"Our Country Needs to be Sanctioned"

Zohran Mamdani previews the ideological future of the Democratic Party

Everything the comrades hate about America in one photo

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Admittedly, there’s an element of comedy in the rise of Zohran Mamdani, the radical socialist/anti-American/antisemitic/terrorist-hugging Democratic Party candidate for mayor of New York City. He’s such an obvious lightweight, such an egregious know-nothing, such a blatant liar and hypocrite. You can’t help smiling at the way in which the party’s grandees have rushed to shower him with accolades, nor laughing at the credulous ignorance of his Gen Z supporters.

But not so fast. The general consensus seems to be that Mamdani will win the general election in November and become NYC’s next mayor. And that’s a horrifying prospect that negates any element of comedy or reason to smile.

It says something for the sorry state of the Democratic Party that it’s prepared to consign the greatest city in America and the world to an antisemitic monster of evil like Mamdani. Some 12% of NYC’s population is Jewish; how can he, who reviles Zionism and Israel, be their mayor? On September 11, 2001, NYC was the scene of the worst terrorist atrocity in American history; how can he, who hates America and supports Islamofascist terrorist groups in the name of “Palestine,” govern the city? Can you imagine him presiding over the annual 9/11 remembrances? NYC is the financial capital of the world; how can he, who aspires to smash capitalism and liquidate billionaires, be its mayor?

Even with the foregoing considerations put to one side, it’s clear that Mamdani as mayor would be a disaster for NYC. It’s not just that he’s a radical socialist verging on outright communism—his ideology and the ideas flowing from it are untethered from reality. Mamdani’s proposal for publicly owned grocery stores exemplifies the ignorance of basic economics that permeates his announced policies. Those stores, along with free bus transportation and a rent freeze are supposedly to be paid for by jacking up taxes on “rich white neighborhoods.” Sounds like a plan—for economic ruin. In the person of this radical socialist, progressivism’s delusion that higher taxes can solve any problem is maximized.

Also maximized in the person of Mamdani is progressivism’s aversion to law enforcement, and its delusion that winning hearts and minds is the best way of dealing with the criminal class. So, fewer cops, more social workers—the exact opposite of what’s required to make the city safer.

The best to be hoped for is that once in office, Mamdani will be stymied by economic realities, with an assist from NYC’s elephantine government bureaucracy and the financial sector of the city’s economy. As Donald Trump learned during his first term, inertia is the first principle of the administrative state. And as many progressively governed American cities should have learned since 2020, policies that punish or hamstring the business community are productive of economic stagnation and decline.

It’s true, of course, that Mamdani and his policies are popular with certain individuals and groups. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to have developed quite a crush on him. Gen Z types love the guy, which only goes to show the truth of the old French proverb: A fool can always find a bigger fool to admire him. Plenty of progressive Democrats are in the process of convincing themselves that his frivolous radicalism represents their party’s path forward. But New York City isn’t much like the rest of America. It’s an ideological hothouse—a closed, miniature environment optimized for the development of left-radical nosebleeds, goofballs, and grifters.

And the Democratic Party is evolving into the party of such left-radical enclaves. What remains of the party’s old guard—a decidedly unimpressive bunch of senior citizens—has not the energy to push back against the likes of Mamdani. Indeed, they fear the party’s increasingly radical progressive base.

Joe Biden, supposedly a level-headed centrist Democrat, was so intimated by that base that his initial strong support for Israel in the aftermath of the 10/7/2023 Hamas pogrom degenerated into a policy that can only be described as antisemitic adjacent. Not only did the Biden Administration barrage Israel with a litany of complaints and condemnations based on false charges of IDF war crimes—that was bad enough. But in addition, it did precisely nothing to combat the horrifying rise of antisemitism in America. On university campuses, Jewish students, mostly American citizens, were harassed, assaulted and had their civil rights violated with impunity. There was no pushback against this from Biden & Co., not even rhetorically. In a presidential election year, they feared to alienate antisemitic Muslim-American voters in Dearborn, Michigan, and elsewhere.

That was an omen, a preview of the Democratic Party’s future.

Already the Democrats have surrendered their claim to be the party of the working class, the middle class, minorities, the party of the broad center. Those days are long gone. Today’s Democratic Party is the party of radical socialist economics, of open borders, of DEI racism, of progressive antisemitism, of trans insanity, of the 1619 Project and the flag burners. The default position of today’s Democratic Party is based on the argument that America is a terrible place, a proto-fascist polity, founded by violence, corrupted by predatory capitalism, seething with racism, sexism, and assorted phobias. Do I exaggerate? Well, recall that recent Gallup poll showing that a mere 36% of Democrats are proud to be American. The remaining 64% are not, and the argument summarized above explains why. They think that America sucks.

Here’s how one standard-issue progressive, Elie Mystal, “justice correspondent” for the Nation magazine, characterized America during an appearance on MSNBC. The subject under discussion was President Trump’s decision to bomb and destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons development facilities:

Joy, I’ve argued—and I don’t say this lightly—but our country needs to be sanctioned. We are the bad guys on the world stage. We are a menace to not only free people everywhere, but we are a menace to peaceful people everywhere at this point.

And I’m not even gonna say that we’ve only been a menace for the past three or four months, right?” continued the far-left commentator. “Like when does the international community decide that enough is enough? I know we’re rich. I know we’ve got a lot of money. I know that people want to buy things from our country because we’re rich, or want to sell things to our country because we are rich. But at some point the international community has to stand up to us because we are a bad guy on the world stage, right? And so we should be sanctioned. We should be sectioned and rebuked.

It seems reasonable to ask how a political party with views like that can be trusted to govern this country. Elie Mystal and Zohran Mamdani personify the Democratic Party’s evolving attitude toward America; can you imagine them or someone like them as president of the United States?

The 250th anniversary of the American independence is a year off. A large number of Democrats, progressives, and leftists can be expected observe the occasion by denouncing a political philosophy they revile and a country they think should never have been allowed to come into existence. To them, Old Glory is a fascist banner, patriotism is a character flaw, and America is the focus of evil in the modern world.