Victor Davis Hanson: Mayor Mamdani’s Socialist Vision Is Setting NYC Up for Failure

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, New York City elected Zohran Mamdani to be its next mayor. And while he claims to be a democratic socialist, the dangerous ideas he champions make him out to be more of a communist than anything. How will this fare for New York City—the financial capital of the world? And what exactly is it about socialism that doesn’t work, as history has taught us time and time again? Victor Davis Hanson breaks it all down on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In A Few Words.” “ Socialism destroys private initiative. If you think the harder you work, the better ideas you have, the more efficiency you can create in your business or in your own life but you're not going to be compensated more than someone who does not either show those traits or doesn't want to show those traits or just simply says, ‘Live and let live. I just wanna stay in my house, watch TV, and get pizza,’ and he will get the same amount as you do, in terms of cars or housing or federal supplements—it doesn't work.” (0:00) Introduction (1:20) Mamdani's Controversial Views (4:07) The Inherent Flaws of Socialism (8:53) European Socialism and Its Consequences (10:29) Final Thoughts 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enabling notification: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉More exclusive content are available on Victor’s website: ⁠https://victorhanson.com⁠ 👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:30.0	Zoran Mondami was elected mayor of New York City, not just the financial capital of the United
0:36.0	States, but of the world. And he's a devout socialist.
0:39.3	If we look at the contemporary world in the recent past and in the present,
0:44.3	everywhere a socialist paradigm has been implemented, it has done two things.
0:49.3	Destroyed the economy and made people poor and two deprived people of their civil liberties.
0:57.0	The Soviet Union collapsed, Mao's China collapsed. Cuba is in free fall since the Castro brothers took over in 1959.
1:06.0	Venezuela was at one time the wealthiest country in Latin America.
1:12.9	It's collapsed to a lesser extent.
1:13.9	Peru, Colombia.
1:16.8	Anybody who adopts it, it has not done well.
1:18.9	Socialism has nothing to offer. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansom for the Daily Signal.
1:33.1	Socialism is in the news.
1:35.6	Zoran Mondami did the unthinkable.
1:38.1	He was elected to be mayor of New York City, the financial capital, not just of the United
1:43.6	States, but of the world at
1:45.1	large. And he's a devout socialist. But he is admitted, he likes to deny it, that he's really
1:54.8	a communist because he's advocated seizing the means of production. And almost every day a quote
	...

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