Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who prevailed last week in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, checks all the boxes: He thinks the cops are racist. He offers “free” transit buses and child care. And he proposes a $30-per-hour minimum wage.
But the far-left candidate has another plan up his sleeve: Tax whitey more than anyone else in the multicultural city.
That part of his plan is buried deep in his website, but surfaced on X and in the New York Post during the weekend.
As The New American reported last week, Mamdani might well be the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans. Democratic U.S. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called his victory “Christmas in July for the GOP.”
In addition to all the “free” stuff, the Uganda-born Indian also vows to “Trump-proof” the Big Apple. He promises to “get ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out of all City facilities and end any cooperation” with them, and to “increase funding for immigration legal services to provide representation for people and communities targeted by mass deportation.”
No wonder Democratic Representative Laura Gillen of New York said that Mamdani “is too extreme to lead New York City.” Indeed, “his entire campaign has been built on unachievable promises and higher taxes, which is the last thing New York needs,” she wrote on X:
Beyond that, Mr. Mamdani has called to defund the police and has demonstrated a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments which stoke hate at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing. He is the absolute wrong choice for New York.
Fetterman and Gillen aren’t alone. Kate deGruyter, communications director for the Democrats’ Third Way outfit, told The Washington Post:
The Republican Party will work very hard to suggest that every Democrat is a socialist tied to extreme ideas. It’s a playbook they have run before and know well, and they now have a lot of fresh new content.
So Fetterman, Gillen, and deGruyter will love what he has in store for the city’s whites.
Under the title “Supporting homeowners and ending deed theft,” Mamdani’s website observes that the city’s real-property tax system is fouled up. “The city’s wealthiest pockets pay just a fraction of their just tax bill because assessed values are artificially capped to stay low while actual market values soar,” the website claims:
That means neighborhoods where the cost of home ownership has skyrocketed, and only the richest New Yorkers can afford to buy, pay a relative pittance in taxes. Their lower rates are made up [for] by climbing taxes in other parts of the city.
True, perhaps. But Mamdani and his spear carriers just couldn’t resist blaming someone in particular for the disparity. His administration will, the website says, “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.”
Thus did the New York Post offer this front page: “The Price Is White: Mamdani says white neighborhoods should pay higher property taxes.” (They later changed that headline to “Socialist NYC mayoral contender Zohran Mamdani wants to hike property taxes for ‘richer and whiter neighborhoods.’”)
“Democrats and many Republicans have long pushed to fix the out-of-whack system that ends up hitting poorer, often largely black and brown neighborhoods, with higher property taxes than their neighbors in swanky areas that tend to be majority Caucasian,” the newspaper reported:
But Mamdani’s specific mention of “whiter,” wealthier neighborhoods drew outrage from some observers. Many right-wing commentators accused Mamdani, who would be the city’s first mayor of South Asian descent if elected, of targeting white New Yorkers, with one labeling him a “RACIST.”
City Councilman David Carr (R-Staten Island), who’s part of the bipartisan push to reform the property tax system, said Mamdani should tone down the “rhetoric” if he’s going to help tackle a very real imbalance
“The objective of our reforms is to make our property tax system fairer and more transparent and to ensure that middle- and working-class homeowners aren’t subsidizing lower taxes for wealthy property owners,” Carr said.
“It’s not about blaming people based on race or class or political affiliation, and if Zohran Mamdani wants to come on board, then he should drop the divisive rhetoric.”
Atlantic scribe James Surowiecki observed the obvious on X. The Left just can’t stop seeing race and identity:
Mamdani wants to tax pricier properties more (which will hit “whiter neighborhoods” harder, since they’re richer), not to tax based on race. But the fact that his ppl thought it was smart to say it would tax “whiter neighborhoods” more tells you that identitarianism still has a tight hold on the left.
Podcaster Benny Johnson reported that U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon might well investigate Mamdani’s plan should he become mayor.
“Racial discrimination is illegal in the United States — period. Full stop!” she said. “The illegal discriminatory scheme described by Mamdani would violate federal constitutional and statutory norms, and might even violate New York law.”
If Mamdani were to become mayor, whites in those more expensive environs might well sue to stop plans to raise their taxes given what the website said: Mamdani will impose higher taxes on “white neighborhoods.”
That said, Mamdani appears to have a good shot at winning the race. Far-left Senator Chuck Schumer and equally far-left Representatives Jerry Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — all Democrats of New York — have endorsed him. So also have Senators Bernie Sanders (I) of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts.
The endorsements suggest that Democrats no longer fear the socialist label, and now openly embrace it.
Republicans will ensure that Americans know it.
Noted Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee:
Every single one of them is a proud part of the pro-criminal, antisemitic, defund-the-police, open border, socialist party.