On the surface, it’s easy to see why New York City elected Zohran Mamdani mayor. The charming state assemblyman put New York first during his campaign, all while smiling blithely, a proverbial cat in the sun.
Ask a random person on the street why NYC opted for Mamdani, and you’ll likely hear something along the lines of, “We needed to try something new.”
It’s an understandable impulse for the perpetually mismanaged city. The problem is that none of Mamdani’s policy proposals are new. In fact, Mamdani’s ideas are quite old and well-tested. And if the past is prologue, New York City will suffer mightily for being snookered into believing the dusty, discredited ideas of 20th-century collectivism have suddenly become fresh and viable…