The LARPing Lowlife King of the DSA

AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Gustavo Gordillo.

There's a name for you.

He's the suave, Latin American-looking boy wonder with lounge-lizard charm, whose all-American rags-to-riches immigrant story is the bedrock of his appeal as the socialist/communist co-chair of the New York Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

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He's got the street props to sell the revolution.

Child of Peruvian immigrants

Gordillo told the New York Times: "My parents came here, they had nothing. Their first jobs were in fast food and cleaning houses. They built success in this country. And they're absolutely the exception."

Worked with his own hands as a union member.

Had a modest, barely affordable rental.

No wonder he became a socialist, huh?

Now, granted, he might still be traumatized by what his parents went through all those years ago. This might explain his sketchy grasp of history as well as the concept of cause and effect...

...“The economic situation in South America and Peru was in a really bad place… much of what we could say was responsible for that actually was the imposition of capitalism and American imperialism. In many cases, it is actually what brings immigrants to the U.S. coming out of Latin America.” 

Martha MacCallum: “They come here because they don’t like the imposition of American imperialism in the country that they’re in.

Gustavo Gordillo: “Yes…” 

Martha MacCallum: “That doesn’t make much sense.

...DERP.

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But AOC has as much on the ball, only she's slightly more articulate, so we'll pretend he's a deep thinker. Obviously, someone thought so for him to reach such exalted levels within the organization.

But his lofty perch at the top of the revolution now appears imperiled, because his deep-thinking skills do not, apparently, match his lack of talent for covering his butt when it comes to fabulous stories. Because his entire story turns out to be one big, fat fabulist tale.

About those parents who escaped the Shining Path guerrillas to come to the States, cleaning houses and working 'fast food' jobs as they pursued their own American Dream.

They never did that. 

It was his grandfather.

They never had to, because Grampa was the bomb and already a physician when he left his native Peru. Gordillo's father was a natural-born American, one of nine children his grandparents had here.

OOPS

...A 2021 obituary tells a very different story. His grandfather, Manuel Gordillo, immigrated from Peru in 1958 to practice medicine. He became a psychiatrist and eventually served as president of the Ohio Psychiatric Association. Gordillo's father was a natural-born citizen — not an immigrant at all.

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Ah. And the little apartment where a young Gustavo could rest his weary bones and kick off the work boots after a long day at his union trade job?

For one thing, even a union trade job doesn't last long when you don't show up for work.

...DSA members then approved Gordillo a $95,000 salary plus benefits.

He did get kicked out of a Crown Heights rental apartment and sued for non-payment of three months' worth, as you might imagine, but not precisely for those circumstances - the 'lost his construction gig' thing.

Oh, no.

He was renting the $ 2,500-a-month crib while the $1.5M apartment his poor non-immigrant father bought him was undergoing an additional $1.4 million in renovations to suit his taste.

YEAH

And about his fast-food fry cook daddy? 

You have to sell a lot of fries to be worth $90 million and give your freeloading son a $2.9 million renovation budget.

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So I'm guessing the lad was stretching the truth again.

...A 2021 obituary for his paternal grandfather, Manuel Gordillo, tells a very different story. Manuel didn't arrive broke — he came to the United States in 1958 already holding a medical degree from Peru's San Marcos University, entering as a medical resident. He earned his citizenship in 1964 and spent decades as a respected psychiatrist near Cleveland, 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝟖𝟕. He and his wife, Ruth, raised nine children, including Gordillo's father, also named Gustavo.

That's not the only crack in the story. Gordillo's father grew up to found a telecommunications engineering firm now valued at $𝟗𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫, and the family lives in Miami. Yet on Fox News in July, the younger Gordillo was still selling the poverty script: “𝘔𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘥, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘞𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘺'𝘴, 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘮'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴.”

The lie about his roots is wired straight into the rest of his image. Gordillo lives in a $1.5 million Bed-Stuy row house his parents bought him — and he's sinking another $1.4 million into renovations so extensive the local community board complained they felt like “𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴” dropped into a historically Black neighborhood. He's also claimed to be a working union electrician, though he never finished the apprenticeship and was 𝐤𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐮𝐞𝐬.

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These champagne socialists are all the same - every last one of them.

And it's all - SURPRISE! - lies.

...McCall is demanding that NYC-DSA leadership address the following concerns:

  • Affordable-housing implications: Gordillo and his family appear to eliminate potential housing capacity, converting what was a two-family home into a one-family home in a historically Black and brown community at a time when New York City faces an acute affordability crisis.
  • Alleged misrepresentations about residency and property ownership: McCall alleges that Gordillo misled members of the local community that he did not live at a property in question, while an LLC purchased the property for his use and he may have lived there without paying rent.
  • Demanding transparency about the Bed-Study housing project’s financing and whether union labor is being used.
  • Union credentials: McCall questions Gordillo’s prior representation of himself as a union electrician and alleges that Gordillo did not pay required dues or perform the work necessary to maintain that status.
  • A separate Brooklyn housing dispute: McCall also points to an alleged eviction proceeding involving unpaid rent at a separate  Crown Heights residence, raising further questions about whether Gordillo’s personal conduct matches his public political image.
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Naturally, if they had to dump this charmer for all his Walter-Mitty-among-the-proletariat moments, wouldn't they then have to do the same to Sandy from the Bronx, Bernie, who made his millions in government, Piker, and the Oysterman, among so many other phony 'working class' DSA luminaries?

Why, who'd be left?

Well, hang on a second there - what a great thought.

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