Mamdani Must be Stopped

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)

Most every day the Democratic-Socialist candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, releases a statement or policy that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he's not fit to lead the City.

On the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack in Israel leaving 1,200 Israeli’s dead and 250 kidnapped, Mamdani, accused Israel of genocide, of committing "horrific war crimes," and accused the U.S. government of being complicit "through it all."

And let's not forget that Mamdani refused to support legislation in Albany acknowledging the Holocaust and said he would throw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Gotham city jail.

He has also declared that he would cancel a mayoral executive order that contains the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism because "it conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism."

Mamdani's comments are repulsive and insult the 1.3 million Jews who live, work, and pay taxes in the metropolitan area.

Then in early October, Mamdani announced that if elected he would eliminate the gifted and talented program for kindergarten students which enrolls about 2,500 hundred out of 55,000 children annually.

Mandani, the equalitarian, in the words of the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wants to "define deviancy down."

In other words, as Danyela Egorov of the Manhattan Institute put it, Mamdani wants to "lower the academic ceiling for high achieving students without raising the floor for the lowest achieving ones."

The independent running for mayor, former governor Andrew Cuomo, rightfully called Mandani’s plan "destructive" pointing out that parents want "more [of the program] not less."

He added that Mandani wants to take away "the one possibility that your child might get a really first-class education in public schools."

New York City will spend over $40,000 per student this year to finance failing public schools. Even with the dumbing down of city-wide math and reading tests, the 2025 student scores are dismal.

In math, only 56.9% of fourth graders passed the exam; 56.3% were proficient in English Language Arts.

And Mamdani's education plans will only make matters worse.

To add to the madness, the leaders of the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) made it clear at an Oct. 3, 2025 meeting that if Mamdani wins they expect him to take orders from them.

The policies they will tell Mamdani to implement include:

• Decriminalizing drug possession and erasing past misdemeanor drug convictions.
• Decriminalizing prostitution.
• Creating additional drug injection sites.
• Eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for convicted criminals.
• Providing health insurance to illegal immigrants.
• Giving housing subsidies to illegal immigrants and convicts.
• Giving free Wi-Fi to the homeless.

Mamdani and his DSA masters also support defunding the police, shrinking the size of the force, and sending social workers to handle domestic violence complaints instead of officers.

They believe that, "there is no negotiating with [the NYPD], an institution that is wicked and corrupt." Plus, they want to defund and dismantle the entire jail and prison system because it's "an unreformable public health hazard."

And then there is the free stuff.

Mamdani’s promises which include free buses, universal childcare beginning when a baby is 6 weeks old, rent freeze, city-run grocery stores, free legal advice and baby baskets program for new parents will, by his own admission, add to the city's already bloated $100 billion-plus budget a whopping $10 billion annually.

To fund his socialist schemes, Mamdani will have to raise every conceivable tax.

Yes, he will have to increase property taxes (but only in "whiter neighborhoods"), business taxes imposed on general corporations, banks, utilities, and unincorporated businesses, sales taxes, hotel occupancy taxes, excise taxes on cigarettes, beer and liquor, auto use taxes, taxi medallion transfer taxes, off-track betting surcharge, and various other tax related revenue streams.

The Office of the New York State Comptroller recently projected the city will incur a combined budget gap for the next three years of $17.1 billion.

That figure does not include Mamdani's proposed spending spree.

In other words, the city is already facing a fiscal crisis that Mandani would only exacerbate.

If the city is to be saved from fiscal destruction and an exodus of upper- and middle-class taxpayers, Mamdani must be stopped.

Democrats should follow the lead of their state party chairman, Jay Jacobs, who has declined to support Mamdani because in his judgment, the Democratic Socialists platform does not "represent the principles or policies of the Democratic Party."

George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.