_THE STORY_
There’s a lot of talk about Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old, Ugandan-born Muslim socialist from a wealthy, cosmopolitan family. He beat former Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral primary election and is now the most likely to become the mayor of arguably the most important city in the world.
I’ve been seeing New Yorkers justifiably panicking, so I wanted to write about how a Mamdani win could ripple across the entire country.
_SOCIALISM_
Zohran Mamdani identifies as a socialist, though the label of Marxist or communist wouldn’t be wrong either — but the distinctions are beside the point.
What matters is his rejection of the capitalist system at the heart of the American experiment. He has said so explicitly. When CNN asked if he liked capitalism, he replied, “No.” His politics are rooted in the belief that the wealth created by capitalism should not just be taxed, but redistributed. He wants to, in his words, "seize the means of production.”
Mamdani doesn’t believe billionaires should exist. He’s called for government-run grocery stores, arguing that private grocers price-gouge, despite the industry’s notoriously thin profit margins. He supports a $30 minimum wage, rent freezes, and sweeping expansions of state control. The through-line is clear: less market, more government.
New York’s wealthiest residents — whose tax payments already prop up the city’s bloated and mismanaged budget — have warned they’ll keep leaving, continuing an exodus to lower-cost states like Florida that began during the pandemic lockdowns.
_CULTURAL PROGRESSIVISM_
But Mamdani rejects more than just capitalism. As a staunch progressive, he also rejects the cultural values and traditions that gave rise to the American experiment — principles that have sustained the country and enabled its success.
He’s proposed spending $65 million on sex change procedures — including for minors — and wants to establish a City Hall “Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
He opposes merit-based education and has called for an end to Gifted and Talented programs, one of the few remaining lifelines for high-achieving students in the city’s struggling public schools. He also wants to raise taxes in “whiter neighborhoods.”
His vision mirrors the policies that hollowed out San Francisco over the past decade — policies so extreme they’ve triggered a political backlash and ushered in a new, moderate mayor vowing to reverse course.
_ISLAM_
In addition to his disdain for free markets, the wealthy, and white people, Mamdani is also a proud Muslim. Some have labeled him a jihadist, and some just accuse him of wielding his Muslim identity for political benefit. The truth is, the combination of being a leftist and a Muslim carries serious weight.
At a moment when Christianity has lost its cultural potency, and as Islam gains ground in the West, Mamdani’s rise and the voting bloc that elected him will not be without consequence.
Many of the religious Muslims who support Mamdani aren’t socialists, progressives, or aligned with his LGBT agenda. But they form a powerful voting bloc for him — and he knows it. He champions their interests, amplifies their causes, and empowers them to pursue Islam-first policies in New York politics. One of his most viral campaign moments? A speech about the rising price of halal food.
In a recent “socialist” supporting event for Mamdani in Manhattan, the attendees were clearly both highly progressive Americans and religious Muslims dressed in hijab.
There are plenty of examples of cities embracing and empowering these voting blocs.
European cities like London have stopped teaching Holocaust education in some schools because of “community tensions.” In Canada, some provinces have enabled Sharia law-friendly “Halal” mortgages.
Denmark and other countries have given up freedom of action to formally — and illegally — ban Quran burning. Five Guys restaurants in Britain are removing pork from their menus in Muslim areas out of fear.
Public school districts in America are already exploring ways to incorporate Halal into the menus, as the Muslim population in America is a decade away from being the country's second most common religious group.
These are the changes that Mamdani would likely champion. The issue here isn’t the presence of Muslims in America, but rather the simultaneous decline of Christian values — the unifying cultural force — and the rapid rise of an alternative value system that differs sharply in tradition, worldview, and politics.
_GLOBALISM_
Further, Mamdani is an unabashed internationalist. A viral campaign clip showed him rejecting the idea of visiting Israel, claiming his focus would remain solely on New York. But his record tells a different story—one steeped in global activism.
He avoided condemning the “globalize the intifada” slogan, glorified those who raised money for Hamas, pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he entered the city, and built his political identity around international law and the Palestinian cause. Even his mother, in a documentary, noted that he sees himself as Ugandan and Indian — not American.
This candidate embodies the very forces unraveling Western society: radical progressivism, anti-capitalism, the erosion of Christianity, and internationalism. Having someone with these views run the world’s most important city would mark a flashpoint in global politics.
One possible outcome is that he’s an immediate disaster and voters reject him in a few years. But more realistically, as has happened elsewhere, policy moves slowly, and the damage it causes often unfolds quietly.
_THE MEDIA_
Then, the media steps in. Most of the media, largely progressive, will frame Mamdani’s agenda in glowing terms. Failures will be downplayed or ignored entirely. Obvious problems will be cast as non-stories. (This is already happening—check CNN.)
Social media will be flooded with glossy celebrations of his radical ideas — just as it was during the defund-the-police movement. And if Democrats nationwide take cues from him, these policies won’t stop at New York. They’ll spread just as they have before.
Over the past decade, American cities haven’t unraveled by accident. They’ve been hollowed out by bad policies rooted in bad ideologies — spreading not as isolated failures, but as a contagion.
If Zohran Mamdani takes the helm of the city that once gave us “America’s Mayor,” it’s not just New York that’s at stake.
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