New York is worth saving – and so is every blue state
Opinion-editorial by Summer Lane | June 27, 2025
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
This quote, often attributed to Edmund Burke, has been used time and again as the rallying cry for revolutionary movements or rebellions against tyrannical forces. It captures the essence of the moral man’s plight: to fight or not to fight against evil?
“Fight, fight, fight!” were the words uttered by President Donald Trump just moments after dodging an assassin’s bullet on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. Blood streaming down his face, fist raised high in the air, it was a moment indelibly emblazoned in the memories of Americans everywhere, and it has become another historic rallying cry – a reminder that despite the odds, true overcomers must press on.
And so it is that America, having survived perhaps the most tumultuous and consequential presidential election in history last year, must now practically look ahead to the preservation of liberty for generations to come.
What does keeping the republic, as Benjamin Frankly supposedly said, actually look like in a modern and obscenely critical world? Is it as simple as raising Old Glory at a peaceful protest? Or is it as complex as running for political office and serving one’s constituents while staving off lobbyists and special interest groups?
There is a case to be made that preserving American liberty has nothing to do at all with glamour or bombastic campaign slogans. Instead, keeping the sacred republic will come down entirely to winning the culture war – good ideas versus bad ones, morality versus immorality, and common sense versus radical extremism.
The fall of New York City
Once the jewel of the Western world and the heartbeat of an innovative American urban landscape, New York City has become a rough patchwork quilt of communist ideas, high crime, and dangerous Subway tunnels.
Still, New York is a beautiful urban epicenter, filled with rich American history, and representing – to the world, at least – a shining beacon of capitalistic opportunity. And so it was a stunning upset when Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Muslim socialist, won the Democratic primary for NYC mayor this week.
His victory riled the social media world, with some suggesting that New York was better left to rot if Mamdani succeeds in his mayoral bid and takes over the city, turning what was once the pride of the U.S. into a socialist hotbed.
“I understand the temptation. But it’s a mistake,” wrote Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk this week, discussing such sentiments from emotional conservatives.
“Plenty of people wanted us to abandon college campuses as lost cause communist no-go zones, but we learned last year that if we bothered to fight back, we could turn the tide. New York can be the same way,” he added.
He argued America “simply giving up” on New York would be like “the British Empire giving up on London or the Roman Empire giving up on Rome.”
“If we won’t even fight for one of the crown jewels of our nation, then we deserve to lose it,” he concluded.
Kirk is right. Why would we abandon New York? In 2024, Americans fought against lies, cultural pressure, censorship, and a two-tiered justice system to elect President Donald Trump as their Commander in Chief.
Is New York not worth saving just as much as the nation as a whole?
The power originates at the state level
The problem with a rudimentary understanding of American government is that it can be easy to focus on the macro issues and forget the micro problems plaguing individual states. Lest we forget, the country is a forged union of sovereign states, and together, our unity makes us stronger than ever.
Leaving New York to fall to socialism is no better than leaving the nation to fall. The republic garners strength from the morality and the unity of its people. Small issues turn into big issues, and big issues can turn into ideological revolutions – as seen in the case of Mamdani. It seems unthinkable that an outright socialist could have a shot at winning any race in America, yet here we are.
“The future of Trump’s agenda will be decided on the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York,” Kirk wrote in a later statement on X.
Leaving Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York to fall off the ideological cliff represents a grave miscalculation. “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes,” said Sun Tzu.
We see that mindset in the policies and leadership styles of socialists and communists on American soil – those hellbent on attaining or maintaining power no matter the cost. It is a distinctly anti-American attitude, and if left to fester, it will infect the nation at large like a cancer.
Blue states deserve to be saved
If “blue” states like New York and California could be saved, it would indicate a nationwide victory on the ideological and cultural front for common-sense Americans and patriots everywhere.
Good ideas give birth to good societies, and good societies put forth excellent leaders who are worthy of their constituency. The American Revolution, after all, was underpinned by powerful philosophical ideas and intellectual concepts that dared to not only question establishment failures but also righteously preserved a religiously-fueled moral sentiment that bound the colonists together: the recognition of the hand of Providence, the belief in good versus evil, and the understanding that self-governance and individual rights were paramount.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” the phrase famously uttered by Patrick Henry in 1775, was no mere emotional diatribe. It was the embodiment of the spirit of the revolution and the culture of the American colonists.
“It is not now easy to say what we should have done without Patrick Henry. He was before us all in maintaining the spirit of the Revolution,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, much later.
These early Americans were a wild, tough, and independent people who knew their value, understood their place in the world, and had no illusions about what dangers the New World presented to their families.
It is this cultural consensus and shared positive outlook and confidence that New York needs – a belief in the American dream, a revival of patriotic idealism, and the resurrection of everything that has made this country great.
Ceding New York as lost territory to those who hate America and seek to destroy it is no winning game plan. In fact, it’s not a plan at all. It’s a white flag of pathetic surrender. General George Washington would be ashamed.
It’s time for patriotic Americans to embrace the battleground of ideas with passion and gentleness and strength, unyielding in the face of towering opposition, and unwavering in their pursuit of truth.
Photo: Adobe Stock
