On January 1, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office in a Manhattan subway station, his right hand raised, and his left hand resting on a Quran.
That’s right—the largest American city, where the Twin Towers once stood, is now governed by a mayor with a sworn allegiance to the very book that gives life to Islamist terror across the globe. There are two empty holes in the New York skyline that tell that story well.
As a member of the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA), Mamdani’s allegiance to Islam is paired with an even more concerning commitment to communism. In his inauguration speech, Mamdani made a familiar comment: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
Where have we heard that before?
The author of The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx, wrote, “The individual is subsumed under the collective.” Joseph Stalin followed in his footsteps, saying, “The individual is nothing; the collective is everything.” Mao Zedong agreed, “The interests of the individual must be subordinated to the interests of the collective.” Mayor Mamdani isn’t creative—he simply resurrected an age-old Marxist maxim.
If history tells one story, it is this: there is nothing warm about collectivism. Soviet bread lines, a Cambodian genocide, starvation in Venezuela, state-sponsored slavery in North Korea, and a Chinese famine that killed around 50 million people in two years alone should make that fact abundantly clear. All in all, Communism has killed more people than all the wars in human history combined, totaling at least 100 million dead.
Communism always fails. Not only does it fail—it manufactures suffering, starvation, death, and dictatorial oppression on the way down.
In case there are any doubts about Mayor Mamdani’s intentions for New York City, a look at his cabinet is revealing. Mamdani’s “Tenant Advocate,” Cea Weaver, seeks to “seize private property,” because she believes homeownership is a “weapon of white supremacy.” Under her direction, Mamdani plans to initiate a rent freeze and develop public housing on the taxpayers’ dime.
Mamdani’s platform also aims to establish city-owned grocery stores, “free” busing and public transportation, and “free” childcare. Further, just as the Soviet Union pushed women towards abortion to maximize their labor for the state—treating them like men to pool a larger workforce—so Mamdani’s NYC will direct public funds towards sex-rejecting procedures and abortion services, making the city a “LGBTQIA+ Sanctuary City.” He’s pledged 65 million dollars towards sex-rejecting procedures (“Trans Healthcare”) and 2 million towards abortions, to be exact.
On their faces, Mamdani’s “free” services may appear well-intentioned. But nothing is truly free. How will Mamdani pay for his collectivist programs? He “knows just how” to do it, he claims: by “taxing corporations and the 1%.”
It’s been said once, and the saying rings true: there’s a reason the residents of East Berlin ran to the West when the Berlin Wall fell. Communism always creates conditions worth running from—so it should be no surprise when the employers that Mamdani plans to tax leave the city. And when these hard-working, well-to-do New Yorkers flee, New Yorkers of lesser means will be left behind to suffer imminent shortages and failing socialist programs as Mamdani’s public piggy bank runs dry. Capital drain will foil Mamdani’s utopic vision.
Generosity with other people’s money isn’t generosity; it is theft fueled by envy, and when the individuals with money can simply leave or shift their primary residence addresses to Florida, it isn’t smart, either. Communism is a failed economic experiment—Karl Marx knew that on his deathbed.
“The warmth of collectivism” has a chilling track record, and the largest city in the United States, a city that once symbolized the American dream, is set to learn that painful lesson unless it changes course.
