipped them on.

Unchecked migration has fundamentally remade the electorate in the major cities. And Democrats change politics by changing voters. That is what the Democrat open borders policy was all about. Replacement.

Add to that decades upon decades of leftist indoctrination in the schools of education, and teachers cleaving to the communist Howard Zinn for “A People’s History of the United States.” Even sitting in the lap of Satan, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, founder of the Soviet state, must be laughing at us all.

The always insightful Orthodox Christian conservative moralist Rod Dreher sees what happened in New York as a referendum on the left on the Democrats. In “Mamdani’s Big Apple Intifada” in his Substack, Dreher writes:

“Left-wing voters in New York City, like their MAGA peers nationally nine years ago, lashed out against what they regard as a failed liberal establishment, electing a charismatic populist who promised a clear break with the past. We on the Right can shake our heads and laugh at how dumb New York liberals and progressives were to choose a candidate as politically inexperienced and radical as Mamdani, but don’t miss that this was also a referendum on the Democratic Party itself, and the party’s style of politics.”

New York flirts with disaster, nominating a hard leftist zealot to be mayor. Los Angeles is still in spasm after the leftist violence there. And my hometown, Chicago, is dying.

Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson is a confused communist completely out of his depth. His opponent, the educator Paul Vallas understood management and budgets, but Vallas was a white man, and therefore unacceptable to the Chicago media and the left wing shock troops of the Chicago Teachers Union.  They installed Johnson as their useful idiot. And Johnson’s old boss, the racist leftist known as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle joined with the destructive element that we call AWFLs (Angry White Female Leftists). And Johnson was installed.

You want to open up a restaurant? There is an overabundance of empty commercial space in the city that used to work, courtesy of the BLM riots. And now Johnson has vetoed a teen curfew ordinance that would have let Chicago police shut down violent “teen takeovers” that get out of hand, sending a message that Chicago has given into anarchy.

Who wants to invest in Chicago businesses now? Nobody.

Adding even more gall to the cup of taxpayers, consider that after decades and decades of Democrat control of the legislature and State Supreme Court, the average retired state worker gets nearly $25,000 more than those who work to support them (meaning lowly taxpayers).

In Los Angeles leftist activists and aggressive muscle from SEIU are about following and harassing ICE agents. And a short car ride away, the Democrat vice mayor of Cudahy, Cynthia Gonzalez called on street gangs to attack federal immigration agents.

“Not for nothing, but I want to know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles? 18th Street, Florencia, where’s the leadership at?” said Gonzalez on video. “You guys are all about territory and this is 18th Street, and this is Florencia and you guys tag everything up claiming hood. And now that your hood is being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you.”

“It’s everyone else who’s not about the gang life that’s out there protesting and speaking up,” she said. “We’re out there fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people and, like, where you at?”

And U.S. Attorney Bill Essyli filed a lawsuit against Orange County for refusing to hand over records showing non-citizens illegally voting, casting ballots.

For Republican political operatives, the elevation of Mamdani is a gift. “I’d describe it as Christmas in July for the GOP,” said Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat.

But for the nation, it’s a threat.

Consider this from the communist Mamdani, who sounds like the deranged Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, channeling his do-nothing Soros prosecutor zero Kim Foxx and Boss Toni Preckwinkle:

Zohran wants to empty the jails, as Boss Toni and Mayor Panic Attacks have done in Chicago.

Mamdani and Johnson sell the fiction they’re with the working class. But Mamdani owes his victory in New York to wealthy white elites. And Johnson owes his to the AWFLs and the Chicago Teachers Union and Boss Toni. And Castro organizer and LA Mayor Karen Bass is also encouraging violence, as are the others, because the left is all about force, all about violence.

Mamdani insists–with the smug assurance of a boy of elite leftist privilege–that violence is a nothing “construction.” Is that how the hard leftists talk at their cocktail parties in Soho and the Upper East Side?

Or is that how they talk when illegal migrant street gangs like Tren de Aragua club them to the ground, their women screaming, the leftists crawling on the pavement spitting blood during a robbery.

Is it what the leftist Menshevik’s believed up until the moment the Bolsheviks devoured them in the streets? If you’ve kept your eyes open you’ve seen this playing out in our big cities.

After Johnson, Bass, Mamdani have finished preening and what will be left of their cities?

The murder of crows edge closer, And the violent bear it away.

-30-

Note: Hope to see you at the Sicilian Summer Block Party.

