Posted on 11/09/2025 6:02:54 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, has been elected mayor of New York City.
More than one million New Yorkers — 50.4% of the electorate — cast their ballots for a guy who promises government-run grocery stores, free buses, a rent-freeze, diminishing the role of police in fighting crime, higher taxes on the wealthy and a vastly expanded government sector.
Some of his best numbers came from the gentrified or gentrifying neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
Prospect Heights, East Williamsburg and Bushwick gave him more than 80% of their votes.
These areas are now associated more with oat-milk lattes than organized labor.
That’s led many conservatives to scoff at the idea that Mamdani represents a working-class insurgency.
Far from being a tribune of the downtrodden, we’re told, he’s simply channeling the performative rage of the privileged: over-credentialed, under-showered and long on theory but short on gratitude.
There’s something to this.
Mamdani is a self-described socialist.
He really does want to freeze rents in rent-stabilized apartments and introduce government-run grocery stores.
He thinks the police can be replaced with social workers.
But that reaction misses something important.
The Park Slope-Bushwick Mamdani supporters are not, in any meaningful sense, working-class.
But they are not exactly elite either.
They belong to a group that has become increasingly central to American politics: the downwardly mobile professionals, the overproduced graduates of our university system, raised to expect middle-class stability and discovering instead that the system has little to offer beyond high rent and burnout.
Their rage is real, and if the right wants to be serious about building a majoritarian coalition around economic renewal, it ought to start by understanding that rage, not mocking it.
These voters are not clamoring for socialism out of youthful rebellion.
They’re reacting to a broken bargain.
They grew up being told that education was...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
They should have learned plumbing, HVAC, or auto mechanics.
Selections have consequences.
If true about the “downwardly mobile” it’s very sad. Both because they’re going downwards. And because they voted for a nan that will drive the whole city down with his communistic anti- American attitudes.
Communism raises the prices and lowers the jobs and then comes in and promises free candy which makes it worse.
We’ll circle back on New York in a year, see if anything is still standing.
I think a lot of older Conservatives are out of touch with the situation young people are in. And make no mistake — people in their 20s right now did not “build this world”. If things are broken (and they are) the Gen Z people are not the ones who broke it.
Their parents didn't raise them well. I have seen a lot of bad parenting.
And note well: Obama said he would fundamentally transform this country, and he did. Gen Z is growing up in the world that Obama made.
The financial crisis of 2008 made permanent changes in the way that corporations treat employees and how employees feel about corporations. None of that has been good.
COVID hit at a time when young people were going through High School, or College, or their first real job (BAM! Work from home and make no connections with any co-workers!)
All of that has been disruptive to a generation or two of Americans.
The Middle Class in this country has been hit hard and young people are growing up in a world which still seems to perceive that if you work hard and follow the rules, then you will just get married, have kids, buy a house and build yourself a nice career. That stuff happens for every generation since WWII, right? Well, it is NOT happening for a big chunk of Gen Z. They are realizing that the American Dream isn't there for them, and some of them are pissed.
I suggest the Big Takeaway is this:
Young people feel that they have lost something, they feel cheated, they feel that society has let them down. The political party that can attract them and show them a way to build a better future will lock that generation to the party for life.
So far, Mamdani has achieved this. Young people flocked to him because he promises them a golden socialist future.
If the Republican Party can find a way to be more persuasive and bring these young people over in a Conservative direction, then it is a horse race.
But I have to say, this topic comes up on Free Republic pretty regularly and I ALWAYS see older, scornful Conservatives who just spit on young people. Lazy! Stupid! Woke! I bought a house with a 19% mortgage! They need to suck it up! I made it! I got mine! If you aren't having a great life it's your own damn fault! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!
Mamdani isn't talking to young people that way, is he? And he seems to have had some success, hasn't he? I suggest that Conservatives try to show a little more empathy to young people. They have a rough deal.
Commies always take over food production - grocery stores - collective farms etc... Commies us starvation as a means of control - over a hundred million idiots who fell for the Marxist crap starved to death in the last hundred years. Of course that'll be harder to do in a country like ours - one that's still free.
I agree with you. Ignore the lost potential of a whole generation at our peril. We need to have a better story for them. I think Trump gets this.
The youngsters have an answer for the dismissiveness of older generations: “okay boomer”.
Someone or a group of people to crack down hard. I mean hard.
All corruption among politcial leaders should bring the death penalty.
All corruption among the business leaders should bring the death penalty.
ANY attempt to subvert our Constitution or begin, implement, install or push religions over Biblical religion halted. Cold turkey. (islam in particular - not allowed and all following it deported somewhere...anywhere but here, even if citizens - gone.) Mosques destroyed and bulldozed to the ground.
