Zohran Mamdani is not bereft of schmaltzy euphemisms for “collectivism.” He chose to use that word during his inaugural address — one that conveys not nebulous communitarianism but expropriation, kommunalka, purges, and gulags — deliberately when he favorably contrasted the Soviet theory of social organization against America’s misplaced faith in individual liberty.
Mamdani knows what he’s doing, and he has surrounded himself with like minds. The socialist mayor of America’s most capitalist city brought with him into power avaricious malcontents who view the state as a mechanism to engineer a dramatic social leveling. But while they talk a good game about uplifting denizens of America’s lowest economic stratum, what really gets their juices flowing is the prospect of meting out pain to the people they detest.
Comments