Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson have put a shiny bow on their socialist ideas, and voters bought it. It’s baffling that Americans are falling for such a dangerous ideology.
President Trump and Zohran Mamdani’s surprisingly friendly meeting
USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison analyzes a surprisingly friendly meeting between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
It’s that time of year when we all feel a little more generous. Gifts and shopping are on our minds – and filling up that space under the Christmas tree.
Two incoming big-city mayors are also feeling that holiday spirit. The difference is that they have big plans to be generous with your money.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, 34, has attracted most of the national buzz, but he isn’t the only democratic socialist to win the vote this November.
Seattle voters chose Katie Wilson, 43, to be their next mayor, and she shares many of Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky policies. America’s warming to anti-capitalist ideals is alarming to say the least.
Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson joins NY Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in promising free stuff
Here’s a partial list of what Wilson “wants,” in her own words: “I want everyone in this great city of ours to have a roof over their head. I want universal child care, free K through 8 summer care. … I want social housing. I want much more land and wealth to be owned and stewarded by communities instead of corporations.”
(Wilson seems to want to benefit personally from her campaign ideas. She has admitted to needing financial help from her parents to help pay for child care.)
On the other side of the country, Mamdani’s to-do list includes “free” child care, “free” buses, a rent freeze and government-run grocery stores.
Guess what? All of those things are extremely costly. Even more concerning is these socialists’ desire to get the government much more entrenched in business and daily life.
Trump has called Mamdani a ‘communist.’ Is he right?
Before Mamdani’s election in November, President Donald Trump actively campaigned against him, calling him a “communist lunatic.”
While Mamdani has demurred that label, preferring the more palatable-sounding “democratic socialist,” some of the ideas he’s advocated get uncomfortably close.
For example, when speaking at the 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, he said that socialists like himself “firmly believe in” the “end goal of seizing the means of production” – something he admitted may not be popular at the moment but nevertheless deserved to be promoted.
Seizing the means of production is a central tenet of communism.
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Mamdani likes calling names, too, and like many other progressives, has lobbed the “fascist” label at Trump.
So it was surprising to see the two politicians together Nov. 21 in the Oval Office – an event dubbed a “love fest.” Both of them deserve credit for at least talking to each other about their ideas for improving New York. However, Mamdani maintained the “fascist” insult, even in front of Trump.
I do wonder how many actual fascists have met so warmly with their political opponents?
Socialism has been tried around the world. It always fails.
Shortly before Mamdani’s meeting with Trump, Congress marked its concern with the country’s largest city now having a socialist as mayor.
It passed a resolution denouncing the horrors of socialism, 285-98, with 86 Democrats joining the Republican majority. That includes House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Jeffries waited until the last minute to endorse Mamdani.
According to a press release from resolution sponsor Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Florida, “The resolution outlines some of the most brutal crimes committed by socialist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, demonstrating that wherever socialism has taken root, the results have been the same: famine, repression, death, economic ruin, and the loss of human freedom.”
Just look south to Argentina, which is climbing out of an economy that was destroyed by socialism (thanks to the strong leadership of its pro-capitalism President Javier Milei). In 2023, ahead of Milei’s election, annual inflation reached an unfathomable 148%.
It’s baffling that Americans are falling for such a dangerous ideology. But they are.
A recent poll of likely voters from The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports showed that 51% of young Americans, ages 18-39, would like to see a democratic socialist in the White House.
Mamdani and Wilson have put a shiny bow on their socialist ideas, and voters bought it.
Beware what comes next.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques