There were three guys growing up in New York City post World War II: Donald, Bernie, and Sid (that would be me).
Donald and I were born two months apart in 1946. Bernie is about four years older.
And, yet, on April 19, 2016 their worlds converged back in New York City with implications for all of Western civilization.
Donald Trump is New York City personified: audacious, boastful, and loud.
He's a walking skyscraper: “He's really down and he's no clown
He has the finest penthouse I've ever seen in town . . . And he keeps his pockets full of spending loot” ( "The Boy from New York City," The Ad Libs; Manhattan Transfer).
The New York primary was the Donald Trump celebration.
It had nothing to do with left/right politics and everything to do with a favorite son.
New Yorkers are proud of Donald trump. He doesn't have to share their values. He shares their attitude: In. Your. Face. (Somebody tell Ted).
A 35 point victory is a statement rocking the world: Donald will be the Republican nominee and then he'll do to Hillary what he did to the Republicans — take no prisoners.
Hillary is plus 19 over Donald in New York today.
Pay attention. This November will be like no other.
So what happened to Bernie? Born in Brooklyn, Jewish and far left. How did he lose by almost twenty points to a phony interloper like Hillary? Here it is: Bernie isn't just an ex-New Yorker. Bernie is an anti-New Yorker.
“But now I need a little give and take The New York Times, the Daily News” (Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind").
But not Bernie. When we were kids in Brooklyn every morning I would read the Daily News. Bernie would read the Daily worker. That's right, the official organ of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA).
Bernie was a “red diaper” baby, indoctrinated from birth. I honeymooned in Bermuda. Bernie honeymooned in Moscow, marveling at the “success” of global communism.
New Yorkers may be left, but they're not America-hating communists.
“But I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line” (Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind").
We all took the Hudson River line around Manhattan. Bernie kept going, all the way to Vermont. “I left them all behind” (Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind").
Yes, Vermont was not New York. Lilly-white, totally rural, populated by other aging hippies who wanted no part of polyglot urban life — except for the ice cream.
Bernie left his Judaism behind too, pandering to the virulent far left anti Semites in the Democratic Party. He makes up lies about non existent Israeli atrocities and feeds them to the George Soros funded J-Street sellouts.
Yes, Bernie wanted out of everything New York. And New York knocked Bernie out of everything presidential. They could write a Broadway play: “Bye, Bye, Bernie.”
Ted Cruz couldn't find New York with a GPS.
He insulted 20,000 New Yorkers on national television and thought he would live to tell about it. Fuhgedaboutit!
Ted's presidential ambitions died in New York. Donald won by 35 but Ted lost by 45.
Donald was the big winner. Bernie was the big loser. And Ted has run out of caucuses to win. Hillary is entitled to a victory lap. But don't be fooled. She didn't win New York. She was a lucky beneficiary.
Yes, there are other primaries. California will seem huge in June. But when they write the history of this cycle, one truth will emerge: On April 19, 2016 America was in “a New York state of mind” and chose their two presidential nominees.
“Start spreading the news.” (Frank Sinatra, "New York, New York").
Sid Dinerstein is a former chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. He founded JBS Associates, a 600-person financial service company, and currently combines politics and business with Niger Innis in Inclusive Elections LLC, a firm that brings urban electorate voters to the GOP. He is the author of "Adults Only: For Those Who Love Their Country More Than Their Party." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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