In my recent piece on America’s crime crisis, “Nightmare in American Cities,” I cited Fox News contributor Gianno Caldwell’s warning about what might happen if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral race in New York City. "If he wins, I think it's gonna be the end of New York," he said, to nods from those in attendance at his book signing at the Ronald Reagan Library.
It’s not surprising that people sympathetic to the 40th president’s pro–free market capitalism economic policy would recognize the danger of a democratic socialist leading America’s most populous city. It’s perhaps even less surprising that one of America’s most radical senators is giddy at the prospect of a Mayor Mamdani era in New York City—government-run supermarkets and all. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed this opponent of capitalism on Monday with these words:
When someone stands up and says, I will lead this city by making it more affordable. And here are my plans, real plans. Plans to deliver on childcare, plans to deliver on housing, plans to deliver. We're going to experiment. We're going to try things on groceries.
NEW: Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren throws her support behind Zohran Mamdani's government-run grocery stores.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 4, 2025
Warren says Democrats need to "experiment" with these ideas.
"When someone stands up and says, I will lead this city by making it more affordable. And here are my… pic.twitter.com/fNx4nV5rfz
“Experiment,” eh? Well, Democrats have experimented before—often using New York City as their laboratory. It hasn't worked out so well. Consider the reign of David Dinkins, who, as Jason Riley writes, “was a big-city progressive before it was cool.” (The soon-to-end "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" assures us that Mamdani is the cool candidate this year.) In a 2020 City Journal article, Steven Malanga described the nightmarish conditions in NYC under Dinkins' leadership.
Violent crime, which heavily victimized minority communities, had been rising steadily, and murders would eventually hit a record of 2,262 in Dinkins’s second year in office. The city lost more than 300,000 jobs in a recession that began during his term, and the sharp decline in the rate of growth of tax revenues led to a series of budget crises that Dinkins solved in part with big tax hikes and rising fines and fees on an already-overburdened business community. The emphasis on racial harmony that seemed so imperative during the campaign thus gave way to a general sense of desperation and yearning for leadership.
Dinkins sounded unrepentant about the failures during his single term as mayor in his 2013 book "Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic." In a review of the book, Fred Siegel wrote, "For Dinkins, all evidence to the contrary, social-services spending is the great cure-all for social problems."
So, with this history to learn from, what does Zohran Mamdani propose? Why, more social workers—of course. At the campaign event with Sen. Warren, he called for replacing cops with social workers on certain 911 calls. Mayor Eric Adams called the idea "irresponsible" and "reckless"—which it is—but what do you expect from a man who once mocked a crying police officer on social media?
Surely, New Yorkers would overlook a rise in assaults, rapes, and murders as long as milk prices went down, right? After all, Warren focused on Mamdani's economic policy in her endorsement. In his video "Mamdani's Bad Ideas," John Stossel doesn't discuss the candidate's support for defunding the police and the intifada against Israel—he just focuses on the economic consequences of Mamdani's socialist plans. On the idea that government should take over apartment buildings, Stossel reminds viewers that the abolition of private property has been tried in places like Venezuela and wrecked lives. Would a trip to Venezuela to see the empty shelves in supermarkets get Mamdani to rethink his call for city-owned grocery stores? It's not likely. While the profit motive, Stossel says, is what keeps shelves stocked, "profit" is a dirty word to Mamdani, who has said he doesn't think we should have billionaires.
Writing in USA Today, Sara Pequeño claims that Republicans are afraid of what Zohran Mamdani represents—and she’s right. Republicans are concerned. They fear a repeat of history when its hard lessons are ignored. Pequeño places herself in that pattern when she writes that younger voters like her support Mamdani because “we want to see that working-class New Yorkers can remain in this city.” But history tells a different story. When wealthy residents flee, working-class communities suffer—not thrive. As Stossel points out, “Losing them means losing tax revenue and jobs.” He even shares an old clip of Donald Trump, when he lived in New York, warning, “The rich people are going to leave. And other people are going to leave. You are going to end up with lots of people that don't produce, and then, that's the spiral, that's the end.” Trump himself, of course, eventually left New York and later became president—the left’s ultimate nightmare. Perhaps they should spend more time worrying about the real nightmares he warned about.
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