Portrayed as some modern-day Robin Hood taking from the rich to give to the poor, child of privilege, Zohran Mamdani, might ultimately find himself in Gracie Mansion as the next mayor of New York City.
But as a leading candidate for that office, his words have exposed him not as that heroic folklore figure fighting the tyranny of the well-born but rather as a smooth-talking smoke-and-mirrors danger to the city and to the less affluent he claims to champion.
And perhaps worst of all, in claiming “anti-Zionism is central to my identity,” Mamdani stated that he would not repudiate the “Globalize the Intifada” movement.
As a possible next-generation standard bearer for the Democrat Party, Mamdani, at least superficially, seems to fit that description. Young, charismatic, and shrewdly verbal, Mamdani seems well-suited as a snake oil salesman selling ever more freebies to the underclass seeking assistance and ever greater redemption to the ashamed wealthy seeking atonement for their privilege.
More specifically, Mamdani has promised that as New York’s first Democratic socialist mayor, he will be “taking on income inequality” by eliminating city bus fares, creating city-owned grocery stores, ordering a rent freeze for stabilized tenants, providing taxpayer-funded housing, offering free childcare, and eventually raising the hourly minimum wage to $30.
So, how will he pay for such exorbitant bribes? Simple. He will redistribute wealth through much higher taxes on corporations and, because he doesn’t think we should have billionaires, on wealthy New Yorkers living in “richer and whiter neighborhoods.”
However, as a New York State Assemblyman, Mamdani must know that cities typically cannot initiate individual and corporate tax increases. Thus, his reported tax proposals would require state-level support, which is doubtful at best. The bottom line, therefore, is that Mamdani is promising what he cannot unilaterally deliver. Not even close.
But like most socialists, his penalizing success playbook confuses equality of condition with equality of opportunity and attempts to help one group by harming another. However, in doing so, his revenue-boosting plans will likely create a mass exodus from New York City, resulting in widespread unemployment and a shrinking tax base. And because the top one percent of the wealthiest New Yorkers already provide nearly 52 percent of the city’s income tax revenues, this will almost certainly be so.
In fact, many studies indicate that state and local tax increases have a significant impact on “capital flight” migration. And soon to face reelection, New York Governor Kathy Hochul agrees, recently saying that greater costs are “pushing New Yorkers to Palm Beach.”
And therein lies the problem with Mamdani’s economically unsustainable, smoke-and-mirrors schemes, which, if enacted, would likely turn the Big Apple into a bankrupt one. Or as Margaret Thatcher sagely said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Mamdani vs. the Police and the Jews
But Mamdani’s “pie in the sky” fiscal plans are not the least of his problems. Since New York City is the home of the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, his antisemitic actions and comments undermine his electability and his moral standing. Labeling Israel’s clearly justified retaliatory response in Gaza to the October 7th massacre as “genocide,” he also stated that in supporting Israel, the U.S. was “subsidizing” that horror.
He has also said that as mayor, he would arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes if traveling to New York City. And as a member of the New York State Assembly, he declined to sign a resolution recognizing Israel on the anniversary of its founding and also passed on condemning the Holocaust.
And perhaps worst of all, in claiming “anti-Zionism is central to my identity,” Mamdani stated that he would not repudiate the “Globalize the Intifada” movement as it expresses not an obvious call to spread violence against Jewish people and the West but rather “a desperate desire [for] Palestinian human rights,”
But if the above were not enough, he has also promised to “Trump-proof” New York by kicking ICE out of the five boroughs. And not bashful about fearmongering rhetoric, he has also blustered that by deploying “ICE agents to pluck New Yorkers from their families,” Trump is “tearing at the fabric of New York City.”
However, as a too outrageous by half nonsensical quote machine, Mamdani is a gift that keeps on giving. For although he recently backtracked on criticizing the police, up until at least 2020 he described the New York police department as “wicked and corrupt.” Adding, since “we don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety,” we should “defund it, dismantle it, and end the cycle of violence.”
So, in the end, there was no legendary hero redistributing wealth named Robin Hood, and there certainly is no Santa Claus bearing gifts free of charge. Thus, for anyone, least of all Zohran Mamdani, to metaphorically pretend otherwise is a smoke-and-mirrors scam to hide an optimistically prophetic truth.
Namely, exchanging his anti-establishment utopian promises for votes this November will hopefully result in only two outcomes. And they are, buyer’s remorse for supporters, and for the self-described “Muslim lefty” from Queens, flaming out as a political star.
READ MORE:
Intersectional Communist Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats Can’t Quit Obamaism
Mamdani Trapped in the Left’s Tangled Web of Race and Gender
Neil Bright is a retired university professor and a former public school superintendent. He is currently an author of three books, the latest of which is Rethinking Everything on personal growth and effectiveness.