When Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race, plenty of people treated it as a one-off event. Some assumed voters were simply frustrated with the status quo, while others saw it as a temporary protest vote aimed at the Democratic establishment.
I wasn’t one of them.
I’ve been writing for months that New York’s growing embrace of socialism wasn’t some isolated political fluke. It was part of a larger trend that was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. What happened this week is exactly why.
Mamdani-backed candidates scored a string of victories in New York’s congressional primaries, knocking off incumbents and establishment favorites along the way. One upset can happen. One charismatic candidate can catch lightning in a bottle. What we’re seeing now looks a lot less like a political moment and a lot more like a political movement.
Mamdani-backed lefties sweep in NYC congressional primaries — as socialist mayor’s influence grows to DC. Read today’s cover here: https://t.co/3yhaLoVTq9 pic.twitter.com/PIVDYmdkU9
— New York Post (@nypost) June 24, 2026
More importantly, these weren’t city council races or neighborhood squabbles over zoning permits. These were congressional primaries. In several of these districts, the Democratic nominee is heavily favored to win the general election. In other words, New Yorkers weren’t just making noise. They were helping decide who could soon be taking these ideas straight to Washington.
Which brings me back to the same question I’ve been asking for a while now.
New York, what are you doing?
The City That Builders Built
One of the reasons New York has always fascinated Americans is because it represents possibility.
For generations, people arrived there with little more than a suitcase, a dream, and a willingness to work. They opened restaurants, drove taxis, started businesses, worked construction jobs, sold newspapers, and built entire industries. The city became a symbol of ambition because it was filled with ambitious people.
That was the bargain. Nobody promised success. Nobody guaranteed outcomes. The opportunity was the attraction.
New York looked a tad different just 17 years ago:
Millions of immigrants came through Ellis Island hoping for a chance to build something better for themselves and their children. They weren’t looking for a government program. They were looking for an opportunity. The New York story was never “someone owes me.” The New York story was “give me a chance.”
That spirit helped create one of the greatest cities on earth, which is why New York’s growing fascination with socialism feels so strange. This isn’t Berkeley. This isn’t a college campus where students debate economic theories between classes. This is the city that practically wrote the handbook on capitalism.
From Builders To Beneficiaries
Listen to enough modern progressive politics and you start to notice a shift. The conversation is less about what people can build and more about what government can provide. Whether the issue is housing, healthcare, childcare, college costs, or wages, the proposed solution increasingly sounds the same: more government involvement, more programs, more subsidies, and more promises.
Every day, millions of Americans wake up wondering how they’ll pay the rent, afford groceries, fill up the gas tank or cover a medical bill.
Meanwhile, the people on top are doing better than ever.
My message to the ruling class is simple: You cannot have it all. pic.twitter.com/mb9hyGzTp2
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 23, 2026
Now, before someone accuses me of wanting children to work twelve-hour shifts in a textile mill, government obviously has a role to play. Every functioning society needs public services and a safety net. The question is why New York increasingly seems attracted to politicians who view government as the primary source of prosperity rather than something supported by prosperity.
This week’s election results suggest that message is resonating. New Yorkers didn’t simply embrace Mamdani. They embraced candidates he endorsed. They looked at last year’s mayoral election and essentially said, “Yes, we’d like more of that.”
The City That Forgot Its Own Story
New York’s story was never about dependency. It was about hustle. It was about risk. It was about believing that if you worked hard enough and stayed stubborn enough, you could build a better life. That doesn’t mean everyone succeeded. Plenty of people failed. But the city’s identity was rooted in ambition, not entitlement.
Today, much of the political conversation sounds different. Success is often viewed with suspicion. Profit is treated as something vaguely embarrassing. Wealth creation gets less attention than wealth redistribution. For a city that helped build modern capitalism, that is a remarkable change.
It’s almost as if New York has forgotten the very story that made New York possible in the first place.
Don’t Bite The Hand That Funds The Budget
There is also a practical reality that tends to get overlooked. New York’s government spends an extraordinary amount of money, and somebody has to generate the tax revenue that keeps everything running.
You don’t have to love every hedge fund manager, investment banker, or billionaire to recognize that successful businesses matter. The city depends on economic growth, investment, and people creating wealth before government can tax it. That isn’t a political opinion. It’s basic arithmetic.
There is a certain irony in watching the city that is home to Wall Street increasingly embrace politicians who seem suspicious of the very system that pays many of the bills. New York’s prosperity has never been perfect, but it has always depended on people building businesses, creating jobs, and taking risks. A city can dislike capitalism all it wants. Eventually, however, somebody still has to pay for the programs.
New York, What Are You Doing?
Maybe New Yorkers know exactly what they’re doing. Perhaps they genuinely believe the answer to high taxes, unaffordable housing, endless regulation, and government dysfunction is even more government.
But from where I sit, it feels like the city that once embodied the American dream is forgetting a simple truth: before you can redistribute prosperity, somebody has to create it.
Last year’s mayoral race could have been dismissed as a political moment. This week’s congressional primaries look more like a political movement. The question is no longer whether socialism can win in New York. Tuesday answered that. The question now is how far New Yorkers intend to take it.
And that’s why I keep coming back to the same question.
New York, what are you doing?
Feature Image: AI-generated illustration.
