Below is my column in The Hill on Mamdani’s full-throated pledge to introduce New Yorkers to “the warmth of collectivism.” We have been here before…
Here is the column:
This week, Seattle and New York swore in socialist mayors in what many are portraying as a new era for the Democratic Party and the nation. Of course, it is only “new” for the young voters who have no memory of the economic and political meltdowns of socialist and communist governments in the late 20th Century. Nevertheless, many of them were thrilled as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared at his inauguration that he would introduce the city to “the warmth of collectivism.”
The wind blowing from the West to the East coasts is familiar to many of us who lived through the 1970s and 1980s. In my forthcoming book, I discuss this shift toward socialism as a new generation replicates the same failed policies that marked a long line of collectivist catastrophes.
The current rhetoric and divisions are strikingly similar to the conditions that brought socialist François Mitterrand to power in France in 1981, promising a “rupture with capitalism.” It was a heady time for armchair Marxists. He was sworn into office just weeks after the election of an unknown socialist as mayor of Burlington, Vt. named Bernie Sanders.
Sanders was there this week to give the oath of office to Mamdani after thrilling the crowd with promises of going to war with the “billionaire class” and “wealthy oligarchs.”
Mamdani then repeated his pledge to govern as a socialist and listed off his pledges of free buses and other benefits of socialism. Mamdani had previously pledged everything from free buses to making “Halal eight bucks again.” As a rising socialist activist, he also called for “seizing the means of production.”
The problem with socialism, as Margaret Thatcher observed, is that you “eventually run out of other people’s money.” Such details are a distraction if you listen to Mamdani. After the mayor said that the free buses would be paid for by increasing state taxes on the rich, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) nixed the idea, knowing her state is already facing an exodus of high-earning taxpayers. When confronted by that refusal and asked how he would pay for the program, Mamdani shrugged and said, “The most important fact is that we fund it, not the question of how we do it, but that we do it.”
It is that easy. Mitterrand promised the same magical economic results for the working class. He even appointed Andre Henry as the Minister of Free Time to assist citizens in their new socialist leisure. As I explain in “Rage and the Republic,” the French economy collapsed, as the British economy had earlier during the “winter of discontent” under Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan. Britain was even forced to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Both France and Britain would later reintroduce capitalist policies and roll back socialist policies to stop the economic collapse.
We also tried collectivist policies in cities across this country, including a commune on Long Island called Modern Times (now called Brentwood). It lasted about ten years before collapsing.
But the greatest fear is not the replication of failed economic policies, but the assault on individual rights that is sure to come with it. Socialist and communist systems emphasize collective over individual interests. Mamdani also touched on that theme in his inauguration, promising to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.’”
Noting the millions who died under socialist governments, Bishop Robert Barron responded dryly on social media: “For God’s sake, spare me the ‘warmth of collectivism.’”
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy, Kirill Dmitriev derided Mamdani’s speech by noting that the new mayor was “doing a solid job steering the U.S. toward Communism.” He wrote “Dear Comrade Mamdani — just a friendly reminder that this has been tried before.”
What is striking about Mamdani in New York and Katie Wilson in Seattle is that they have virtually no real experience in running anything. Indeed, with the exception of a few organizing and college positions, this is believed to be the first major job Wilson has ever held. Both are socialist organizers who have now been handed the mayoral jobs in two of the largest cities in the U.S. on promises to bring about “the warmth of collectivism.”
Of course, neither has come close to a utopian collective outside of a Marxist 101 college course. But it does not matter. In New York, voters have been promised that they will soon be munching on eight-dollar Halal meals on free buses.
Like promises of shares in the Brooklyn Bridge or five-dollar solid gold watches from street slicks, this grift is one of the oldest pitches in politics. But it has been decades since someone ran the scam on a large scale. Fittingly, some participants at Mamdani’s inauguration complained that it lacked any food, music, or bathrooms. On a cold, miserable Friday, the new budding socialists had to stand outdoors and imagine the “warmth of collectivism” coming in the new utopia known as New York.