JK

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

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Comments 38

  1. Rod Dreher, though a bright lad, misses by 100 miles the imbalance of his parallelism: MAGA populism is rooted in virtue. MAGA voters were more inclined to consider Trump’s intrinsic “Good Guy-ism” over his rhetoric, policies and power. You will never ever see a Marxist/Progressive doing good. It is not in their natures. Bright lads tend to miss the bigger picture.

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jy_SYTpTWi8

    Q.E. D.

  2. New York will vote that clown in, just as the chumbalones in Chicago, when given a clear choice, voted for the moron. That’s the way of the liberal northern cities mow, self destruction.
    When I left Chicago for South Carolina, my Chicago friends asked why I was so angry and resentful of Chicago. I realized that, after a life there, childhood and a legal career where I could walk those streets blindfolded, Chicago had betrayed me. The city was almost like a living thing which had turned its back on me and quite literally forced me to go somewhere else.

  3. Violence is an artificial construct? What kind of nonsense is that? The few remaining conservatives in NYC will need Snake Plissken’s help to escape.

    Thanks John for another good Sunday column with my coffee.

    1. It’s the kind of Marxist drivel they’ve been teaching in colleges for the last 20 years, where they see a problem, blame it on the class struggle, and then go backwards to make reality fit their theory.

  4. Zohran Mamdani is Obama 2.0. All the bedlam began with the accent of Obama who like Mamdani arose out of the atmosphere of hope and change, while undermining our values and rule of law. Mamdani is being marketed in the same slick manner. When he is successful in NYC, he’ll likely become a charismatic national phenomenon. I PRAY I’M WRONG.

      1. Greece in the 1940s was different. That was purely the commies following the French Revolutionary model of making common cause with disparate groups to get rid of the ruling (or in this case, occupying) power and then turning on their resistance allies to gain control of the country. The Russians followed it. The Chinese followed it. The Yugoslavs followed it. There are three places where it didn’t succeed, Malaysia where the Brits forced reforms that undercut a commie revolution. Iran, where the commies thought they’d liquidate the Mullahs once the Shah was gone and found out the hard way that 20th century commies aren’t nearly as ruthless as 12th century Muslims, and Greece, where Truman Doctrine weapons helped the nationalist segments of the resistance fight off commie liquidation.

    2. James, I don’t think it will work that way for Mamdani like it did for Obama. Too many flyover country people are aware now, and there was no MAGA when Obama came forth to “wow” the country!

    3. I hope you’re wrong. We all bought Obama’s “hope and change”. Well, when he said he wanted to “fundamentally “ change America we should have run away from him. But we didn’t and now we’re seeing what “hope and change” he had in mind.

  5. The majority of the voters in New York City who showed up to vote will get the kind of government that they deserve. “As ye have sown, so shall ye reap”. The problem is that the voters who created the monster will flee the monster to another area to destroy that area because they are too brainwashed or too stupid to figure out that their vote has consequences. To keep making the same mistake over and over and expecting different results sounds like those making the mistake are beyond redemption.

  6. Thank you, John, for another salient column. My view of New York city reflects the images of the “broken Statue of Liberty “in the movie “Planet of the Apes” where civilization has ceased to exist and the morons run rampant. It does seem that we are approaching a turning point in this country as to whether or not democracy will prevail. It is my hope to use another Hollywood movie, “War of the Worlds” that our younger generation will take up the torch of liberty and freedom and fight as if their lives depend upon it, because it does.

  8. He likely will win in NYC and the exodus will increase. Since Tuesday I have received 5-6 cold calls a day from realtors ready to by my nice little suburban house in NJ. During Covid the same happened and we had 10-12 families move in from NYC buying houses, sight unseen. It looks like wave-2 is about to hit and Florida, Tennessee, and the Carolinas will see it too – baring a bad hurricane season. Illinois, California, and Massachusetts are seeing the same and bleeding people. The 2030 census [it would make a good Chicago Way Podcast] is going to hit US politics like a sledgehammer on an anvil because of this.

    1. That’s why Democrats want to include illegals in the census. So they don’t lose electoral votes along with citizens departing their hellholes.

