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Rep. Nicole Malliotakis used a national Newsmax platform to issue a blunt warning to New Yorkers and to Democrats across the country: the party’s flirtation with democratic socialism, embodied by figures like Zohran Mamdani, will saddle taxpayers with impossible costs and crush opportunity. She told viewers on “Wake Up America” that Democrats are embracing radical economic ideas to survive politically, and she challenged voters to see the real-world consequences of those policies before it’s too late.
The stakes of that warning are suddenly concrete: Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and state assemblyman, won the New York City mayoralty in an upset that has progressives celebrating and conservatives sounding the alarm. Mamdani’s victory on November 4, 2025, makes him the city’s first Muslim and youngest mayor in over a century, and his win was powered by promises of sweeping government action to address affordability.
Mamdani campaigned on a laundry list of big-government fixes — rent freezes, government-run grocery stores, a $30 minimum wage target, universal childcare, and steep tax hikes on the successful — policies that sound compassionate in rhetoric but translate into higher bills and fewer opportunities for working Americans. Conservatives rightly point out that when government tries to micromanage markets and “seize the means of production,” the result is scarcity, stagnation, and the hollowing out of private-sector jobs that actually pay the bills.
Malliotakis framed her opposition not just in abstract economics but in the hard lessons of history, reminding viewers that millions in New York fled the very tyranny and economic collapse socialist policies produce — a point she personalizes through her own family story of fleeing Castro’s Cuba. That emotional connection fuels her urgency: this isn’t theory for many voters, it’s lived experience, and elected leaders who flirt with nationalizing industries or seizing property should be confronted with those lessons.
Beyond ideological objections, Malliotakis and other critics note practical dangers: public safety, municipal budgets, and basic services are on the line when politicians prioritize utopian experiments over proven, accountable governance. New York is already facing contentious fights over city spending and even proposals that would raise elected officials’ pay just as a new socialist mayor prepares to take office — a political tone-deafness that will further inflame taxpayers who are watching every dollar.
That proposed pay increase — a last-minute push to raise council and executive salaries — is exactly the kind of misalignment between political elites and everyday New Yorkers that conservatives warn about: bigger government for politicians and bigger bills for citizens. If Mamdani wants to campaign on affordability, he’ll have to explain why his allies were ready to gift the city’s power players a 16% raise rather than cut waste and reform pension liabilities that actually burden taxpayers.
The transition has also produced controversy over personnel choices, with critics pointing to appointments and advisors whose past statements and associations raise legitimate concerns about public safety and mainstream values. Republicans in Congress have publicly challenged some of Mamdani’s transition picks, and those alarms are amplified by the reality that New Yorkers expect their mayor to prioritize keeping neighborhoods safe and businesses open.
Americans who value liberty and prosperity should take Malliotakis’s warning seriously: read the history of socialism and pay attention to what’s happening in real time in our largest city. Conservatives must organize, speak up, and hold new leaders accountable so that compassion for the poor doesn’t become an excuse to bankrupt the middle class; this is a fight for the future of honest work and the American Dream.
