It is time to talk about the Democratic nominee for New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Not because he may well be the next mayor of one of the most important cities in America, and perhaps the world.
But because of what he represents: the core principles of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) of which he is a staunch and unapologetic member.
Let us first recognize that his socialism is not the socialism that we often attach to the Great Depression policies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR's version of "socialism" saved the nation from the ravages of the Depression in the 1930s through programs that leveraged public works as a means of restoring paychecks and pride for millions. The creation of FDR's Social Security allowed families to put aside money that would be returned to them upon retirement. It was government with empathy.
Mamdani's "socialism" is a corrosive ideology that despises the very principles that have made America the envy of the word. Capitalism, the economic engine that powers opportunity, is to be demonized. (No small irony for Mamdani: it is capitalism that has made New York great since its founding.) The DSA platform also calls for dramatic cuts in American military spending and withdrawal from NATO. Not only would allies of America, such as Israel, forfeit any military assistance, but America would oppose Israel being recognized by any other sovereign nation across the globe.
Mamdani is now seeking to cloak his positions, such as defunding the police and weakening our criminal justice system, because he undoubtedly recognizes that if New Yorkers ever truly focused on what he actually believes, they would seek out literally anyone else other than him.
Because New York City has a six-to-one Democratic enrollment edge, all Mamdani needs to do is throw a bomb blanket over what he truly believes in between now and election day, and he may be able to declare victory in November. Through slick online video hype and an effective grassroots campaign, he has been trying to sanitize his contempt for American values. If successful, the DSA would undoubtedly use his victory as a template for similar political seduction elsewhere across our nation.
In 1664, when the English arrived off of Gravesend Bay at the tip of Brooklyn to forcibly take over New Amsterdam, they realized that this settlement was unlike anything they had ever seen. It was a thriving center of commerce and business, populated by an extraordinary collection of people, traders, merchants and entrepreneurs from around the world. Then the English did something they had never done before. With the exception of changing the name and seeking loyalty to the Crown, they just let the dynamic forces of capitalism continue to work their magic. Centuries later, that magic has made New York the extremely high bar by which every other city in the world is measured.
Mamdani's potential election has the means not just of reducing that heritage to just so much refuse at the curb, but reminding us just how vulnerable our nation's founding principles are to those whose who loathe them.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
