There’s a dangerous illusion making its way through New York City: Zohran Mamdani.
This self-proclaimed socialist, fresh off his win in the Democratic mayoral primary last week, brands himself as a “working-class champion.” But scratch beneath the surface and it becomes clear he’s anything but.
Mamdani’s rise began after Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign inspired him to embrace democratic socialism and join the Democratic Socialists of America.
From the start, he pushed for massive tax hikes on the wealthy to bankroll sprawling social programs — ideas that might sound good on a college quad but threaten to crush small businesses and the very blue-collar workers he claims to protect.
When he won his State Assembly seat in 2020, Mamdani doubled down, campaigning on rent freezes and heavier corporate taxes.
It’s a familiar playbook: punish job creators and hope government can save the day.
For New Yorkers in trades, hospitality, and retail — people who live paycheck to paycheck — these policies don’t represent hope. They spell pink slips and rising costs. Especially as capital flight to places like Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, and Tennessee continues.
In 2021, Mamdani launched a free bus pilot program funded by taxpayers. Rather than fix crumbling roads or invest in real transit improvements for delivery drivers and truckers, he chose headline-grabbing giveaways that evaporated after a year, leaving infrastructure and working people worse off.
Mamdani’s global ambitions overshadow local needs. He went as far as accusing Israel of “genocide.” He refused to affirm its right to exist as a Jewish state, claiming he couldn’t support any nation with “hierarchies of citizenship.” He even declined to condemn the terrorist slogan “globalize the intifada,” sidestepping it. Such vile stances divert attention from New York’s urgent economic crises.
Mamdani’s economic blueprint reads like a dystopian fantasy: fare-free buses, city-owned grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. Who pays? High earners — a broad category, given New York’s ludicrous cost of living, where six-figure salaries have the purchasing power of an Alabama security guard’s income — and businesses. The result? Higher consumer prices, business closures, and fewer opportunities for everyday New Yorkers trying to make ends meet.
Adding insult to injury, Mamdani wants to shift tax burdens explicitly onto “richer and whiter” neighborhoods, using anti-white bigotry as a wedge. This malicious approach doesn’t unite the city — it fuels resentment and undermines trust among neighbors.
Despite styling himself as a blue-collar hero, Mamdani’s record tells a different story. In the Democratic mayoral primary, he lost voters earning under $50,000 to Andrew Cuomo by 19-point landslide. Working-class New Yorkers weren’t fooled by Mamdani’s rhetorical flourishes. They saw through the charade and chose someone they believed could deliver practical results, not Utopian lectures.
The irony doesn’t stop there. Mamdani hails from privilege, as the son of a Columbia University professor and renowned filmmaker Mira Nair. Even in legacy media circles, he’s known as a “nepo baby,” underscoring the hollow nature of his “man of the people” persona. His support base isn’t working folks from Queens or the Bronx; it’s young, affluent progressives in gentrified pockets of the city.
These “New Yorkers,” flocking from elsewhere with fantastical dreams of urban life, proudly embrace socialism.
Now comes the twist and turn. Capitalism facilitated — and continues to facilitate — their gentrification. The arrival of these “New Yorkers” displaced the blue collar minorities who voted for the relatively free enterprise candidate: Andrew Cuomo. Some things just can’t be made up.
Mamdani’s hostility toward wealth creation is profoundly troubling. Last month, this gilded socialist declared he didn’t believe billionaires should exist, calling their fortunes “immoral” in an era of inequality. But driving out successful entrepreneurs and investors isn’t a solution — it hurts, first and foremost, those at the bottom, trickling up to the middle class.
Without a robust private sector, where’s the opportunity for normal Americans? Of course, there are government jobs, but they wouldn’t exist without tax revenue from big businesses.
The stakes aren’t confined to New York. Mamdani’s brand of radicalism reflects a broader Democrat party in disarray after last November. With no clear identity, Democrats have drifted toward extremism. They’re grasping for a popular agenda; clawing through the rump of Barack Obama’s once-venerable coalition.
For Republicans — and any leader serious about serving blue-collar America — this moment is an open door. While Mamdani offers emotional slogans and socialist fantasies, working people want fiscal sanity: affordable living, secure jobs, and safe streets. They don’t want ideological purity tests or wrecking-ball tax schemes.
In truth, Mamdani’s vision is a danger to every New Yorker who relies on a paycheck rather than a protest sign. His policies promise higher costs, fewer jobs, creeping anxiety, and nastier race relations.
The choice could not be clearer, and Republicans must trumpet it: a future built on real economic growth and pragmatic governance, or Mamdani’s performative revolution that sacrifices working families at the altar of champagne socialism.
Image: Screen shot from X video
Dr. Joseph Ford Cotto hosts and produces News Sight, speaking the data-driven truth about economic and political issues that impact you. During the 2024 presidential election, he created the Five-Point Forecast, which correctly predicted Trump's national victory and the outcome in all swing states. The author of numerous nonfiction books, Cotto holds a doctorate in business administration and is a Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt. During 2014, HLM King Kigeli V of Rwanda bestowed a hereditary knighthood upon him. It was followed by a barony the next year.