It seemed Mamdani had already achieved true equality for everyone in attendance.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution” on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
The only benefit to the “goings on” in Manhattan is the “main lining” of the pitfalls of Communism to those who have been deprived of history lessons!
Every time a young wannabe socialist tries to justify their beliefs and somebody refutes them with fact, logic and reason, they get upset and try to change the subject by pointing out absurd extremes for which they blame Capitalism.
Democrats, their propaganda media and college professors are the only ones who fantasize about taking other people’s money. And they all do it for the same reason. They profit from advocating that.
Once young people get out into the real world for long enough, they finally realize that they really DO want to keep what they earned, and they DO want their own home, and they DO want to be able to get further ahead by working harder than the lazy socialist wannabe, and that it’s actually NOT fair for the lazy socialist wannabes to think they should have just as much WITHOUT working for it.
The master and servant relationship is what has been going on for 800,000 years.
It is a social phenomenon that humans gravitate towards.
Capitalism is a version of it.
Is it a capitalist utopia when millions of companies across America are run like the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Is it Democrat to be communist utopia?
Is it utopia when a capitalist refuses to pay you for all of the hours that you worked?
Of course not, it’s utopia where you hard work all day with your comrades then go home to your communal flop house for a big helping of gruel. Should you voice any disdain the floggings are free.
That sounds relatively nice compared to some places I have worked at.
Were you forced to stay in that job? Or did you quit for another job?
I can walk into a Walmart, walk around for an hour or so, looking at all the things they are selling and walk out not buying a thing. The beauty of capitalism is I have free will to buy or not buy something. I will buy something if I think it is worth it.
Or, I can go to another place and buy things there and not at Walmart. Free market, free choice.
What if being raped by the store manager was a condition of
shopping at Walmart? According to you, if I don’t like being raped, I can just go to another store where they don’t rape people. Free choice!
What if being raped on your way to America as a migrant was a condition of Democrats letting me into the country?
Are we still on for that Grindr date after the party meeting today, Comrades?
Is it utopia when a Democrat communist steals what you’ve earned.
Is it utopia when a capitalist deprives you of an opportunity to earn something in the first place?
Is it Democrat, communist, or both to promise other lazy Democrats they don’t have to do a minutes work to support themselves because they will steal the property others worked for to support lazy communists who aren’t looking for work?
The Marshall Plan saved Europe from starvation after WW 2. Every nation expects us to bail them out when faced with crushing economic woes. Russia never bailed out anyone, but we helped them when the Soviets went belly up. Our fiercest enemy for a generation relied on our enormous wealth to avoid utter collapse.
Thanks for that clear statement.
I have the opposite impression of what happened. The USA actively worked to prevent Russia from ever again achieving the power it had via the Soviet Union, thus re-creating them as a challenge to the economic superiority of the USA. But the gambit failed.
Ano
achieving the power
________________________
RIGHT.
The leader of that country killed off many of it’s own. Makes it hard to be a super power, when you hate your own people.
Who was the leader?
Tim Walz is not running for reelection. Instead, as a private citizen he is going to root out all the fraud in Minnesota. Sounds like OJ looking for the real killer.
The real question is how did anyone ever vote for these people ?
What is a “real question”?
What is “a sealion”?
That is the real question.
What is “a sealion”?
You were far more entertaining before you escaped the Democrat circus where the ringmaster had you perched on a stool clapping your flippers and barking while balancing a beach ball on your nose.
Sealioning:
Sealioning is a form of adolescent trolling where someone persistently demands answers to insincere questions to provoke a response, often pretending to seek a civil debate while actually trying to exhaust or frustrate others with no intention of real discourse. This behavior is characterized by a facade of politeness and a refusal to acknowledge previous answers. Often used as a tactic by whining Democrats in online forums and blogs
“I am a knucklehead” was sufficient to inspire our BM to ignore his absence of integrity. When their enemies try to dismiss their moral failures with a stupid quip, they spend 30 years trying to destroy them.
