Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), last seen having margaritas with alleged illegal immigrant human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, has not only endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the socialist candidate for New York City mayor, but has threatened those who do not do so.
Speaking at the Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fry in Iowa last weekend, he said, “Many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines,” a dig at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) both of whom have waffled on Mamdani after the Democratic Socialists of America member won the Democratic Party primary this summer. Van Hollen continued, “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of. They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”
Just hours later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) did so, writing that Mamdani has “the courage, urgency and optimism New York City needs to lead it through the challenges of this moment.” Hochul did not endorse all of Mamdani’s socialist agenda, saying, “Mr. Mamdani and I don’t see eye to eye on everything.” She did not criticize his dreadful socialist ideas but praised his focus “on making New York City affordable.” This includes rent control, city-owned grocery stores, and free public transportation.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whose second-place finish to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary enjoyed overwhelming support among younger Democratic voters, has always embraced the label “democratic socialist”, although it should be pointed out that the word “socialist” generally destroys “democratic” government. Sanders is also on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who, like Mamdani, is a DSA member. What Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Mamdani have recognized for years, and what establishment Democrats such as Van Hollen and Hochul are now realizing, too, is that if the Democratic Party is to have a future, it will be socialist. It is moving rapidly toward rejecting markets and the free choices that are their lifeblood, and instead embracing outright government control of the economy and much else.
Poll results support their shift. According to Gallup, a record 66% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism and a negative one of capitalism. As recently as 2010, a majority of Democrats preferred capitalism to socialism, but those days are gone. Other polling reveals that it is the youngest Democrats, those under 30, who most support socialism. The Democrats’ future is socialist. There is no denying it. The only question is when the party will finally fall into that pit of tyranny and wealth destruction. Judging by Mamdani’s primary win and the endorsements of Van Hollen and Hochul, that future appears to be now.
Republican voters are as skeptical of socialism now as they ever were, with only 14% saying they have a positive view of it. Independents have a more positive view of socialism, at 38%, virtually unchanged from the 36% who supported it 15 years ago.
We will see if those numbers change after Mamdani enacts his socialist agenda in New York City. The election is not until November, but he is comfortably ahead in the latest polling. Then, the nation will see if his rent control policies make housing more affordable or drive up prices by discouraging housing creation, as they have done in every place they have ever been tried.
CHARLIE KIRK AND THIS WATERSHED MOMENT
Maybe, unlike every other city that has tried, Mamdani’s city grocery stores will provide abundant, affordable food to poor New Yorkers. Or maybe they will fail just as they have in every city that has tried them. We will see if free public transportation works out, or if it bankrupts a creaking system already plagued by violence and vagrants.
Democratic Party elites have given up fighting against their socialist base. The socialists are taking over. Let’s see how it works out for them, and for the poor benighted New Yorkers who look like they are about to get socialism in the neck.