  9. John Kass, thank you for your words and showing the animation of communism stinking up our great cities. Makes an old man wring his hands in disbelief that so many voters have brought this on themselves….
    In Chicago, I am told, the school system’s buildings in use are only 50% full and using that same 50% of buildings are actually empty. With the CTU getting that huge new contract, and Mayor Johnson’s budget still in free fall, it seems that children are the target for destruction with inadequate teaching or learning….I am typing this and wondering WTH is this leading to….but we all know how it ends. Yes, I also was born in Chicago and will never miss the drench of despair now showing there.
    God bless you John Kass and your family.
    Tom

      1. It will take youngsters coming up and I am not sure which “gen” has the ability to save themselves let alone beginning a new city. Yes, John, it is possible to start a new city and a vision of that city would be away from the dearth of the old city. Renaissance is a word that is not taught to any degree in our schools now, and that is where you start a new city. God bless you John Kass and I hope you are going to visit those magical streams of fish with your sons soon…..
        Tom

        1. Really? It will take the “youngsters?” Well John knows Chicago, but has no f’n idea about NYC. I was born in the big apple. Here’s the deal. The “youngsters” are precisely the ones who voted -and did the “boots on the ground” work too – for Mamdani. Why? Because among other things, unlike Chicago, housing costs – and virtually everything else there – are outta sight. And then of course Mamdani is all in with the virtue signaling that a lot of “youngsters” have bought into: unapologetic support of human rights and “liberation”, Palestinians martyrdom, climate apocalypse. And as mentioned previously his utopian promises—affordable housing, free public transit, community-owned groceries. Guess who bought this? The very “youngsters” who you and John somehow think are going to save the world. John should stick to Chitown, because he knows nothing about my former home town.

          Oh by the way, here’s something for you and John to contemplate. NYC has approx. 1.3 million Jews. It’s a good chance more than half of them will be voting for Mamdani this coming November. Let’s see you figure that one out.

  10. When tragedy gets the upper hand, there’s a tendency (especially for us squeamish types) to look away from it. But when a great artist or writer takes on tragedy — Picasso’s “Guernica” or Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” — the product can be meaningful, even inspiring. This column provides meaning salvaged from spreading political disaster by a great writer.

    A minor limerick in tribute:

    The Dems’ “mostly peaceful” tsunamis
    Of left mobs who terrify mommies
    Might swamp socialism.
    Their cities’ new schism
    Could hand off New York to the commies!

  11. Friends of mine who would consider themselves “centrist Democrats” or “sensible Democrats” don’t see it. They think the Marxism is very very isolated and an outlier.

  12. Clinton and Schumer endorsed the communist. Al Sharpton walked him around. What establishment Democrats are doing is partnering with the communists to keep power. What they don’t understand is that they (the establishment Dems) are empty vessels. They have already lost power but they don’t understand it. The Marxists will eat them soon and they will be gone. I think Rahm realizes it, but he cannot rescue the Dems in this day and age. Rahm also speaks of “public service”, but the data shows career politicians, and especially Rahm, serve themselves.

  14. The influx of bodies to the US and sent to sanctuary cities to prop up the numbers from the massive exodus of US Citizens to outlying states is all about the US House. High stable population numbers citizen or not mean keeping the House within control of the left. Likewise adding DC and PR as states would again tip the scales forever to the left in the Senate. Take away the illegals and seats in the house would redistrict more to the right. Sadly it’s not about what is right for America, it’s all about power. Several years ago SCOTUS Judge Kagan spoke in favor of limiting federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions, limiting POTUS Powers. but was opposed the other day. Hmmmm. What changed? The person sitting behind the resolute desk.
    Jan 6 was the worst thing since Pearl Harbor but the riots and mass destruction of summer of 2020 were “mostly peaceful” according to Chuck Schumer. 2024 election showed that those with common sense and values reflecting the best of this country could unite. Sliwa and Cuomo need to unite behind Adams and prevent another catastrophic city meltdown.

  15. Yianni,
    I just can’t seem to wrap my head around these voters in NYC opting for communist, that isn’t hiding any of his agenda, to rob the rich and give it all away “to the poor!” Yeah, right… I’ll bet, within a year, he magically becomes a millionaire, just like the rest of the pols from there that have milked the system, until they killed the cow. And then, we are all led to believe he simply made some good investments! Oh well, if NYC voters can’t see what a socialist/communist mayor did to Chicago, then there’s no hope for them, and they get the mayor they deserve. As the city bleeds to death, the crows will be standing by to clean up the carcasses. Welcome to ghost town USA, LA, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland….etc. Boy are we stupid, or what?

