There's this old saying, about birds of a feather sticking together.
That can happen, it seems, even through history, even over a span of generations. Case in point: New York City's mayor, the "democratic socialist" (commie) Zohran Mamdani, took to his X account to comment on the city's annual Italian Heritage Month, and, true to form, the one name he drops is that of Vito Marcantonio, a guy who happened to be of Italian descent but who was also a socialist agitator who was accused of being a card-carrying commie.
Happy Italian Heritage Month, New York. Here’s continuing to fight for Vito Marcantonio’s vision of a government that works for all working people. https://t.co/9mlQN7mAZR
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 10, 2026
Here's the thing: Vito Marcantonio was probably the most far-left commie sympathizer (if not an outright commie) to ever sit in the House of Representatives. He represented what was then New York's 20th congressional district from 1939 to 1944, and then 18th congressional district from 1945 to 1950 as a member of the American Labor Party. That was after serving in the 20th as a Republican (!) from 1935 to 1936.
A New York councilwoman from Queens, Vickie Paladino, had a sharp response.
Of course he name drops an obscure Italian-American communist who was against America's participation in World War 2 and was investigated by the FBI for his ties to the international communist party. Of all the great men and women of Italian descent who've contributed to New York City and the United States, this is the idiot he picks. He is physically incapable of being anything other than a loathsome propagandist for communism. As the most prominent Italian-American in city government, please allow me to formally disinvite you from ever mentioning Italian heritage ever again. And yes, we Italians came here to work, create businesses, dig the subways, build the buildings -- and it was indeed a struggle. A struggle a rich kid like Zohran could never know. But we didn't ask for any handouts. There was no welfare, millions of us came here knowing there was only ourselves, our work, and our community -- and we thrived. We wanted to become Americans, and our people were proud to learn the language and wave the American flag. And when the time came, millions of Italian-Americans returned to Europe to fight World War 2, my father included. Many of them had to fight their own former countrymen in Mussolini's Italy. And they did exactly that, because they were nothing less than Americans. Quite the opposite of the current immigrant situation championed by people like Zohran, where we invite lazy and entitled foreigners to loot the treasury without asking anything in return, as they resentfully fly the flags of their own nations -- and could never be counted on to defend America. My mother was a widow who raised five children on her own, working in a button factory. We didn't take a penny of government assistance. We relied on ourselves. It was hard work, but we did it, and we were grateful. And today I sit on the City Council, representing the very neighborhood I grew up in. That's what being an Italian-American in New York means. Not the communist propaganda Zohran is pushing here. It's about hard work, independence, heritage, and most importantly, pride in being an American above all else.
— Hon. Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) October 10, 2026
Ms. Paladino writes in part:
Of course he name drops an obscure Italian-American communist who was against America's participation in World War 2 and was investigated by the FBI for his ties to the international communist party.
Of all the great men and women of Italian descent who've contributed to New York City and the United States, this is the idiot he picks.
He is physically incapable of being anything other than a loathsome propagandist for communism.
As the most prominent Italian-American in city government, please allow me to formally disinvite you from ever mentioning Italian heritage ever again.
Why couldn't Mayor Mamdani mention some of his predecessors, Fiorello La Guardia, Vincent R. Impellitteri, or, of course, Rudy Giuliani? Why not mention entertainment figures like Dom DeLuise or Guy Fieri? How about journalists like Maria Bartiromo? New York City is home to an estimated 800,000 Americans of Italian descent, and the only one the commie Mamdani mentions is some obscure croaker from almost a century ago?
It's all about his own personal agenda. The Mayor turns everything to his own purposes; nothing else will do, and nothing else is what we should expect. He can't even name a leftist from the list of Americans of Italian descent who live in the city, like the screeching leftist and little man syndrome sufferer Robert DeNiro. No, he has to go back to the Depression to find a real leftist politician, arguably the most socialist-leaning member of the House of Representatives in American history, someone that Mayor Mamdani probably looks on with admiration and envy.
That's how commies roll.
Vickie Paladino concludes:
My mother was a widow who raised five children on her own, working in a button factory. We didn't take a penny of government assistance. We relied on ourselves. It was hard work, but we did it, and we were grateful. And today I sit on the City Council, representing the very neighborhood I grew up in.
That's what being an Italian-American in New York means. Not the communist propaganda Zohran is pushing here.
Look, Vickie Paladino is something of a rarity in New York City, a registered Republican in elected office, with a conservative voting record. But, much as we admire her for that in the location she's in, on this issue she's right in particular. Mayor Mamdani, in this pathetic, obvious sidestep from recognizing a key demographic in the city he serves to recognizing yet another socialist trouble-maker, he did every American of Italian descent in the city a grave disservice, regardless of their politics. He would have been better to have just written the first six words of his post, "Happy Italian Heritage Month, New York," and then shut his virtual trap.
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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