Mamdani: Friend, Foe Or Neither??
December 18th, 2025
THERE IS QUITE AN HYSTERIA of howling and pointing from all sides regarding this Zohran Mamdani set to be sworn in as Mayor of New York City. Conservatives are yelling and screaming about how dangerous he is with all that slick talk of "seizing the means of production" and other classic communist phraseology. They were even alarmed about how forceful he was during his victory speech. And waiting on the other side of the current chasm, liberals are high-fiving and hugging themselves and claiming that a new dawn is upon us because Zohran is here to lend a big helping hand while he smiles...
Well, all of this, fortunately or unfortunately, is tremendously overblown and exaggerated. What should be obvious to most political observers watching this unfold is that Mamdani is kind of old news in the grand scheme of the political battle raging here in America. In many ways, it is far too little and way too late. But what should be even more obvious is that he is merely a continuation of a Mayor that so many have already forgotten -- Bill De Blasio. Remember him?
We have to congratulate Mamdani on his victory after a lot of hard work campaigning to lead one of the most powerful cities in the world, but in reality we are looking at a carbon copy of De Blasio. Both are democratic socialists -- only De Blasio utilized the usual Democrat method of trying to cloak it for years with only occasional outbursts of quotes from Che Guevara and Karl Marx. Mamdani, on the other hand, is a card carrying member of the Democratic Socialsts of America. Both ran on a platform of rich vs. poor -- a tale of two cities. The policies of universal child care, mental health care prioritization, de-escalation of policing, attacks on landlords and the "building of 200,000 new affordable housing units" seem to come quite literally out of the same playbook. De Blasio confirmed this when he himself said recently, "I went through hell so we can help Zohran." The real question here isn't are they similar it's who is writing the playbook they are pulling ideas from?
But here's the problem I see for the liberal cause this time around -- De Blasio came into office in 2013 in the midst of a great upheaval in America. President Obama, the liberal bureaucrat establishment of DC and the mainstream media were completely committed to a far left shift to radically transforming the United States into their idea of a fantastic utopia. It was open season in this country on anyone that opposed them and these people had free reign to do and say almost anything they pleased. The media could still put a spin on a story and most people would believe it! Viewers would tune into CNN to get what they thought was the news and man... they left feeling real informed about the world. All this largely continued to an even more heightened level during the first term of President Trump right before it fell off a cliff in 2020. De Blasio had the full support of this system (especially the Clintons) behind him as he went about his combative policy with the police in New York City, launched the Thrive NYC mental health program, bowed to the New Green Deal and boasted of generational and ideological change.
Things are different now. Those policies De Blasio pushed were seen by the world for what they were and it ruined him. He left office under incredibly strained circumstances and failed to gain even the scantest interest in running for future office at the local or national level. Mamdani's victory seems to stem largely from the lack of appealing opponents -- Cuomo had too many scandals on him that he couldn't shake off and Silwa's story had already been told.
So, why are so many excited or scared about Zohran Mamdani? For those who are elated they see the personality and lineage. He's a young person of color that grew up with white-collar class academic parents. He's an Africana rapper who smiles all the time and is well-cultured from his time spent living and traveling abroad. He sounds off on the usual liberal buzzwords and occasionally goes on hunger strikes. That's very appealing to those on the left and is often enough for them. He's part of their tribe and that's all they need to know. If they could just freeze that image and force everyone to vote immediately on that alone it would be "better for everyone."
Conservatives hear the neo-Marxist talking points of redistribution of property and the usual childish media adulation and immediately they tune out. It makes the right look insensitive and uninterested in helping the poor. But the problem with a far leftist like a Mamdani or De Blasio is not their willingness to help those underprivileged, but rather it is the embracing of a system of governance that destroys populations of people wherever it goes -- all of it in the name the "common good," of course. Take a look at Venezuela if you want a quick picture of what would happen to the United States under full socialism. Chavez was warm, friendly and had all the best intentions only to end up with a brutal dictatorship under Maduro that kept their population starving and under countless forms of daily oppression.
The odds of a socialist utopia popping up out of the soil of the United States at this point in our cosmology seems quite unlikely. You never know what will happen in the future and many did believe that worldwide communism really was dead by the nineties, but it is doubtful that Mamdani will get any further than De Blasio as Mayor of New York City. Will New York City suffer for a while? It depends on what you call suffering. If higher crime, homeless (drug dealing) camps and flight of wealthy residents and businesses are progress to you -- then maybe you'll love it.
Let us hope that Mamdani does at least lend a helping hand while he continues to grin. Even De Blasio did accomplish some good things in his time serving. Doing good for your fellow man is an amazing thing that we should all strive for, but trying to wreck the system that made this country great is no laughing matter.