The race for mayor in New York City has sucked up a lot of media bandwidth in recent weeks, and the outcome now seems all but certain. New Yorkers are about to elect a Muslim socialist to lead the city that was mercilessly attacked by Islamofascists just 24 short years ago. A socialist controlling the financial capital of the U.S. will have serious consequences for the whole country.

Zohran Mamdani won the Democrat primary in June, and the New York assemblyman has been building momentum ever since. He’s a smooth operator who’s good in front of audiences and cameras, and he plays — as all leftists do — to people’s sense of envy. He convinces voters that life is unfair and that someone else is to blame. He promises to rectify things through wealth redistribution.

He calls himself a democratic socialist, and his idea of government is one that takes from the “haves” and gives to the “have-nots.” There are a lot more of the latter, which just happens to benefit a grifting politician like Mamdani.

In a city already awash in debt, The Wall Street Journal reports that “Mamdani wants free child care for New Yorkers, a four-year rent freeze for some two million residents, buses without fares and a $30 minimum wage.” Add city-owned grocery stores to his wishlist as well, though that will lead to food shortages.

A rent freeze won’t technically cost taxpayers anything, but it will disincentivize landlords from making updates or repairs, and it will cause housing shortages. This happens every time it’s tried, and yet politicians like Mamdani keep selling it to voters.

“Free” childcare alone will cost an estimated $6 billion every year. A “free” bus service would cost $800 million and, to put it mildly, likely degrade the bus-riding experience. Such programs also always have a way of expanding and becoming vastly more expensive.

How will Mamdani pay for all of this? He plans to “shift the burden” of taxes to “richer” and “whiter” neighborhoods.

Asked to explain his race-based plan, he obfuscated. “That is just a description of what we see right now. It’s not driven by race. It’s more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being undertaxed versus overtaxed,” Mamdani said. “We’ve seen time and again that this is a property tax system that is inequitable. The focus here is to actually ensure a fair property tax system. And the use of that language is just an assessment of that neighborhood.”

Somehow, he seems to think he can wring another $9 billion out of wealthier residents and businesses without prompting them to leave in even greater numbers than they already are. That includes a 2% tax on incomes above $1 million, which he claims will generate $4 billion, as well as $5 billion in higher corporate taxes, which are actually paid for by the customers he says he wants to protect.

The latter would require state legislation, but Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani not long ago, and he likely has some momentum in the state legislature. By the way, other endorsements include Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the Bronx, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who never saw a socialist they didn’t like. And just today, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York also endorsed Mamdani.

Mamdani is radicalized in other ways. “On Saturday, Mamdani … released a photo of himself smiling with Democrat City Councilman Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, and Imam Siraj Wahhaj,” reports The Daily Signal’s Jarret Stepman. “Wahhaj isn’t just some ordinary imam. He is a radical Islamist. Then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White labeled him an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj was never charged in the case, but several members of his mosque were.”

Vice President JD Vance posted, “I’ve been reliably informed that Democrats are opposed to any kind of political violence, so I look forward to them universally condemning Zohran Mamdani for campaigning with an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist plot that killed 6 New Yorkers.”

Crickets.

Again, New York has been attacked multiple times by Islamofascists, and Mamdani smiles for pictures with their ilk. What the heck happened to “never forget”?

Furthermore, a city with America’s largest Jewish population — the largest outside of Israel, in fact — is about to elect a Muslim who has refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” and he won’t call for Hamas to disarm.

Opposition to Mamdani is split between former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican radio host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. (His ever-present red beret is a Guardian Angels uniform piece.) In today’s New York, a Republican doesn’t stand much of a chance, despite the fact that the city has prospered for decades thanks to the work of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. However, even if Sliwa dropped out and all of his support went to Cuomo, it wouldn’t be enough to stop Mamdani.

Cuomo and Sliwa tried their best to land some blows against Mamdani in the recent three-way debate, but it’s unlikely to move the needle much, either.

In a state run by Democrats, Cuomo was the best they could do as an alternative. He was run out of office after having sent elderly people to die of COVID by droves in nursing homes and having become embroiled in credible allegations of sexual harassment. Unsurprisingly, the scandal-ridden 67-year-old has looked less than appealing against the fresh 34-year-old salesman. Cuomo just received the endorsement of current Mayor Eric Adams, but given Adams’s own tarnished record, that hardly helps.

Asked for his opinion, longtime New Yorker Donald Trump put it as only he can: “It’s really a question of ‘Would I rather have a Democrat or a communist?’ And I would rather have a Democrat than a communist.”

Unfortunately, there’s not much daylight between the two anymore.

As New York residents prepare to head to the polls, I’m reminded of the famous quote from H.L. Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

It’s tempting to just dismiss the people of New York as fools for bringing on their own destruction, but the fallout is not going to stop in the five boroughs.

A Democrat Party that has mainstreamed a self-described socialist like Mamdani is a party that will be emboldened to further radicalize at the national level. That will have dire consequences for the future of American Liberty.

(Updated)