All drug dealing stopped. Anyone trafficking or involved in any way with moving illegal drugs - automatic death penalty. Any addicted, specific time period to quit, or executed. Cartel organizations become specific targets for elimination.
No abortion.
Anyone practicing sexual perversion in any form, executed.
Education system completely revamped with discipline top priority, specific rewards for achievement, severe punishment for refusing to produce attainable results. Strict standards must be put in place with no exceptions. Core subjects must be mastered: The English language, math, history and vocational training for boys especially and some for girls (basic maitenance skills for home, vehicles, etc.).
Punishment in schools implemented, caning for severe offenses (especially fighting), anyone trying to shoot, stab or kill anyone in school executed publicly and all students have to watch. Any teacher involved in grooming for, or having sex, with students...execution (for the teacher).
Absolute, total control on immigration. NO MORE ILLEGAL ALIENS, PERIOD. ONLY desirable people allowed to immigrate, those that will contribute signficantly to our nation. To gain citizenship, must demonstrate a learned knowledge of our history in detail and process must take at least five years.
Total control on trade as Trump is trying to do now. Products need to be produced HERE.
Mainstream media shut down completely for a period. When allowed to restart, must report the news objectively as used to be done WITHOUT editorializing on news reporting. If it is an editorial, must be clearly marked as such. No more bias in the news, "Just the facts ma'am."
Strict punishment for misuse of firearms in any way. All youth taught to shoot handguns and rifles and demonstrate proficiency with both. Required.
Fix the healthcare and "welfare" systems and eliminate all corruption, stealing, misuse or abuse in same. Welfare should only be for the elderly, disabled or terminally ill. Same goes for food benefits.
Provide some kind of gainful employment for all able-bodied people. Provide many options. All must be working...on something. Provide labor camps for people who are rebellious and don't want "...anyone telling them what to do."
Anyone causing the death of another person due to being intoxicated, executed.
Make all prisons a place YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO.
This is just a start. Come and talk to me and I'll give you a LOT more ideas.
Americans should NEVER AGAIN RESPECT NEW YORK CITY PEOPLE.
They have just embraced communists whose ideas have failed for more than 100 years. Communist governments have killed more than 100 million of their own people in that time period. They murder anyone who tries to challenge their authority.
The voters of New York City have earned a seat in their own living hell. The rest of us should insist a giant wall be built around New York City to keep such dumb-asses from escaping and destroying the rest of the USA.
There is truth in this article, ClearCaseGuy. Whatever the cause, and there are more than one cause, the feelings of many of the 20-35 year olds is that they are not getting a fair shake.
I understand some of their frustration. Conservatives absolutely deal with their feelings, because as we know, young people today are lead more by feelings than rational thought. Those that are really frustrated may not amount to more than 10% of the vote but that percentage can sway elections a lot.
Sorry: “Conservatives absolutely MUST deal with . . ..”
Degrees don’t guarantee anything other than a better chance of getting an interview compared to someone else with no experience and with no formal education.
Maybe less lattes and more labor is needed.
Sorta free, anyway.
But we see some big cities trying to take over or operate both groceries and banks
“ Mamdani isn’t talking to young people that way, is he?”
Free beer tomorrow. A gimmick as old as time.
Promise those who don’t have what they want. No need to deliver.
You make a lot of sense.
When my friends and I were in our late teens, we moved out of our parents’ homes and into our own apartments in decent neighborhoods. We had reliable cars. We didn’t live like queens, but we ate out, bought clothes and makeup, went to the movies. We learned how to be independent and pay bills. This was easy to do, even with our starter jobs. If a guy was 22 and still living with his parents, we wondered what was wrong with him.
Now, I know people in their 20s, 30s or even 40s who can’t afford their own place. They either have to live with their parents or get several roommates. Getting married, buying a house, and having kids is just out of the question for them. The cost of rent and the cost of cars is just ridiculous now. What happened? And what can we do about it?
You are not alone in your thoughts. Most of us can see the handwriting on the wall. No government lasts forever. Will we descend into communism/socialism? Or take Rome’s route and elect a Caesar? Both end up with dictatorships.....
But communism/socialism is far bloodied and kills off the Intelligentsia and Middle Class.
I guess we’ll see.
Regardless, it is unlikely I will be around to see it.
The communists (the ruling communists) were never poor, uneducated people.
The communist leaders were always coming from the underpaid intelligentsia.
The people, who thought, that they have big skills, know better than anybody else, but the society does not understand them and does not appreciate them.
So they are trying to show the middle finger to the establishment.
The young generation was screwed by overpromised, but the government is broke and it is running out of other people money!
Unfortunately, with production going overseas and education establishment promising all kind of stuff, if you just get some education, this class of people are growing in numbers!
Yes, Americans are getting lots of degrees, but most of them quite useless. The useful degrees are full with imports as they are too hard for the average person to study.
Can’t they just say poor people?
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