Zohran Mamdani became the 112th mayor of New York City on New Year’s Day. He followed custom by being legally sworn in at midnight and holding a big public ceremony in the afternoon.
Anyone who expected the mayor to back off his previous commitment to socialism was sorely disappointed. Mamdani was sworn in by Senator Bernie Sanders, whom he praised in his inaugural address as “the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate.” He said, “I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist.” And in the line that most infuriated the American right, he rejected “rugged individualism” in favor of “collectivism.”
In the lead-up to that line, Mamdani talked about the “voters from Hillside Avenue or Fordham Road who supported President Trump a year before they voted for me, tired of being failed by their party’s establishment.” He said:
Many of these people have been betrayed by the established order. But in our administration, their needs will be met. Their hopes and dreams and interests will be reflected transparently in government. They will shape our future.
And if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.
In response, journalist Matt Taibbi compared New York’s new mayor to Joseph Stalin, describing “collectivism” as “an infamous Stalinist term.” Wealthy tech CEO David Sacks joined Taibbi in fretting about the allegedly innate bloodthirstiness of “collectivist political experiments.” The official X account of the House Republicans posted that rugged individualism is what “made America great” and declared that “communism has to be defeated before there’s nothing left to save.”
New York City has officially fallen to a radical communist agenda. Zohran Mamdani is openly declaring war on the self-reliance and grit that made our country…
Auteur: Ben Burgis
