Line Up for Bread Now
Media outlets describe Mayor Mamdani’s climb-downs as proof that the boyish activist is growing in the job.
• Politico writes, “is already a more complex city executive” than the one who promised not to “abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical” in his inaugural address.
• The New York Times praises Mr. Mamdani’s unexpected “commitment to the brass tacks of municipal government,” and cites a poll showing that a majority of residents believe the city is “moving in the right direction.”
At the WSJ’s Free Expressions, Kyle Smith explained it like this: The mayor came into office with the energy of “a theater kid crossed with a let’s-change-the-world college activist,” before asking, “has the youthful radical really matured into a sober realist in just a few months? “
Don’t fall for it, James Meios warns, also in “Free Expressions:”
The media gives Mr. Mamdani credit for decisions that were forced upon him, his underlying worldview remains untouched by recent encounters with reality. It is a worldview shaped both by his upbringing (his father is an anti-American, terrorist-defending academic) and by his education in trendy radicalism.
In a press conference used to explain his plans for a $30 million grocery store in Harlem, Mamdani said, “When corporations control every part of the food supply chain, prices go up, basic necessities become luxuries, and workers and customers both lose.”
Every word of his statement is false, claims Meios.
Producing abundant and affordable food is one of capitalism’s most famous success stories. Meanwhile, socialist regimes from the USSR to Venezuela have famously failed to feed their populations adequately. Unlearning these historic truths requires a very high-priced education. The Babylon Bee summed up this absurdity with the parodic headline, “Mamdani Says City-Run Supermarket Will Be Ready in 3 Years But Recommends Getting in Line for Bread Now.”
Anticolonial Revolutions
Are Mamdani’s policies based on the realities of New York life? Hardly. They, rather, reflect his fantasy vision of how the entire world operates. The doctrine gradually flowered into an all-encompassing creed, describing the world in stark Manichean terms: as an ongoing battle between the oppressed and their oppressors. New York’s boroughs serve as metaphorical battlegrounds in the decolonization process,” writes Moroccan-born writer Zineb Riboua.
Despite Mamdani’s cheerful surface and his accommodating patter, Mayor Mamdani stays true to his 3rd world beliefs. Notice how his trademark policies all focus on some group of villainous oppressors who must be punished for the good of downtrodden New Yorkers.
As a candidate, Mamdani promised to raise taxes on “whiter neighborhoods.” Now, as mayor, he has issued a Racial Equity Plan in a framework that presumes its conclusions and “then operationalizes them,” writes Wai Wah Chan (American Institute scholar).
Stick It to the Rich
The mayor has asked the state to raise taxes on the wealthy, is threatening to boost property taxes by 9.5%, and recently proposed a big tax on part-time residents who own expensive apartments. “Happy Tax Day!” he grinned into the camera in one of his trademark short videos. The mayor seems unconcerned that higher taxes make the city’s dysfunctional tax code worse and could drive away vital businesses. Punishing fat cats is an end in itself.
