Nine days ago, in this outlet, I told New Yorkers what socialism did to my family — the cattle wagons, the Kazakh steppe, three generations crushed by a system that called itself the people’s. I wrote it as a warning, before the vote. On Tuesday, New York voted for it anyway.Three candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, all aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, swept their primaries. Brad Lander unseated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Darializa Avila Chevalier, a former Mamdani staffer who helped organize the Columbia campus occupations, defeated Adriano Espaillat, the five-term chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Claire Valdez took an open Brooklyn seat. In districts this blue, the primary is the election. All three are bound for Congress. Mamdani called it a beginning. The crowd chanted three letters: DSA.So let me set my family aside, since I have already told that story, and meet the movement on the only ground where it still has a real argument. Confront a socialist with the gulag, and the same reply arrives within seconds: Nobody wants the Soviet Union, we just want Denmark. Universal healthcare, free college, a humane safety net. Capitalism with a conscience. Who could object to that?
The socialists won New York. Have you seen their platform?
I warned New York City before the election. It chose socialism anyway — so here is what its own candidates have written down.
1,084 words~5 min read
