Zohran Kwame Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. Critics wasted no time labeling him the Muslim extremist candidate once he clinched the party nod. Then he drops this bombshell of a plan: he wants to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.” If someone said that out loud at a cocktail party, you’d think they were joking or reading from a script.
According to his memo, the current setup somehow gives a break to homeowners in areas where gentrification drives up costs. The plan then targets higher taxes at properties likely owned by affluent white residents. The extra dollars would arrive on the doorsteps of families in lower-income neighborhoods. Mamdani himself hails from Uganda and traces his roots to Indian heritage before he became an American citizen in 2018.
His memo does not stop with taxes. One section outlines city-owned grocery stores under government control. A separate passage calls for cutting policing budgets entirely. Later, he even states that prisons should vanish altogether. Does that sound like a practical road map for the city that never sleeps?
Those bold ideas set off alarm bells with Republicans and moderates nationwide. Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee took it a step further, demanding in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that Mamdani lose his American citizenship if investigators dig up undisclosed ties to extremist groups. In that letter, Ogles wrote, “Zohran ‘little Muhammad’ Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York.” Talk about overwrought rhetoric.
Even the Washington Post is unhappy with Mamdani running an Editorial Board Op-Ed piece with the headline, “Zohran Mamdani’s victory is bad for New York and the Democratic Party,” saying:
New Yorkers should be worried that he would lead Gotham back to the bad old days of civic dysfunction, and Democrats should fear that he will discredit their next generation of party leaders, almost all of whom are better than this democratic socialist.
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Now, a man who believes that capitalism is “theft” is in line to lead the country’s biggest city and the world’s financial capital. His signature ideas are “city-owned grocery stores,” no bus fares, freezing rent on 1 million regulated apartments and increasing the minimum wage to $30 an hour. No doubt these might strike some voters as tempting ideas. But, as with so many proposals from America’s far left, the trade-offs would hurt the people they are supposed to help.
Such a massive minimum wage would depress low-skilled employment. His rent freeze would reduce the housing supply and decrease its quality. Cutting bus fares would leave a transit funding hole that, unless somehow filled, would erode service. Meanwhile, the grocery business operates on thin margins, and his plan for city-run stores would probably lead to fewer options, poor service and shortages, as privately run stores closed rather than try to compete with city-subsidized shops.
On the other side, billionaire Bill Ackman isn’t sitting on his hands. He dropped a warning to back any challenger with enough cash to close the deal. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight,” said Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital. That kind of financial firepower turns this mayor’s race into a war zone.
What nobody expected was the primary upset over a political heavyweight like Andrew Cuomo. That shocker sets the scene for a November face-off with Mayor Eric Adams, who left the Democratic Party to run as an independent. If you thought New York elections were dramatic before, get ready. This one could rewrite the playbook.
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