I feel sorry for the millions of hard-working residents of New York City who rang in 2026 with the inauguration of a socialist mayor.
“Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani took his midnight oath of office on a centuries-old Quran … underscoring a series of historic firsts for the city…in a long-closed subway station beneath City Hall,” PBS breathlessly reported.
PBS lauds Mamdani’s immutable traits, “the first Muslim, first South Asian and first African-born person” as “historic firsts for the city” while ignoring the much bigger and more relevant “historic first for the city,” which is the fact that Zohran Mamdani is the first socialist mayor of New York City.
The mainstream media, like PBS, portray Mamdani as a progressive pragmatist whose policies will address the acute affordability crisis in the Big Apple; however, this is propaganda and misinformation.
After his underground ceremony, Mamdani emerged to take center stage with socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at his official inauguration before the public, where he was sworn in by longtime socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Mamdani began his inaugural address by declaring, “My fellow New Yorkers—today begins a new era.” He should have clarified that the new era he refers to is socialism in the city.
“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously,” said Mamdani.
“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” he sneered.
He vowed to “freeze the rent,” “make buses fast and free,” and “deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few.”
Toward the end, he clearly stated, “I will govern as a Democratic socialist.”
Democratic socialism is socialism and vice versa.
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According to the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) website, “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism.”
The DSA, “the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 80,000 members and chapters in all 50 states,” in their own words, “want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation.”
The DSA “want to win ‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more.”
To their credit, they correctly define their policies as “radical” because they are abhorrent to the interests of most Americans.
As the polls show, most Americans are concerned with the rising cost-of-living.
As history shows, socialist policies exacerbate poverty, misery, and envy.
Like all iterations of socialism, whether it be Marxism, Bolshevism, Trotskyism, Maoism, or any other, the common denominator is more power for the government and less freedom for the people.
On an economic level, socialist-style command-and-control is far inferior to the free market magic of what Adam Smith called “the invisible hand.”
On a practical level, taking more from the productive people to give to unproductive people is untenable. In fact, the mass exodus of productive people from New York City is already underway.
Margaret Thatcher’s axiom: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money,” applies everywhere, even to New York City.
The good news is that there is only so much a socialist mayor can achieve on his or her own.
Fortunately, the American system has abundant safeguards and guardrails designed to prevent the quick consolidation of power that socialists need to implement their “radical” policies.
If they have an ounce of courage and an iota of common sense, the New York City Council and Gov. Kathy Hochul will stop the New York City socialist train in its tracks.
Stay tuned. This real-life New York City socialist soap opera will be full of intrigue, power, betrayal, and so much more.
Socialism in the city will be must-watch TV, unlike another TV show with a similar name.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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