Vitamin R: To Prove Itself Healthy, the Democratic Party Must Reject Cuomo’s Anti-Democratic Power Grab
- john raymond
- Jun 27
- 2 min read
Let me be perfectly clear: I am not telling people to turn their backs on the Democratic Party. I am not telling them to stay home. I am not saying “both sides are the same.”
What I am saying is simple: if the Democratic Party were healthy—if it were functioning as a truly democratic institution—it would be unequivocally denouncing Andrew Cuomo’s decision to remain in the mayoral race after losing the primary.
The people have spoken. In a free and fair election, the voters chose Zohran Mamdani. That should be the end of it. Cuomo, backed by millions in Super PAC money, is now trying to overrule the will of the people by running on his self-created “Fight & Deliver” line. It is a maneuver funded by oligarchs and powered by ego. That is not what democracy looks like. That is what oligarchy looks like.
Democrats should be rallying to Mamdani, a candidate who earned his support in the daylight, not behind the smoke of billionaire bank transfers.
The entire party apparatus should be vocally condemning Cuomo’s move—not just as inappropriate, but as fundamentally anti-democratic. Because that’s what it is. A man loses, and instead of accepting the result, he throws millions of donor dollars at the process until he can try again. That’s not perseverance. That’s corruption.
Some will say this is both-siding. It’s not. It’s calling out betrayal from within. It’s naming a sickness that threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our party and our process.
There is no equivalence between Mamdani’s grassroots campaign and Cuomo’s billionaire-funded vanity project. And if Democrats can’t find the courage to say that publicly, then they risk proving every cynic and every critic right.
So yes, vote for Democrats. But vote for the real ones. Vote for the ones who honor the process. Vote for the ones who win with people, not with plutocrats.
And in the name of all that is good, demand that your party stand for democracy, not just in name, but in deed.
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