Here’s Why Millennials Are Drawn to Mamdani — And What We Can Do To Change That

Many Americans outside New York City are wondering why Zohran Mamdani, a young, media-savvy socialist, is the favorite to win the mayoralty of our most iconic metropolis.

It’s easy to ridicule Mamdani and his promises of a socialist utopia. But to counter the threat of resurgent socialism at the local and national level, we must understand why he appeals to our young people.

It’s partially that young people are scared. They’re afraid that the American dream — a good job, a house, financial security, health care, and a secure retirement — is out of reach, so the socialist message of controlled rent, free services, loan forgiveness, and other largesse is beguiling. They don’t really care who’s going to pay for it.

Older Americans realize the problem with this kind of mentality. For us, the argument against communism and socialism is, well, duh. Because we’ve seen it. But for millennials and Gen Z, there is no personal connection.

Unfortunately, they don’t learn much about it in their history courses either. Not only are they deprived of facts and unlikely to read long textbooks, but the woke curricula used in public schools expose students to much liberal dogma and “critical theory,” instead of just teaching them the dates and facts and how to draw conclusions from them.

To the extent that young Americans relate to the tyrannical regimes of the 20th century, it is to smear their political enemies as “Nazis.” This is, of course, a nonsensical attack.

But it also masks a bleak historical reality. As bad as the Nazis were, they were outdone in sheer scale of offense by the communists. Joseph Stalin starved millions to death with his agricultural and economic policies. His internal political purges killed over a million more Soviet citizens.

In China, Mao’s supposed “Great Leap Forward” into communist utopia during the 1960s killed roughly 30 million people. A few years later, another 1.6 million perished in the Cultural Revolution. Pol Pot slaughtered two million of Cambodia’s tiny population.

It may be too late for many millennials and members of Gen Z to grasp the lessons of these tragedies. Perhaps the only thing that will teach them that total state control never delivers prosperity and human flourishing is first-hand experience with “true socialism” in action.

But we still must continue the fight against socialism — and we can’t do that on the fumes of the past.

To combat the persistent threat of socialism, we must first offer a hopeful message by growing the economy, supporting family formation, re-basing education, and restoring fiscal discipline.

Second, we need to better inform the next generation by returning the school curriculum to basics and stripping it of Marxist theory. We should start by changing “Social Studies” back to History. That’s the proper framing — just teach what happened to K-12 students and leave the theories and ideologies until college or graduate school.

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For those lessons to hold, it is essential that states like California, Illinois, and New York don’t bail out their cities for the consequences of socialist policies they voted for. Implemented unchecked, these will most likely reduce the tax base, increase debt, kill economic growth, and end in bankruptcy.

More importantly, the federal taxpayer must never assume the debts of the states. Mamdani wants to spend $100 million on lawyers for illegal immigrants, up to $800 million on free buses, and millions on free child care, subsidized city grocery stores, public housing, and more. Maybe he’ll be able to tax city residents enough to pay for it. If not, it should be New York’s problem, not all of America’s.

Simon Hankinson is a Senior Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, and author of the forthcoming book “The Woke Ten Commandments (You Must Not Obey)” from Academica Press.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.