Mao tried this first — New Yorkers will not like the ending



More than 50 years ago, I witnessed firsthand how Mao Zedong’s socialist experiment dismantled market competition, suppressed innovation, and plunged China into economic ruin. As a survivor of that experiment, I watched in horror last week as Zohran Mamdani won over 50% of the vote in New York City, promising a socialist illusion of city-owned grocery stores, free public transit, universal rent control, and a defunded police department.

Such proposals might sound compassionate, but they threaten to repeat the class warfare and state control that devastated China from the 1950s to the late 1970s, only this time they are taking place in the financial capital of the world.

The unpleasant truth is that America may have won the Cold War, but we are losing the ideological war at home.

Consider Mamdani’s push for “good cause eviction” laws and expanded rent control. He claims these measures protect tenants from exploitation, but they discourage property ownership and investment — just as Mao’s housing policies did.

In communist China, the state assigned apartments to urban families, but most people lived in poverty. My family of five was crammed into a 200-square-foot unit with no running water or a toilet. Today, rent control has already reduced housing supply by 20% in parts of New York City, driving up costs for everyone else. What Mamdani offers isn’t progress — it’s stagnation disguised as equity.

Mamdani’s support for “Medicare for All” and fare-free buses also ignores fiscal realities. Mao’s “barefoot doctors” promised class equity but delivered substandard care, contributing to millions of preventable deaths. America’s health care system leads the world in breakthroughs because of merit-driven research and competition, not government mandates. Meanwhile, New York City’s transit authority estimates free transit would cost taxpayers $1 billion annually without improving service. When socialism promises “free” services, it often delivers shortages, rationing, and inefficiency.

The proposal for city-owned grocery stores is another red flag. Under Mao, government-run stores led to chronic food shortages. Rice, cooking oil, and meat were rationed. Each urban citizen received only two pounds of meat per month. Even with ration coupons, I had to wake at 3 or 4 a.m. and wait in line for hours to buy a few ounces. Mamdani’s plan threatening private grocery competition risks repeating this nightmare.

Then there’s his support for defunding the police and replacing them with vague “community safety” alternatives. In 2020, he co-sponsored bills to slash NYPD funding by $1 billion, claiming it would combat systemic racism. This mirrors Mao’s Red Guards, who dismantled law enforcement and replaced it with ideological enforcers — leading to chaos, violence, and mass suffering.

Since 2020, crime in New York has risen by 15%, according to NYPD data. Weakening law enforcement doesn’t protect vulnerable communities — it leaves them exposed. As a father of a New Yorker, Mamdani’s reckless approach to policing is not just a political concern; it’s a personal one.

Mamdani also seeks to eliminate gifted and talented programs in public schools, calling them “inequitable.” But these programs offer high-achieving students — often from diverse backgrounds — a path to excellence.

RELATED: The right needs bigger ideas than tax cuts

Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

During the Cultural Revolution, China crushed its intellectual class and smothered innovation. New York is making a similar mistake. Gifted programs lifted math proficiency by 25%, according to a 2022 Department of Education report, yet Mamdani wants them eliminated in the name of “equity.” As an Asian-American parent who raised a child in STEM, I’ve seen how excellence takes root: You cultivate talent; you don’t level it.

Mamdani’s agenda mirrors the same destructive ideology I fled from. Socialism thrives on utopian promises pitched to voters who have never lived through the consequences. I have. And I recognize the warning signs.

Yet according to CNNexit polls, 70% of voters ages 18-44 supported Mamdani, compared to just 40% of older voters. Even more alarming: 57% of New Yorkers with college degrees voted for him, versus only 42% without. This reflects the growing influence of pro-socialist indoctrination in American universities.

The unpleasant truth is that America may have won the Cold War, but we are losing the ideological war at home. To prevent a socialist takeover, we must fight back by reforming higher education and teaching our children the truth about socialism in K-12 classrooms.

Democrats are running as Bush-era Republicans — and winning



Republicans have given voters no reason to support them beyond the claim that Democrats are dangerously radical.

Well, sure. But when voters look around and see rising prices, rising crime, and no clear plan from the party in power, they turn to the other side. That’s what happened in Virginia, and it will keep happening as long as life stays unaffordable and Republicans offer nothing but excuses.

Republicans can still win — but not with hollow slogans or billionaire donors. They need to fight for affordable living, strong families, and safe communities.

Democrats’ victories in Virginia and New Jersey shouldn’t shock anyone — Trump didn’t need either state to win the presidency in 2024. What should alarm Republicans are the margins. Democrats crushed their opponents by 15 points in Virginia and 13 in New Jersey, performing better than Kamala Harris did against Trump in New York.

The blue wave swept deep into Republican territory. Democrats unseated Virginia’s attorney general — a respected conservative — with Jay “Two Bullets” Jones, a radical, scandal-prone candidate, and still won by nearly seven points. They gained at least 13 legislative seats, leaving Republicans with half the representation they held just eight years ago.

