I’m going to start today’s column by acknowledging a mistake. Two days ago, as part of my Best and Worst News of 2025, I didn’t include Zohran Mamdani’s election as Mayor of New York City because I viewed him only as “a theoretical threat.”

Yes, I knew he had a nutty agenda, but surely he couldn’t be worse than other leftist NYC Mayors, such as Bill de Blasio?

But I had to change my mind after seeing what he said as part of his inaugural speech yesterday. Like a good Marxist, he actually stated the “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Your eyes are not deceiving you. He actually embraced the totalitarian notion of collectivism. Whether you call that communism or hard-core socialism, that’s insane.

But don’t believe me. Let’s see what people who grew up in the Soviet Union have to say. Here’s look at a tweet from Garry Kasparov, who was a chess champion from the communist era and obviously has familiarity with collectivist regimes.

Even the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (and a Putin appointee), Krill Dmitriev, couldn’t resist tweeting that Mamdani doesn’t understand history.

Here’s a tweet that shows what collectivism delivers (described in greater detail here).

When I first read Atlas Shrugged in college, I remember thinking how the bad guys closely resembled real-life people.

Well, here’s a tweet from Professor Alex Tabarrok at George Mason University that makes the same point.

And we’ll close with a tweet from one of Justice Gorsuch’s former clerks.

If you want the details about the 100 million deaths caused by communism, click here.

P.S. I can’t resist sharing two additional tweets.

First, Mamdani supporters got a nice taste of what socialism actually delivers.

Second, you’ve probably heard the terms “limousine liberal” and “champagne socialist” to describe rich leftists.

That definitely applies to Mamdani, who is from a rich family.

As this tweet indicates, I think we need a new term like “caviar communist.”

I wonder if Mamdani’s wife is friends with Chavez’s daughter?

But I don’t wonder about the impact of Mamdani’s policies on domestic migration patterns. If he gets to impose even half of his agenda, New York City might beat Chicago to bankruptcy.

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Image credit: Bingjiefu He | CC BY-SA 4.0.