"Democratic socialist" Zohran Mamdani has been sworn in as the Mayor of America’s biggest city. The city that is famously home to the capitalism of Wall Street and all manner of millionaires and zillionaires, not to mention hard working, everyday Americans. And yes, New York is also the home of “legacy media” like the three broadcast TV networks, PBS, The New York Times and The New York Post et al.
Now it’s put up or shut up time for American socialists. With the “legacy media” on the scene to record the results.
Mayor Mamdani, whether he likes it or not, is now going to be under the media microscope if for no other reason then that it's right there in New York watching the Mayor everyday. If socialism is the success Mamdani and his fellow Bernie Sanders-style Democrats insist, the media both -- in New York and nationally -- can be counted on to spread the word.
And if Mamdani's socialist "solutions" crash and burn? However much the legacy media may want to downplay it, the woes of socialism will out.
Recall that once upon a time the biggest deal in the world of socialism was Russia’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And then…..
Then Russia’s socialist/Communist nirvana eventually faced economic collapse, dissolution and finally political disintegration. And the media of the pre-Internet day was there to report it. As at The Atlantic, which reported:
For media around the world, the end of the Soviet Union was perhaps the biggest story of 1991. Coverage from Moscow on Christmas Day prompted much discussion: analysis of (Soviet President) Gorbachev’s resignation speech, what the end of the Cold War meant, the fate of the Russian economy and that of the other republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States, energy reserves, nuclear weapons, and the economic impact on other communist nations (like Cuba and North Korea).
In the days before the Internet, cell phones, social media, texting, and tweeting, the world got its news from television networks, newspapers, and magazines, often with a lag time of at least a day. But, on Christmas day 1991, people could watch history happen, right in front of them on their TV screens.
Which is to say, as Mayor Mamdani’s socialist fairy tale proceeds, it will be under the media microscope, willingly or not.
Note well that the new Mayor is on the record as follows here from Real Clear Politics:
Mamdani: We Will Replace The Frigidity Of Rugged Individualism With The Warmth Of Collectivism
And fortuitously for the rest of America, the legacy “mainstream” media, if truth tellers, will be there to report on the results produced by the new Mayor’s socialism.
One can only shake one’s head in wonder that Mamdani appears absolutely ignorant of the results produced by socialism. Before one even gets to the real world of actual results in history one wonders if the new Mayor ever read and understood books like F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and The Fatal Conceit (The Errors of Socialism).
Mamdani's defenders will insist socialism isn't the same as Soviet communism, even if Mamdani warmly spoke of "seizing the means of production." But those same principles led to the murder of millions, as documented in The Black Book of Communism by a collection of international scholars.
Clearly the new Mayor is either clueless on the subject of socialism or just willfully ignorant.
But fortunately -- one hopes -- the legacy media will be right there in New York to report on the results of the new Mayor’s staunchly socialist administration. Judging from the coverage of Mamdani's campaign, the mayor will get a sympathetic ride at the outset. Results may be too hard to ignore.
In a way, America is lucky that this socialist experiment will unfold not in, say, Dubuque or Dallas. It will be in New York City, right there in the city that is home to huge chunks of the national media, with the results to be seen for all of America.
So welcome to 2026. By Election Day 2026, the results of Mamdani’s work should begin to be seen, courtesy of the legacy media. With lessons drawn for voters in all the upcoming races for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, state Governor’s races and elections for state legislatures.
Not to mention setting the 2028 table for the next presidential race and the battle between President Trump’s GOP successor and any Democrat nominee who will presumably be called on by Mamdani to support his socialist agenda. Get the popcorn and buckle in. One of the oldest bad ideas in history is about to get another run.