In Georgia, Democrats flipped two public service commission seats — their first statewide wins since 2006 — and won them by 24 points. They broke the GOP supermajority in the Mississippi Senate, flipped a state House seat, and took local races across Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, where Republicans didn’t even see the blowout coming, Democrats regained a supermajority in the General Assembly.

Taken together, these results point to a coming wipeout. Democrats have outperformed their 2024 presidential baseline by an average of 15 points in special elections this year, according to Ballotpedia — more than double the overperformance seen during Trump’s first term. In 45 of 46 key contests, Democrats either held or improved their position.

All liabilities, no benefits

Republicans now face the worst possible political scenario: They hold power, which unites and energizes Democrats, but they’ve done almost nothing with it to inspire anyone else.

The first year of Trump’s second term has been defined by trivial fights and tone-deaf priorities: tax favors for tech investors, special deals for crypto, and zoning disasters for rural and suburban voters. The data center explosion in Virginia, which has raised utility bills and wrecked communities, could have been an easy populist target. Instead, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill to rein it in.

Despite cozying up to Big Tech, Republicans haven’t reaped any benefit. The Virginia Republican Party is broke, its candidates are outspent, and the grassroots are demoralized. The GOP keeps selling out to special interests that will never back the party. How have the ties to crypto, Big Tech, and Qatar paid off?

The reality is, Republicans don’t need those donors — they need a message to inspire a new generation of activists.

How Democrats outflanked the GOP

Democrats have learned to look like the party of normalcy while Republicans drift between populist posturing and corporate servitude. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger ran on cutting costs, lowering taxes, and fighting crime — and she did it in the language of moderation. Republicans, who should own those issues, barely showed up for the debate.

Spanberger’s ads promised relief from inflation and touted her background in the CIA and law enforcement. She presented herself as steady and practical while Republicans floundered. Once again, Democrats outflanked the GOP on the right.

Republicans could have drawn blood by hammering Democrats on crime in Northern Virginia. Instead, they ran away from tough-on-crime policies. Winsome Earle-Sears even toyed with “criminal justice reform” while voters begged for accountability and order.

The result: Democrats ran as Bush-era Republicans, while Republicans looked like corporate consultants. Democrats talked about affordability and safety. Republicans talked about crypto and zoning boards.

The Trump paradox

The GOP’s reliance on one man has hollowed it out. Trump won the presidency in 2016 by talking about forgotten workers and American industry. But his divided message, personal vendettas, and fixation on media attention have since consumed the movement.

RELATED: Here’s what exit polls reveal about Tuesday’s electoral bloodbath

Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Now the party gets the worst of both worlds — all of Trump’s baggage, none of his appeal. Democrats use him to rally turnout. Independents recoil. The GOP lacks infrastructure, vision, and discipline. The movement that once promised to fight the establishment has become addicted to social media applause.

A party in search of conviction

If Virginia had a commanding figure like Ron DeSantis at the top of the ticket, Republicans might have dampened the blue wave. But without an inspiring message, voters in an economic crisis will always drift to the other side.

The problem isn’t demographics; if it were, Democrats would campaign in Virginia the same way they do in California or New York City. Instead, they skate by on empty promises because Republicans, trapped by special interests and lacking a winning message, have become easy targets — and surrendered the very issues that could win back suburban voters.

Republicans can still win — but not with hollow slogans or billionaire donors. They need to fight for affordable living, strong families, and safe communities. They need a moral and economic vision that reaches beyond social media and into the lives of working Americans.

The question conservatives must ask is the one George Patton once put to his men in another context: When will we finally fight and die on our own hills instead of dying on someone else’s?

Twitter is not America. And unless Republicans start acting like they know the difference, they’ll keep losing — and keep deserving it.

Here's what exit polls reveal about Tuesday's electoral bloodbath



The crushing defeats experienced on Tuesday by Republican candidates in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races as well as in the mayoral race in New York City are sure to be locally consequential as well as nationally telling.

After all, these elections provide insights into voter sentiment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats will likely be able to flip five House seats, owing to the successful passage of the gerrymandering measure in California championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Proposition 50.

It turns out that hostility toward President Donald Trump continues to animate a significant number of voters and that younger Americans, particularly young women, are receptive to radical candidates.

New York City

Socialist Zohran Mamdani took over 50% of the vote in the New York City mayoral race, beating Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa by 43.3 percentage points and disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by nearly nine points.

It's clear from CNN's exit polls that Mamdani's pinko populism resonated with a great many voters, particularly younger voters, in a city where the cost of living is widely regarded as a bigger issue than the correlated strain of illegal immigration and the problem of crime.

Mamdani campaigned on freezing the rent for all stabilized tenants; building more affordable housing; raising taxes on millionaires and corporations; raising the minimum wage; "expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide"; and frustrating the efforts of the Trump administration to enforce federal immigration law.

