New York City has met many challenges in its history as the capitol of capital. The constant problem that surrounds the city is that with great wealth comes great political profligacy. It is not the first time New York has found itself staring down a time for choosing at the barrel of a figurative gun.

Tom Wolfe captured the “radical chic” and “mau-mauing” of the compromised big-city life in America, most obviously in San Francisco and New York. Yet Mayor Giuliani and his capable chieftains snuffed out the bonfire of the vanities through such commonsense policies like fixing broken windows policing, CompStat, and welfare to work — commonsense policies that fueled an urban renaissance, which Mayor Bloomberg inherited, embraced, and built upon over his three terms.

Somehow, New York voters forgot what unbridled crime in the streets and rampant racialist and redistributionist policies in city hall did to their quality of life. And so they elected Bill de Blasio as mayor. As promised, he swiftly began dismantling the regime of good governance that had made the city great again.

Mayor Adams was elected precisely because the people of New York wanted a return to law and order sanity after eight years of Mr. de Blasio’s progressive dumpster fire. Sadly, Mr. Adams proved to be too ethically compromised to effectively resist the flood of illegal immigrants — many of whom were dispatched on border state buses — who filled the Port Authority. Housed in luxury hotels at taxpayers’ expense, they tested New York City’s sanctuary resolve.

Motivated by his political survival instincts, Mr. Adams’ spine stiffened. Conveniently, he was summarily whacked with a federal prosecution. “More lawfare,” said his defenders. “Just following the facts where they lead,” countered the Justice Department careerists. 

Nonetheless, he and President Trump found common purpose — and this triggered Democrats in general and progressives in particular. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, naturally, called for Mr. Adams to step down “for the good of the city.” You know, the new mantra of the left: guilty until proven innocent.

What are the political odds on Mr. Adams winning against the Democratic Party blob that has just nominated 33-year-old anti-Israel Marxist Zohran Mamdani as its mayoral nominee? Not good. Presently, far from a coin toss.

Mr. Adams and New York City have four months to mount a credible, winning opposition. It’s a window of political opportunity that would not exist if it were not for Mr. Trump’s gratuitously playing a lawfare card of his own in the form of a timely de facto presidential pardon, giving Mr. Adams a new lease on life — and New Yorkers a last chance to inhabit a livable city.

Mr. Trump hasn’t yet nicknamed Mr. Mamdani “Mad-Mani,” so I’ll go ahead and do it for him. Whatever he’s called, he’s a real threat to the city. Peter Orszag spoke for many successful business executives — the ones responsible for New York’s financial health. Appearing on CNBC, Lazard’s chief executive disclosed how troubling he found Mad-Mani’s “globalize the intifada” language — not to mention the would-be mayor’s antipathy for free-market capitalism and dislike for the wealthy. Mr. Orszag strongly hinted that his firm, and all the public and cultural goods that it underwrites, could relocate to more friendly climes. Florida beckons.

What have this long-time Democrat in good standing, and others like New York’s senior senator, Charles “Chuck” Schumer, been hearing from the socialist-friendly new guard?

It’s “they” — the old guard — who are no longer in charge of New York City politics. The Brooklyn progressives are running things now. Atop the pyramid is the new Adam and Eve, political power couple Mad-Mani and AOC. The vibe they send out is that they would happily have the old guard acquiesce to their agenda or move to Boca Raton.

What does this ascendant power couple hold to be shared and self-evident? For them, Israel and America are both apartheid states, and capitalism is the engine of inequality. And this antisemitic, anti-capitalist, anti-American power couple is trending on Instagram and just won the Democratic primary. AOC is coming for you, Chuck.

Why do they hold fast to such obvious falsehoods? The answer is that they are repeating what they have been taught in school, from Head Start to college classes. This is what most American children are being taught, unless they were home-schooled, took the Catholic school route, or went to Hillsdale College.

Messrs. Schumer and Orszag know this, as do untold numbers of sensible, centrist Democrats. Many of them know the “Chicken for KFC” mindset firsthand in their own families, and that their children, grandchildren, and wives are voting for this madness. The intifada chicken has come home to politically roost —- and on your watch, and with your wallet.

While conservatives and centrists were shaking their heads in mirth at the spectacle of “Dykes for Palestine,” AOC was still basking in the spotlight for successfully killing a proposal from Amazon to build a second headquarters at Queens, adjacent to her congressional district. Not because she wanted the jobs in her Bronx district, but because she didn’t want them at New York City at all. 

Mind you, this was a project so beneficial to the area — it included some 25,000 jobs — that not only was Governor Andrew Cuomo for it, but so was Mr. de Blasio. AOC, though, was content to invoke the specter of “corporate greed,” which is what passes for reasoned debate among the generation of young Democrats.

And New York’s city council, and the protest-industrial complex surrounding it, has gotten a lot younger. They are the ones doing the work, organizing, showing up, and winning elections. The Democratic Party is nothing without the protest industrial complex. George Soros and his son pay well and seem to have a taste for chaos.

The progressive ramparts have their favorites. They want true believers running things.

Sorry, Chuck, they are not that into you anymore. Truth be told, they never were.

Although New York has not had a viable two-party system for a long time, when things get bad enough, New Yorkers turn to a law-and-order Republican like Mr. Giuliani or an independent like Mr. Bloomberg. Yet do NYC voters really need to wait for all those broken windows — and the chaos it symbolizes — to materialize again before waking up?

It is time for New Yorkers’ wallets to shut tight on Mr. Mamdani, and open wide for Mr. Adams. A new coalition of sanity needs to be built and built quickly. New York is worth fighting for and saving. Its future hangs on the choice those who have not yet left make now.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.