With so much attention showered on the person of Zohran Mamdani following his shocking blowout victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, it has been easy to overlook the underlying ideology of the party to which he belongs. And we are not talking about the Democrats, but the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which Mamdani proudly joined in 2017.
In ordinary times, we might be able to answer yes, that New York is arguably the most left-wing city in America and thus not representative of the Democratic Party writ large. It might seem to be a given that, similar to the aftermath of the electoral debacles of 1972 with George McGovern and 1988 with Michael Dukakis, Democrats would move to the middle as they did with the successful campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, respectively. But where is the evidence that the party has come to grips with its disastrous progressivism and consequent repudiation by the voters last November? In what ways is it tacking toward the center?
Mainstream Democrats are oh-so-predictably attacking President Donald Trump for — among so many other things — reducing crime in DC, closing the border, deporting criminal illegal aliens, all the while standing on the wrong side of seemingly every other so-called 80-20 issue supported by the broad mass of voters. They are providing high-profile aid and comfort to criminals who have no right to be in the country to begin with — we’re looking at you, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and the margarita lunch you enjoyed with alleged wife-beater, gang member, and human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a low-life who has unbelievably been turned into a cause celebre for the left.
The point is, Mamdani has proven to be not an outlier but the embodiment of the Democratic Party circa 2025. Looking ahead, one can easily envision a 2028 campaign similar to 2020, when more than a dozen Democratic presidential wannabes spent all their time trying to tack as far to the left as possible, as typified by Democrat Julian Castro’s call for “reproductive justice for transgenders,” before the party realized that only a candidate who could be depicted as a “moderate,” Joe Biden, was actually electable.
It is thus appropriate to lay out the gory details of the platform advanced by Mamdani’s ascendant Democratic Socialists of America. Some of their beliefs you likely already understand, such as confiscatory tax rates, anti-capitalism, and unlimited abortion on demand. But as if those policies were not toxic enough, what members of the DSA stand for when you dig deeper is shocking.
They support performing abortions in churches. They believe prostitution and marriage are “two sides of the same coin.” They believe women and children are irreparably harmed by capitalism. And in asserting that being in a traditional family is akin to being in prison, they seek the abolition of the nuclear family as we know it. You read that right — abolition of the traditional family. Need proof? Per the New York Post, here is some of what was said at the 2025 DSA Conference in July:
“In addition to the abolition of family policing — government-run child-protective services — we argue for the abolition of the family in general and say that the institution of the family acts as part of the carceral system in that it reinforces children as property,” said Olivia Katbi, co-chair of DSA in Portland, OR. “When we talk about family abolition … we’re talking about the abolition of the economic unit,” added University of Chicago sociologist Eman Abdelhadi. “It is a horizon … in which all of our material needs are taken care of by the collective.” Panelist Emily Janakiram declared that “[t]he only real difference between marriage and prostitution is the price and the duration of the contract.”
Socialists realize they can never impose their will on the public without abolishing the family unit, the very foundation of a free and healthy society. How they would actually abolish families is not discussed, but while they call themselves socialists, there is little to no daylight between their beliefs and those of full-on communists who believe, as Mamdani has stated, that the people must “control the means of production,” a classic communist ambition.
Mamdani and his fellow travelers also realize that abolishing the police is the quickest way to undermine society as we know it. In June 2020, Mamdani posted on Twitter (now X), “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.” He has since denied that he intends to defund the police when he becomes mayor, but his instincts are clear for all to see.
But unlike most Democrats claiming to be reasonable while supporting wildly unpopular policies, at least Mamdani mostly admits to what he believes, slightly altered to make the likes of free buses, free childcare, and soak-the-rich tax hikes seem somewhat palatable. Unlike most Democrats or “democratic socialists,” Mamdani is apparently, in the words of Kamala Harris, unburdened by what has been in a party chasing the most radical solutions while denying their radicalism, behaving as if DEI, open borders, genital mutilation, men in women’s sports, and the like are policies sure to appeal to ordinary Americans. It can also be said that, despite proposing unpalatable solutions, Mamdani has realized what the rest of his party has forgotten, that “kitchen table” issues and the cost of living actually attract voters, unlike climate change, racialism, special rights for transgenders, and the full cornucopia of far-left beliefs resoundingly rejected by the voters.
Mamdani’s smiling face adorns the DSA website alongside fellow radical Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Will the front man for the Democratic Socialists of America become the face of the Democratic Party – or has he already?