  18. What gets to me is that it is so obvious: we have seen what the 1918 revolution wrought. We have seen the mess Cuba and other countries became after they embraced communism. We have seen how countries bounce back once they embrace capitalism. Yet there is and likely will always be a push for this workers paradise of communism. The politicians are not in it for the betterment of community, but for their own power grab. As an aside: Mamdani’s (son of academic and artist) wife is – suitably- an artist (Rama Duwali); drawing the struggle of the Palestinian-a true communist cliche couple.
    Boy how NYC has fallen.

  19. I don’t think your readers get the amazing statistic about Illinois pensioners making $25K more than the people that support them. It’s not $25K more than 0ther retired people, which is what I first thought, it’s $25K more than people gainfully employed!! Think about that for a minute.
    So, it’s not just the AWFLs who vote for these crackpots, it’s also the pensioners seeking to maintain their gravy train.

  20. My wife and I were at Kasey’s Tavern yesterday, Printers Row. Bar still holds liquor license number 3.
    Very active, new generation of young people enjoying their success and life in the city.

    Then we drove up Michigan Avenue, past The Gage, past the Bean. People everywhere enjoying a spectacular day.

    Then we crossed the River, over where Fort Dearborn once stood and were greeted by the largest United States flag I have ever seen, covering nearly the entirety of the Wrigley building. And immediately to its left, in enormous block letters T R U M P.

    I turned to my wife and said “somebody has to do the work”

    Maybe this us the new city. Off now to Sicilian Fest!

  21. We hope that your headline, “Democrat Anguish Will Only Get Worse.” is prologue. But is it?
    We still face the combine (as in that which represents the entire country). They have created the perfect crime. You stated it: “Democrats hunted voters and corporate Republicans hunted cheap labor.”
    That pretty much tells it. Sort of. What democrats eagerly cherish is poorly educated, ignorant voters. They have set up the public school system to virtually assure it. Another piece of their perfect crime.
    Is there hope. Yes. November 2024 showed us that. Fortunately, the Dems nominated Kamala, perhaps the least qualified candidate ever. Can we hope that this level of cynicism on their part continues?
    Time will tell if NYC can survive. It probably cannot.

  22. New York has once again demonstrated why Chicago will always be the Second City. The only thing more stupid than a Chicago voter is a New York voter. It seems that they have one thing in common though, it’s called ” Rank Choice Voting”. This ensures you will most likely be handed a shit sandwich in every election. A Democrat versus a…Democrat? Yes. Thank you sir, may I have another. This Democrat voting scheme ensures low turnout to ensure the shit incumbent or proxies remain in power. Heads I win, tails you lose..get it? Sucker bet. I worked for the city and I used to talk to the guys who were nearing retirement. They spoke of moving to near grandkids. Some were tired of winters, leaving for better weather. People now, including myself have left for three reasons: taxes, no one wants to stay where the local government constantly picks your pocket. Crime. No one wants to stay in a crime friendly state like Illinois. Employment, very few businesses are opening in the state of Illinois. No one wants to relocate there to work because of the previous two reasons stated. The CEO of McDonald’s, which has a large case of buyers remorse stated this himself. We now see something developing in voting trends. Texas had over two hundred new (registered) voters in the last presidential election. Most came from California. These new voters didn’t move the needle one bit. People came here for a reason. People moved to Florida for a reason. And they didn’t forget that reason. Places like New York and Chicago have reinforced peoples belief in good, sensible, common sense government. And now we are massing for this. Just like places like New York, Portland and Chicago have attracted their Leftist governments, you now see the loonies taking their rightful places in governance. Good for them. They deserve this…

  24. I think the root of the problem came from pseudo-intellectual college professors years ago who embraced the concept of communism without considering the real-world ramifications. They indoctrinated their students who became teachers who indoctrinated their students who became voters. Communism on the written page is attractive; in the real-world it requires dictatorial government powers that kill growth and freedom. Unfortunately, by the time the voters realize what they’ve the dogs have their teeth deeply into the bone and prying them free is difficult.

  25. I wonder how many people voted for Mamdani simply because he is not Mario Cuomo? How much was a protest vote against the killer of the elderly during Covid? The voters were given a choice, between two losers, and picked the devil they did not know versus the devil they did know. That is what happens under a one-party system when the voters are really not given a choice, and most stay home, while the chumbolones vote for their hoped-for free lunches.

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