From time immemorial, the youth have been raging against the machine. Though our politics have evolved on the surface in names and trends, this fact remains. Struggling with a brand in the gutter after their defeat in the November election, Democrats are looking to socialist Zohran Mamdani and revolutionary upstarts like him as their rescuers.
Despite the inroads that President Donald Trump has made with Gen Z, especially young men, a recent poll found that two-thirds of young Americans still support socialism. Results from the New York City Democratic mayoral primary showed that 85% of young men aged 18-34 voted for Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani. Democrats are starting to take this as a sign that the enthusiasm and their party’s future lie with the radicals.
Recommended Stories
- Jim Acosta's interview of a dead kid is a shameless stunt
- US decision to use nuclear weapons ended World War II
- Trump just made a huge mistake
Populism compels a generation of young men who are increasingly anti-establishment, regardless of whether it’s on the right or the left. In their quest to lure young men back, however, the Democrats will find that Mamdani is not the answer to their prayers. He will fail to deliver the reckoning of the system that young men seek. In fact, he’ll enable it further. His policies will not empower young men but will make them more dependent on the government gravy train. And despite his happy-go-lucky attitude (how could you hate a smiley guy?), Mamdani also has a deficiency of one quality valuable to young men that cannot be faked: authenticity.
To be sure, Mamdani plays a “cool guy” very well. He’s demonstrated a kind of “rizz,” likely from years of model United Nations and theatre kid-type activities. But so does Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), an apolitical chameleon who mirrors whoever he’s talking to and goes wherever the vibe blows. And this is the key: Mamdani has proven he will play whatever role he thinks people want. He once faked a South African accent on live radio. Like former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), he’s scripted and contrived, motivated more by love of power and prestige than by love of the city and country he’s claiming he will represent.
The biggest fraud of it all is that Mamdani will still enjoy a cushy lifestyle inherited from his successful parents when all is said and done. A political “nepo baby,” Mandani once admitted that his parents would step in to support him financially if his career ever failed to launch. Yes, Trump also accepted a “small loan of a million dollars” to get his business going. But the difference is that he built an empire that employed tens of thousands of people. Trump’s policies also promise to raise every income level by unleashing economic growth via tax cuts, deregulation, and energy independence.
Mamdani, on the other hand, is grifting on socialism — equal opportunity misery for the masses, which he will never have to suffer under once implemented. He has contributed barely anything to the economy, having worked government jobs his whole adult life. And if his campaign ultimately succeeds or fails, he will likely cash in on book deals and other gigs about the merits of socialism.
Many young men were turned off by Harris’s policy flip-flopping and hypocrisy on the campaign trail. They need to recognize it in Mamdani, too. He has urged defunding the police in the past. Worse, he once cheered a post about a police officer crying in his car. Mocking those who bravely wear the badge should infuriate all young men who hope to become protectors of their future families.
And yet, at his recent posh wedding celebration in Uganda, Mamdani had armed private security guards posted outside the venue. Police for me, but not for thee. The NYPD strategic response group quickly responded to the recent tragic shooting on Park Avenue, where a madman opened fire in a skyscraper lobby. But Mamdani has vocally opposed the unit in the past and vowed to eliminate it.
To young men, Trump offered not only consistency on core issues such as the economy and immigration but realness in spades, with his unfiltered, almost stream-of-consciousness speaking. Young men, feeling dejected amid a hyper-feminist culture that demonized them and their masculinity as toxic, had been searching for someone who would affirm their dissatisfaction with the status quo. For them, Trump was an archetype of audacity who told them they didn’t have to apologize for being themselves.
And like Mamdani, he also promised to kill many sacred cows that young men had grown skeptical of. For Mamdani, those were billionaires and the Israel-U.S. relationship. For Trump, it was institutions that had been captured by discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion, which disadvantaged young men. This was Trump’s appeal to the forlorn fellas. It is one that Mamdani mimics, but his diagnoses and prescriptions are all wrong.
On the economics front, Mamdani has tapped into the real financial anxieties of Gen Z, young men included. In New York City, where the cost of living is astronomical and many commodities have steep premiums compared to other states and cities, many young people feel like they’re drowning. To be sure, a good degree of this grief is driven by toxic peer comparison on social media, which makes young adults think they have to mortgage their futures to afford more materialism today. But even home ownership — a level of achievement that was a given for baby boomers — feels unattainable for many members of Gen Z.
Rent control, government-run grocery stores, and free buses are enticing to Gen Z as they might finally level the playing field for those who don’t work on Wall Street. Some young men who hope to be future providers may think these proposals will help them get there. Mamdani’s affordability ideas make young men imagine more career mobility and opportunity. In reality, however, they are temporary feel-good solutions that will backfire, as they have in the past. Much of Gen Z is just too young to remember when they did.
Rent control sounds great, but it will drive landlords out of business. Forced to limit their profits, some landlords will force tenants out and leave the market entirely. This will reduce the total housing supply and exacerbate the housing shortage in the city. The housing that remains will likely fall into disrepair because landlords will have no incentive to invest in their maintenance and upkeep. Government-run grocery stores will crowd out mom-and-pop shops, many of which are owned by legal immigrants.
NEW YORK CITY’S FRACTURED ANTI-SOCIALIST MAJORITY
Gen Z is jaded for their age. They emerged battered from the COVID-19 pandemic, when their classrooms were closed and they were denied socialization during formative years. That learning loss meant they developed less economic and financial literacy. They were isolated, lonely, and depressed. And as baby boomers’ properties skyrocketed in value, they felt left behind and financially resentful. Because of that socioeconomic moment, Gen Z became ripe for persuasion by candidates such as Zohran Mamdani.
There is a similarity between the fervor behind Gen Z’s embrace of Mamdani and their national shift to Trump in the 2024 election. They are two sides of the same populist coin. They both give young people a new sense of agency over their futures amid turbulent economic and cultural conditions over the last several years. But through his socialism, Mamdani wants to give more power to the government, which Gen Z men especially distrust. Trump actually wants to and already has placed power back in their hands.
Caroline Downey is the host of Locked In at National Review, editor-in-chief of The Conservateur, and senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.