By Charles Gasparino
If the travails of a certain Left Coast city are any guide, Zohran Mamdani’s plan to paint New York red is not only bound to fail but also to alienate voters once they get a real taste of his socialist “utopia.”
The mayor-elect wants to hand out everything from frozen rents and free buses to subsidized trans surgeries even for kids. He wants the so-called 1% of wealthy New Yorkers who already pay for most of the freebies to pay even more to foot the bill.
That message won him the mayoralty, but what he left out of his pitch is what happens next. Just how much do people really like progressive government, and what happens to local economies and standards of living when lefty pols go there?
Take Oregon. The state is one of the most progressive in the country, providing a suite of social welfare benefits courtesy of super high taxes on business and a state income tax. It has in recent years embraced various methods to defund and defang the police – all stuff supported by our new mayor.
Its largest city, Portland, has embraced various forms of socialism, the same stuff spouted by our mayor elect. It also has become a poster child of urban decay, a smoldering mess of crime, businesses fleeing and homeless. People have had enough.