Socialism In A Designer Suit: NYC Is In For A Hard Lesson If Mamdani Is Elected

That means the only man standing between Mamdani and the mayor’s office is Eric Adams, a Democrat who last year was charged with bribery and campaign finance violations. He has also angered his own party by failing to oppose immigration enforcement as much as other “sanctuary city” mayors like Chicago’s Brandon Johnson or Los Angeles’s Karen Bass.

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If one is unfamiliar with history, these promises might sound good. As the Babylon Bee put it, “Democrats Discover Innovative Strategy of Promising Free Stuff to Stupid People.” This is funny, but unfair. There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. New Yorkers aren’t stupid. And plenty of smart people are ignorant – meaning they just don’t know certain things.

Like how New York was back in the 1980s. Those of us who remember the city when Times Square was a den of squalor will know that Sliwa also founded the Guardian Angels, the red-beret sporting extended neighborhood watch that rode the subway to fight crime.

But that was 40 years ago. Most New Yorkers today have no direct experience with that era. At least half of them weren’t educated in New York; they came from abroad or from other states. Nationally, only 13% of U.S. eighth graders are proficient in American history. I doubt they know much more about world history, or how “true socialism” worked when tried.

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Some New Yorkers may not know what Mamdani means by “socialism,” “Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS),” and “owning the means of production,” which he talked about in this short clip posted to X by @EndWokeness. Let me briefly explain.

“Socialism” is how communists describe themselves. Look at the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the current communist countries, the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the Lao People’s Republic – none of them mentions “communism” in its name or its official description of itself.

The only thing that makes the American version “Democratic,” as in the “Democratic Socialists of America” organization that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Summer Lee belong to, is that they seek to come to power through elections, rather than violent revolution.

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When he says he wants to “raise class consciousness,” Mamdani is talking about Karl Marx’s vision for how capitalist societies turn communist. Once the worker masses realize they are being exploited, Marxist theory goes, they will overthrow capitalism, take over the government, and “establish a more equitable society.” (Yes, that’s the same “equity” as in DEI, the ideology that captured Western governments, education, NGOs, and companies).

Mamdani said the “end goal” of socialism is “seizing the means of production,” by which he means the government taking over factories, companies, mines, energy producers, farms, restaurants, service providers, your aunt’s Etsy page – anything or anyone that creates value, from a Barbie doll to an F-150 truck. The core idea of socialism is that all of it should be taken from private ownership and given to the government to run.

The government will then decide what each of us needs to live on – “from each, according to his abilities; to each, according to his needs.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because it has been tried before – first in the USSR, then in China, Cuba, North Korea, and in various countries in between in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. And with a 100% failure rate.

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China might be seen as a slight exception to the rule, but that’s only because it ditched much of communism’s economic orthodoxy and let favored people make money, while keeping the corrupt, nepotistic structure of the Communist Party and its social control machinery.

Mamdani reminds us “we need to remember what the stakes are.” He’s right. He’s smart, charming, and media savvy, which makes it all the more important that New Yorkers closely scrutinize his past and current comments and policy positions.

If Mamdani makes it to Gracie Mansion and keeps his promises, he will bring socialism to New York City, good and hard. It will work just as well as it ever did. And some of Manhattan’s wealthy residents will react just like Havana’s did in 1959 – they’ll go to Miami.