To Keep This Republic...

The possibility of Mamdani, a self-identified socialist, taking control of a city once seen as the heart of Capitalism should be a wake-up call for everyone.

Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash

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Zohran Mamdani, a self-declared socialist, recently triumphed in the Democratic mayoral primary, positioning himself as a possible future mayor of New York City. Mamdani’s election success underscores the significant failures of America’s education system.

While Mamdani may exude charisma, the socialist policies he promotes—such as government-run grocery stores and aggressive rent controls—have repeatedly faltered on the global stage. Nations from China to Cuba have tried these approaches, only to abandon them due to failure. For instance, during my childhood in Mao’s China, the government dictated food production, distribution, and pricing. This led to endless lines at government-run grocery stores, often with bare shelves. The harsh reality for the Chinese people was that low food prices provided by the government meant little when they were unable to provide for their families.

People from other socialist countries have often recounted similar experiences. When former Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin visited the U.S. in the fall of 1989, he was profoundly struck by the incredible variety of food available in a small grocery store in Texas. He reportedly remarked to his entourage that if the people of the Soviet Union—who endured long breadlines and empty shelves—saw the abundance present in American supermarkets, "there would be a revolution."

And indeed, a revolution did unfold. Yeltsin later wrote in his autobiography that his visit to an American grocery store shattered his faith in communism. This revelation empowered him to become one of the pivotal architects in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

The documented economic failures of socialism and the human suffering they have inflicted are undeniable. The fact that Mamdani built his political platform in 2025 on these discredited socialist policies and has garnered support from NYC Democratic voters—especially young college graduates—reveals three critical failures in our education system.

Firstly, most schools have failed to teach our youth the historical realities of socialism and communism. Many young people lack awareness of the real human suffering experienced in socialist nations. Additionally, schools often neglect to highlight that it is free-market capitalism, not socialism, that has drastically reduced global extreme poverty—defined by the UN as living on less than $1.25 a day—from 36% of the global population in 1990 to 12% by 2015.

A significant portion of this progress stems from China's pivotal decision to move away from ruinous socialist policies in favor of market-oriented reforms that lifted nearly one billion people out of poverty. Thus, for anyone committed to improving the lives of the impoverished, embracing free-market capitalism is essential—socialism simply does not hold the answer.

Secondly, many schools have failed to equip students with the critical thinking skills they need. Both Mamdani and his college-educated supporters fail to grasp that NYC's "affordability crisis" stems directly from Democrats' misguided policies. The Wall Street Journal highlights the severe repercussions of these policies, “rent control and eviction limits have caused landlords to take tens of thousands of apartments off the market. A higher minimum wage raised the cost of food and other basics, while rich union contracts keep transportation inefficient and costly. Climate bans and mandates have raised energy costs.”

Mamdani's proposed solution is to double down on these same disastrous policies. He has garnered enthusiastic support from many young, college-educated voters who, despite their education, seem to lack a comprehensive understanding of the causes and effects of these policies. The lack of critical thinking skill among the youth underscores the urgent need to improve our education system.

Third, since the woke ideology has captured many education institutions, many young people have been indoctrinated with progressive concepts like Critical Race Theory, which categorizes people as “oppressors” or “oppressed” solely based on their racial and ethnic backgrounds. This creates a sense of victimhood entitlement among the oppressed, leading them to believe they cannot overcome life's challenges without government intervention to right perceived wrongs through policies that essentially amount to “reverse discrimination.”

Mamdani epitomizes this identity-based victimhood mentality. Despite being born into privilege—his mother is a well-known film director and his father is a professor at Columbia University—Mamdani often portrays himself as a “oppressed” South Asian Muslim.” One of his economic proposals includes imposing higher taxes on “wealthier and Whiter” neighborhoods. This approach does not promote equality; rather, it will perpetuate division and resentment among various communities. Not to mention a race-based tax policy is unconstitutional. No wonder the New York Post has blasted Mamdani’s racially charged tax strategy as a manifestation of identity politics and a dangerous “hierarchy of oppression.”

The possibility of a Marxist taking control of one of America’s most important cities should serve as a wake-up call for educators and concerned citizens across the country.

When Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic if you can keep it.”

This July 4th, we will celebrate the 249th birthday of our republic. To ensure its continuation for another 249 years and beyond, our education system must focus on teaching young people how to think critically, rather than simply what to think. We need to empower them to become courageous doers instead of self-pitying and entitled victims. By sharing the valuable lessons of the past, we can equip them to build a more perfect union—one that honors the core principles of liberty, property rights, and the rule of law that have made America exceptional.

I want to end with this piece with an antidote I didn’t know until recently.

“As the last names were being signed, Franklin, in a personal aside to some other members, made an observation about the chair that Washington had been sitting in as he presided over the Convention. The chair had an emblem of half of a sun. Franklin noted that artists often have a hard time distinguishing between a rising and a setting sun in their artwork. “I have often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

Happy Birthday, America! May you continue to be a rising sun for many more years to come.

Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash