When Socialists Attack

You’ve been warned, New York — so you’ll only have yourselves to blame if the local branch of the Democratic Socialists of America pulls off its plan to gain working control of the City Council and state Legislature.

And then slashes the NYPD’s budget another 50 percent, guaranteeing an even bigger crime wave.

While actively working to bankrupt landlords across the city and have the government buy up homes, so that everyone gets to learn what NYCHA tenants have to put up with.

Oh, and also “taxes the rich” statewide, accelerating the flight of New York’s tax base.

The 13-page draft “tasks and perspectives” strategic plan is a mix of hard-headed tactical planning and hard-left policy goals. It aims to exploit the large number of City Council seats open in the 2021 elections (at least 35 of the 51 seats) by having DSA-compliant candidates win the low-turnout Democratic primaries — and so have long odds of winning the general in the Dem-supermajority town.

If the socialists can win enough primary races, they figure, even Democrats who didn’t embrace their radical agenda will fear to oppose it, lest they lose the next time out.

Meanwhile, the group aims to gain more influence in political-powerhouse unions such as the United Federation of Teachers, District Council 37 and the Nurses’ Association — adding more leverage against state and city lawmakers.

To date, the D-Soc push has mainly unseated only tired politicians of the city’s various Democratic machines, many of whom had fallen out of touch with their districts. But those victories put officeholders in all five boroughs on notice that they can’t keep mailing it in.

Of course, the machine bosses and other powerbrokers, like the UFT’s Mike Mulgrew, will need to get their own acts together to fend off the far-left insurgents.

The silver lining in all this is that it will force the non-insane wing of the Democratic Party to finally stop appeasing the far left with ever-more-crime-friendly policies and other corrosive nonsense. The overwhelming majority of New Yorkers support the NYPD, even if they have some gripes — and know darn well that further defunding can only bring chaos.

Much of the city establishment has been running scared of the left since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took out Queens boss Rep. Joe Crowley in a low-turnout primary; this year’s Democratic Socialist victories in legislative primaries make the threat even more dire.

The only way to stop the wave is to start standing up for common sense — and calling out the fundamental foolishness of the extremists’ vision.