There sure are a lot of communist-paid trolls here today.
We’re all in this together .. . but it’s still a competition.
“replace the frigidity of individualism with warmth of collectiveism”. I thought immediately of Star Trek’s Borgs and shuddered
So you equate ScFi with socialism?
So you equate sealions with intelligent socialism?
Capitalists live like kings while their workers are treated like serfs.
How does this make capitalism so great?
Get lost ANON! 30% of the posts are yours and they are from a psycho!
ROFL
Look arround – do americans live like Serfs ?
The working class in the US lives better than the middle class in Europe.
Name a nation with more than 20M people with a higer standard of living.
Look arround some more.
The advent of free markets in the past 500 years has resulting in greater improvement in the human condition than the entire 800,000+ years of human existance compbined.
Socialist turned Venezuela, Cuba, pretty much anywhere it touched into $hitholes.
Even partially free markets – such as in China post Mao have resulted in massive improvements in the human condiction.
I am not fan of Bill Gates – but he did more for Humanity as M$ CEO than any charity in human existance.
Free markets do more good for people than all charity ever combined.
“ The working class in the US lives better than the middle class in Europe.”
Nope. In case you haven’t noticed. The working class in the US works to survive. Not live. They have to be the most productive just to barely make it. They don’t live better. The working class in Europe have a much better quality of life.
“ Name a nation with more than 20M people with a higer standard of living.”
China, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway. If you are judging based on material wealth, sure we may be better, but quality of life? No. Only the super wealthy have that privilege in this country.
Good one X.
You’re really showing the Trumptards!
Are we still on for our Grindr date later? I have a hot new Furry outfit that will blow your mind. It’s a Hello Kitty theme!
The working class works to survive because the Democratic Socialists have been picking their pockets and giving themselves paychecks. USAID, Somalian Day Cares, COVID. Cloward Piven plan enacted with a twist.
Capitalists live like kings while their workers are treated like serfs.
Communists live like kings while their slaves which they don’t kill are treated like serfs as long as they can work.
How does that make Maduro or Commie Mamdami so great?
Happy to fix that for you Tovarisch…
Winston Churchill summed up your nonsense : “The vice of capitalism is it’s unequal sharing of blessings ; The virtue of socialism is it’s equal sharing of misery “.
Communist leaders live like kings while their workers are treated like serfs, are starved, forced to live in communal apartments, sent to labor camps imprisoned and millions are executed.
How does this make communism so great?
At least in capitalism you to can work hard, invest wisely and live like a king. That doesn’t happen under communism. That is what make capitalism great.
How can anyone live like a king when they are subject to the arbitrary whims of managers who can deprive them of an income at any time for any reason? Managers are the ones who live like kings: cruel, unfair, unjust, and arbitrary.
Tell that to Stalin.
“Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Shut Down”
Executives debated whether to allow the corporation to lie dormant after federal funding ended last year, but decided against it. Patricia Harrison, president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in 2010. Congress last year voted to eliminate the organization’s $500 million in annual funding. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded NPR, PBS and hundreds of local radio and TV stations across the United States for more than a half-century, said on Monday that its board of directors had voted to dissolve the organization because Congress cut off its federal money.
– The New York Times
__________________________
Congress has the power to tax for Debt, Defense, and General Welfare (i.e. all, or the whole, well proceed), per Article 1, Section 8.
Congress NEVER had any power to tax for and fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, et al.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The singular and repeated failure of the American Republic is the continuing decision to elect communist Democrats. Sotomayor, Jackson, etc… those Democrat communist activists didnt put themselves on SCOTUS.
Communist Democrat presidents like Obama put them there. And communists like X put Obama in the presidency.
Your opposition to socialism is like a slave owner’s opposition to abolition.
Socialism is slavery.
“ Socialism is slavery.”
ROFL! It is heavily dependent on how you define socialism. Capitalism can also be construed as slavery. It justified slavery in the early days. The Irish suffered thru indentured servitude while emigrating here. Making sure people remain in debt is slavery.