The majority of voters who said that the most important issues facing NYC were immigration and crime indicated that they voted for Cuomo. Meanwhile, 66% of the clear majority of voters who said the cost of living was the number-one issue ended up supporting Mamdani.

Mamdani also secured the support of:

  • 65% of voters who disapprove of Trump as well as 8% who approve of him;
  • 33% of voters who expressed an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party and 65% of those with a favorable view;
  • 46% of white voters and 54% of non-white voters;
  • 69% of voters ages 44 and younger, including 84% of women under 30;
  • 75% of the irreligious vote, 33% of the Jewish vote, 33% of the Catholic vote, and 42% of votes by those identifying as Protestant or other types of Christian;
  • 82% of the non-straight vote;
  • 82% of the votes cast by people who have been in New York City for 10 years or less; and
  • 65% of first-time mayoral voters.

President Donald Trump was a factor in the majority of respondents' votes in the Virginia, New Jersey, and California, according to CBS News' exit polls. In the New York City mayoral race, however, only 40% of respondents said Trump was a factor when deciding for whom to vote.

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Photo (left): Alex Wong/Getty Images; Photo (right): Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While Trump was not a factor across the board in the NYC mayoral election, 76% of the people who said he was ultimately cast ballots for Mamdani.

New Jersey

In the New Jersey gubernatorial election, Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli 56.2% to 43.2%, dealing him a more crushing defeat than he experienced in the 2021 gubernatorial election when he lost to Gov. Phil Murphy (D) by just over three points.

Exit polls show that Sherrill performed particularly well with women, non-whites, and college graduates and benefited greatly from voters' hostility toward the president and his administration.

The New Jersey Democrat apparently secured the support of:

  • 77% of non-white voters and 47% of white voters;
  • 67% of voters ages 44 and under and 51% of voters 45 or older;
  • 94% of liberal voters, 62% of moderates, and 11% of alleged conservatives;
  • 62% of female voters and 81% of female voters under 30; and
  • 62% of voters with a college degree.

Voters who felt that the state's economy was faring poorly under Democrat management were more likely to cast ballots for Ciattarelli. Seventy-seven percent of voters who figured things were good voted for Sherrill.

It's clear that voter sentiment about federal politics leached into New Jersey's gubernatorial election.

'An antipathy for Trump also appeared to be a factor for a majority — 51% — of California voters.'

Whereas those who expressed satisfaction with the way things were going nationally — 88% — voted for Ciattarelli, 77% of those who were dissatisfied voted Democrat.

Of the 40% of voters who said that opposing Trump was a factor, 97% voted for Sherrill. The Democrat also secured 93% of the majority — 55% — who signaled disapproval for the president.

The majority of voters — 53% — indicated that the Trump administration has gone too far with its immigration crackdown, and 49% suggested the next governor should not cooperate with the administration.

Virginia

In the Virginia gubernatorial election, Democrat Abigail Spanberger beat Winsome Earle-Sears, the state's Republican lieutenant governor, 57.5% to 42.3%.

Like Mamdani, Spanberger enjoyed a great deal of support from the youth and appeared to benefit not only from voters' antipathy toward the Trump administration but from their financial desperation.

CNN exit polls show that Spanberger secured the support of:

  • 65% of the female vote, including 81% of women under 30;
  • 92% of the black vote, 67% of the Hispanic vote, 79% of the Asian vote, and 47% of the white vote;
  • 63% of voters with a college degree;
  • 56% of voters who earn $50,000 or more and 62% of voters who make less; and
  • 82% of non-white voters and 47% of white voters.

A majority of voters indicated that federal cuts impacted their finances, and 69% of those affected said they cast ballots for Spanberger.

In a reverse of the trend in New Jersey, those respondents who said Virginia's economy was faring well majoritively voted Republican, while most of the 39% of voters who said the economy was not doing well or doing poorly ended up supporting Spanberger.

When asked what the most important issue facing the state was, a plurality — 48% — cited the economy. Of that cohort, 63% voted Democrat.

As was the case in the other races, those angry or dissatisfied with the way things were going nationally tended to vote Democrat 80% of the time.

Of the 38% of voters who signaled that opposition to Trump was a factor in their electoral decision-making, 99% voted for Spanberger, and 58% of all respondents signaled disapproval of his presidency.

It appears that disapproval of the Democratic Party was no guarantee of a vote against Spanberger, as roughly one in five of those who hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party voted for her.

California

Antipathy for Trump also appeared to be a factor for a majority — 51% — of California voters, 98% of whom voted in favor of the gerrymandering measure, Proposition 50.

According to CNN's exit polls, 64% of California voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Only 9% of the voters in that camp voted against Prop 50. Sixty-three percent of voters said the Trump administration's immigration actions go too far, and 59% suggested Gov. Newsom shouldn't cooperate with federal authorities.

Again, young women under 30 proved for Democrats a reliable cohort — 83% of women ages 18-29 supported the measure.

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