BANE SMILES: Zohran Mamdani’s New York: legal prostitution, handcuffed cops and socialism.
For years, the Democratic machine in New York managed to contain its most radical flank with centrist figures like Eric Adams and, before him, Michael Bloomberg. But that firewall has crumbled. Mamdani, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is ushering in a new era – one that reads more like a utopian manifesto than a functioning blueprint for the nation’s largest metropolis.
Under Zohran’s New York, we’re looking at government-owned grocery stores, free public transit and permanent political handcuffs on the NYPD. Prostitution? He’s on record supporting full decriminalization. At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if the next proposal is for city-run brothels.
Some may argue these are bold, visionary policies. But history tells a different story. When governments take over basic market functions – like grocery stores – it rarely ends with stocked shelves and smiling citizens*. Look no further than Venezuela, where state-run food distribution led not to equity but to rationing, shortages, and corruption. The idea that New York City, already struggling with record-high costs of living and regulatory overreach, would somehow succeed where socialist regimes have failed is either delusional or deeply cynical.
Watching the baristas of Manhattan unite, having nothing to lose but their Air Jordans, I think we’re all excited about New York’s Great Leap Forward. As New Deal author Stuart Chase famously said before FDR’s policies prolonged the Depression by seven years, “Why should the Russians have all the fun remaking the world?”
Or to put it another way:
* Boris Yeltsin could not be reached for comment: When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Houston. “‘When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,’ Yeltsin wrote. ‘That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.’”
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Show this video to Zohran. A Cuban seeing Costco for the first time gets emotional witnessing the sheer abundance. People who’ve actually lived under socialism are often the most moved by what markets can create. Capitalism is a miracle, actually. pic.twitter.com/sxxoG7W123
— Billy Binion (@billybinion) June 25, 2025