Indentured servitude: The English too. The Scots too. The Irish were the least indentured, they came in the middle of the 18th century.
George Washington had wooden dentures.
ROLF!!! Only 359 days of abject failure remaining in 2026, X. A repeat performance from 2025…
There are capitalists who treat their workers like slaves.
Yah but!
Meanwhile ALL socialists treat the herd as slaves collectively.
Not the nice ones.
And those workers are free to quit if they don’t like the conditions of their employment.
But they shouldn’t have to quit. The employer should make the workers happy, just as the employer wants the workers to make HIM happy.
Then they should be more productive in their work…and learn English.
John Howard Wilhelm, Ph.D., Economics Univ. of MI @JohnHowardWilh1 Oct 8, 2025
Given its consistent failure, it astonishes me that we have political candidates promoting
socialism. Haven’t they read Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom or the late Hungarian
economist Kornai’s works on socialism? @DavidSacks @BillAckman @jimmy_dore
@BretWeinstein @I_Katchanovski
John Howard Wilhelm, Ph.D., Economics Univ. of MI @JohnHowardWilh1 Dec 25, 2025
Every step that takes us away from private ownership of the means of production &
from the use of money also takes us away from rational economics. Ludwig von Mises
abreviated. @I_Katchanovski @elonmusk @DavidSacks @KonstantinKisin @TuckerCarlson
@HMDatMI #EconomicCalculations
They don’t give a rats ass about socialism. They lust after power and one of the easiest ways to get elected is to promise free stuff.
In other news, France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron is not trans.
Ten people found guilty of cyberbullying France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron
Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260105-ten-people-found-guilty-cyberbullying-france-first-lady-brigitte-macron
No word on how France bullied Brigette Bardot, ostensibly not trans.
Yep not a trans, yep she’s a pedophile predator by American standards.
Ending cyber Bullying is trivial – put the screen down.
I, for one, am happy to witness Maduro being extracted from the warmth of his collectivism and facing the frigidity of our rugged individualism.
It’s too bad what happened to Lenin.
He was my favorite Beatle.
Did slaves enjoy a good standard of living when they were the property of capitalists?
Did slaves enjoy a good standard of living when they were the property of capitalists?
Fast forward 150 years: Do Today’s Slaves Of Communists Enjoy A Good Standard Of Living As Property Of The Communist State?
Fixed that for ya, Tovarisch Biden Bolshevik Boy… your move.
I would rather be the slave of a good man, than a King of fools. ~attribution unknown
You should explore the archeological findings of the Kingsley Plantation. It would answer your question and reveal the truth about that era of history. Did you know the Creek Nation was one of the largest slave holders in Alabama?
All depends. You are talking about vast area and vast time.
As to American side, for intro, I recommend Capitalism and Slavery by Eustace Williams. Book version of his PhD Oxford dissertations.
Then, also as intro, you may refer to only partially published diaries of Thomas Thistlewood of Jamaica, still hidden by Yale.
Also, I recommend economical history books.
In Civil War times, a slave cost $2000, huge investment only a few could afford. Do you want to work to death your investment? On the other hand, if an Irish immigrant (freshly off the boat) died exhausted digging Eire Canal in upstate NY, he was a loss to himself only. There are number of them buried along, for cost consideration.
Why did their African tribal chiefs abduct them, detain them, load them on ships, and deliver them to Arab slave traders, who sold them to British planters?
For power.
Generally slaves were the defeated peoples of warring tribes.
They were going to be slave regardless.
We have had slaves similar for as long as we have had humans.
Long before free markets or even money.
The Israelite slaves were out of Egypt before the ink was dry on their release papers.
But then, they had the capacity and acumen sufficient to the task.
And they had ideas and ambitions beyond simply living as parasites on a well-heeled host.
They weren’t the property of capitalist.
Slafery has existed since the begining of humanity.
Free Maret Capitalism is at best 5 centuries old.
Property has existed much longer than that.
No slaves lived good under communism.