SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN: Parker: Zohran Mamdani – When will we ever learn?

Zohran Mamdani leads NYC’s mayoral race amid strong Gen Z support and a socialist platform, sparking debate over the impact of youth ideology, education and the risks of embracing socialism.

The two most recent polls — Gotham and Siena — on the New York City mayoral race, show Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani leading Andrew Cuomo, running second as an independent, by 18 and 19 points respectively.

Mamdani defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June, garnering 56.39% of the vote.

Mamdani is a New York State Assemblyman, a Muslim born in Uganda and a declared member of Democratic Socialists of America.

Commentators are attributing one major factor in Mamdani’s success to large turnout and support from Gen Z voters, ages 18-29.

Aside from Mamdani’s unabashed socialism, he is also virulently outspoken against Israel.

Leading Democrats — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrat leaders in the Senate and the House, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries — have yet to step forward with endorsements.

Clearly there is concern about the Democratic Party, which has enough problems, being branded by this guy.

Nevertheless, the bets appear to be that he will win this race and become the next mayor of New York City.

Washington Post columnist George Will wrote that maybe it will help to elect him — whose agenda includes rent control, public child care, free city buses and city-owned grocery stores — to remind the nation what a disaster socialism is.

But should we really have to let someone drive over a cliff in order to teach that you should pay attention to where you’re driving?

The historical experience and failures of socialism abound. Anyone who doesn’t know it either doesn’t read or is so wrapped up in their own egotistic illusions that they are incapable of listening or learning.

The Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada, publishes annually an Economic Freedom of the World report. The report measures economic freedom through five components — size of government, regulation, functionality of the legal system, management of the nation’s currency and freedom to trade. Then over 160 countries around the world are measured by the index of economic freedom that emerges from this.

Per the most recent results, the top 25% of countries in economic freedom scores have per capita GDP of $52,877 — 7.5 times higher than that of the bottom 25%, $6,968.

The poorest 10% in the most economically free countries have per capita income, $7,610, eight times higher than the poorest 10% in the least economically free, $952.

In the most economically free countries, 1% experience extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15 per day), while in the least economically free, 30% experience extreme poverty.

I recently reported on a new Cato Institute/YouGov survey noting that 62% of Americans 18-29 have a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34% have a “favorable view” of communism.

What’s going on? Why are so many of our youth so deeply lost and confused? The truth and the facts are openly available for anyone to read. Why isn’t this basic information about economic life making its way to young Americans?

It’s reason again to scrutinize what is going on in our government and teachers union-controlled public schools, where there is more interest in conveying left-wing ideology than developing in our children’s skills to read, do math and think.

This has migrated to our universities where, on too many campuses, the pursuit of truth has been displaced by ideology and indoctrination.

It’s not surprising that there is a large gap between Democrat and Republican support for education institutions in America.

Per Gallup, 18% of Republicans versus 44% of Democrats say they have a “great deal/quite a lot of confidence” in our public schools. Twenty-six percent of Republicans versus 61% of Democrats say they have a “great deal/quite a lot of confidence” in higher education.

The great physicist Richard Feynman observed, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Maybe George Will is right that Mamdani’s election will provide a wake-up call to the nation.

Star Parker is the founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.