Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()
Subscribe: Android | RSS | More
Tiffany Caban (shown), the latest darling of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been uncrowned, as a result of a vote recount in Queens, New York. As we reported on July 3, Tiffany Caban and her supporters (and much of the media) rushed to proclaim her the victor in the down-to-the-wire Democratic primary race for district attorney for the New York City borough of Queens.
However, after weeks of court wrangling and recounts, Caban conceded to Melinda Katz, losing by a mere 55 votes — out of more than 90,000 ballots cast. The recount could only be done, thanks to the use of paper ballots, which has become increasingly rare, as states, counties, and municipalities have shifted to the use of electronic voting machines. The Caban-Katz race provides a high-profile vindication of the warnings by election expert Kurt Hyde in The New American over the last three decades concerning the dangers of electronic voting (see, for example, here, here, and here).
The Caban-Katz case, in which the paper ballots were hand-counted, went back and forth, as ballots were challenged in court as invalid by one side or the other. The New York Times and People’s World, the official publication of the Communist Party USA, celebrated Caban’s apparent victory on June 26 with nearly identical reporting. The People’s World article, entitled “Socialist-endorsed Tiffany Cabán wins Queens district attorney primary,” reported:
The La Boom Nightclub in Woodside, Queens, was packed wall to wall with hundreds of supporters. People were chanting “Sí se Puede” and “Black and brown lives matter.” That was the scene at approximately 11:15 pm last night when Tiffany Cabán declared herself the winner in the Democratic primary for district attorney.
This was a historic victory, as it was the first competitive race for district attorney here in decades. The DA position had been held for 28 years by Richard Brown, who died two months ago….
“Cabán is a 31-year-old of Puerto Rican heritage,” the People’s World continued, “a Queer-identified public defender, and a life-long Queens resident…. Her platform calls for an end to mass incarceration, stopping the war on drugs, and decriminalization of poverty. She plans to tackle corporate crime, protect immigrants and the elderly, and believes that community solutions provide real public safety.”
As one would expect from the Communist Party publication, People’s World is doing its best to hide Caban’s real agenda. In our previous report on the Caban-Katz race we noted:
One of the issues that has many [Democrats] flummoxed is Cabán’s campaign pledge to decriminalize “sex work.” She even posed in a group photo for the far-left Indypendent with male and female prostitutes, with all — herself included — conspicuously giving the communist clenched-fist salute. Cabán intends to dispense with prosecution not only of prostitutes, but of pimps and johns too. Many NYC Democrat pols realize this would turn Queens into a sex-trade capital, a giant brothel. Laura Ramírez, a coordinator for the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, warns that if Cabán succeeds, “Queens is going to be the borough for sex tourism in the city. That’s the only thing that can happen. It’s just open season.” Cabán wants to decriminalize most drug offenses as well, while more aggressively prosecuting police and immigration officers. That should cement Queens’ claim to “illegal alien capital” as well. Mara Gay at the Times applauds these Cabán plans to “remake the criminal justice system,” but they sound to these ears like a prescription for mayhem — and a soon-to-be-regretted crime wave.
Although in most parts of the country, Melinda Katz would be accurately described as a left-wing Democrat (pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ+, pro-gun control, pro-Big Government, etc.), she was not far-left enough for New York’s Berniecrats and AOC’s Democratic Socialists of America, who revolted against the endorsement of Katz by Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York’s “soft left” establishment Democrats. The big questions are: How will Katz and the Cuomo Democrats respond? Did the AOC-Caban insurgency frighten them enough to push them further left — and faster than they would have gone otherwise? Will they adopt more of the Caban platform planks? Or will they recognize that her astroturfing DSA campaign was too radical even for Queens, and that she only got as far as she did by deception, by masking her true agenda in more moderate-sounding “reform” rhetoric.
Caban, who self-identifies as a “Queer Latina,” was endorsed and supported by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), actress Susan Sarandan, actress-lesbian activist Cynthia Nixon, and an alliance of ultra-Left organizations that includes the Working Families Party, Citizen Action, and Make The Road. The New York Times led the establishment media in throwing support to Caban’s insurgent campaign against establishment Democrat Melinda Katz, the Queens Borough president. That is hardly surprising, given the Times’ century-long record of supporting communists at home and abroad, from agents such as Alger Hiss to mass-murdering dictators such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Ho Chi-Minh.
Because it will deny Ocasio-Cortez and her radical “movement” the political momentum and the important Queens DA platform to spread their revolution, Caban’s narrow loss to Katz may give some comfort to those dreading another foothold by another AOC-aligned, out-of-the-closet, militant socialist. It also demonstrates that the AOC-DSA coalition is not unstoppable, which is a very important psychological point. If they can be defeated in Queens, which tilts heavily to the left, and which has been subjected to their intense canvassing and campaigning, they can be defeated anywhere. However, in this case, that might not have been possible without the paper trail provided by the paper ballots.
Photo of Tiffany Caban: AP Images
Related articles:
Tiffany Caban, et al.: Out of the Socialist-LGBTQ Closet
Democratic Socialist Convention Does Impression of Mental Asylum
Democratic Socialists of America: Communism for the New Millennium
Congressman Nunes: “Electronic Voting Systems … Are Really Dangerous”
Recount for President: No Change, but Holes Exposed in Voting Systems
Who Really Won the Popular Vote?
