Mamdani has won. Now can he govern?

Mamdani has won. Now can he govern?

Zohran Mamdani is now mayor of New York. A lot has been written about his lack of credentials. He has never had a real job. But somehow he was elected an assemblyman from Queens. He has made a lot of promises including a lot of free stuff without the wherewithal to pay for them. Albany has the purse strings and Governor Hochul says she won’t raise either the city’s corporate tax or income tax to pay for them. She even has nixed Mamdani’s promise of free buses saying that the fares are needed to pay for operation of the buses and their maintenance. Who knew?

So if Mamdani can’t get the money to pay for his promises, what can he do? He can appoint department heads. He has said that he will reappoint the head of police Jessica Tisch who has been widely praised. What happened to his pledge of defunding the police and sending social workers rather than cops to scenes of domestic abuse? Tisch has not yet said if she will stay. But there has been a steady exodus of cops leaving in the wake of Mamdani’s victory. More will leave if Tisch does not stay. Cities in Texas and Florida are running ads trying to attract disaffected New York cops. Many may take them up on it. It will be interesting to see why type of contract is negotiated between the policemen’s union and Mamdani when the current one expires.

As mayor Mamdani will head a city that employs over 300,000 people, has a budget of $115 billion and has the power to implement certain social and economic policies given the blessing of a 51 person city council. So the question is whether within that $120 billion can he hollow out $6 billion for free child care, $3 billion for free buses and all the rest. He won’t have enough money to build the “affordable” housing units promised. He doesn’t have the authority to raise the city’s minimum wage to $30 an hour. What about his city run grocery stores that will cost “only” $140 million? Also New York has rent-controlled units housing 2 million people. Mamdani wants the rent frozen on these rent-controlled units. I need someone to explain this to me but it seems that Mamdani might have the power to do this. No need to repeat the disastrous consequences of rent controls because this, like minimum wages, will never die.

Although it looks like Mamdani will have $115 billion to fool around with, $7.4 billion of that comes from the Federal government and Trump has vowed not to send the city any money unless he is legally obligated to do so. Cutting off those monies would mean that Mamdani would not be able to maintain expenditures at their current levels, much less fund his ambitious promises. Currently a quarter of the budget goes for education then comes human services, public safety and the judicial system, city employee pension funds, and debt service payments. If Mamdani tries to reallocate these funds he will find strong opposition from those whose funding will be decreased. This is a challenge for a veteran manager much less one with no managerial experience. I am reminded of Napoleon’s saying “If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything deliver nothing.” The question is how long will Mamdani’s raucous base remain supportive when he fails to deliver his promises.

Speaking of support base, the core of his support was from college educated white women who gave him an astounding 84 percent of their votes. Young women were wearing t-shirts that said “Hot girls for Zohran.” Perhaps part of the appeal was a young charismatic candidate running against the worn out discredited old guard. It would have been interesting if there had been a young republican in the mold of Charlie Kirk running rather than Chris Sliwa. That Mamdani had this type of support is in large part due to the failures of out “education” system that praises socialism at every grade and trashes capitalism. The two teachers’ unions are headed by socialists too. With this type of brainwashing it is a miracle that any young person is a conservative. So a system that has failed everywhere it has been tried is slated to try and fail again only to rise like Phoenix from the ashes to be tried again and again.

But hey, capitalism is heartless, cold and cruel rife with creative destruction. Socialism is all about empathy, warm and fuzziness. It wants to serve the poor, lessen inequality and appeals to the feminine desire for compassion. A campaign running on the lack of affordability in the city and promising happiness and fulfillment undoubtedly resonated with frustrated young women raised on socialism and the politics of envy. Now let’s see how long this honeymoon lasts.