Announcing its withdrawal from a planned New York City headquarters on Thursday, Amazon made clear that socialist politicians were to blame for the sudden evaporation of 25,000 arriving jobs. In a statement, the company declared:



For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term. While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City.



Thus, New Yorkers reap the socialist whirlwind. We should pay close attention to Amazon's decision here, because it reflects the fact that the most successful companies in America have never had more mobile capital. And as I warned would be the case with Amazon, if left-wing politicians treat these companies as borderline criminals, they'll take their business, jobs, and investment elsewhere.

Of course, this is a great victory for Democrats like state Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who opposed the new Amazon headquarters. They said that Amazon's arrival would put too much pressure on housing in Queens and would alter the borough too significantly. And while it's true that those pressures would be real, Amazon's arrival would have injected billions of dollars into the Queens community each year. And that's aside from the 25,000 well-paying jobs, and well-paid taxpayers, that New York would have gained. That's why even the normally devout socialist New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was in favor of Amazon. He knew that at the margin, attracting Amazon to the city was a no-brainer.

But now Amazon is gone, and Ocasio-Cortez can celebrate a great socialist victory. She has driven away investment and jobs for her community in order to parade her socialist purity. Ultimately, though, it's a shallow victory that could come back to bite her.