One line uttered by newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani really caught my attention after he was sworn in last night: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
To be clear, that worldview is a wholesale rejection of America’s founding principles—where individual liberty, personal responsibility, and voluntary association drive prosperity, not coerced collectivism imposed from the top down. The kind of “warmth” Mamdani romanticizes can come from only one of two places: either from himself and his administration, safely insulated from the consequences of their own policies, or from the grim historical record (a cost in tens of millions of lives) of early attempts to force communism to work.
But thankfully, a number of Republicans and conservatives immediately pushed back on Mamdani’s unabashed socialism.
“The ‘warmth’ of collectivism that always requires coercion and force. How many dead over the past 100 years due to collectivist ideologies?” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on X:
The “warmth” of collectivism that always requires coercion and force.
How many dead over the past 100 years due to collectivist ideologies? https://t.co/hWPzrO0GxG
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 1, 2026
“Zohran Mamdani is a dangerous communist who is likely to DESTROY NYC through his dedication to communist ideology. Let’s be clear: COMMUNISM HAS FAILED everywhere it has been tried. NYC will be no different,” State Representative Lisa McClain, who serves as the House Republican Conference Chair in Michigan, added.
Zohran Mamdani is a dangerous communist who is likely to DESTROY NYC through his dedication to communist ideology.
Let’s be clear: COMMUNISM HAS FAILED everywhere it has been tried.
NYC will be no different. https://t.co/X8O31KKBOY
— Chairwoman Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) January 1, 2026
“When communists rule, individual rights — invariably — are taken away.” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said on Thursday.
“Collectivism isn’t warm,” Senator Mike Lee of Utah wrote. “It’s as cold as ice and locks the poor into perpetual poverty [while] Free markets have elevated more people out of poverty than any government program ever could.”
Collectivism isn’t warm
It’s as cold as ice and locks the poor into perpetual poverty
Free markets have elevated more people out of poverty than any government program ever could https://t.co/NBcoTbKYU5
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) January 2, 2026
“The Marxist and the Islamist are the enemy. The Mayor of New York is both,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas added.
While conservatives are right to recognize the danger baked into Zohran Mamdani’s rhetoric, recognizing it does nothing to spare New York City from what it is now poised to endure over the next four years. Awareness isn’t a cure. It doesn’t blunt policy, balance budgets, or stop the downstream damage once ideology is put into practice.
For better or worse—mostly worse—the city will be forced to live with the consequences of the ideas it chose to elevate and the leadership it installed through the ballot box. Voters made a choice, and now they own the outcome.
What happens in New York, though, is unlikely to stay in New York. Democrats are still wandering in the wilderness, searching for a coherent path forward more than a year after their electoral reckoning. In that vacuum, bad ideas don’t die—they metastasize.
If Mamdani manages to hold onto his popularity, or worse, govern without immediate and painful political backlash, his collectivist agenda won’t be treated as a warning sign. It will be rebranded as a success story. And in that scenario, New York City won’t serve as a cautionary tale—it will become a testing ground, a pilot program for policies Democrats will be eager to export nationwide.
The United States once fought an entire global struggle against communism out of fear that it would spread like a virus. That instinct—hard-earned through history—has clearly dulled. Today, the same ideological threat is being waved off, normalized, and even celebrated in some quarters.
With self-described socialist New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now openly floated as a potential Democratic presidential nominee in 2028, that complacency looks increasingly reckless. This isn’t fringe speculation anymore; it’s a reflection of how far left the party’s center of gravity has drifted.
Even if Vice President JD Vance were to defeat AOC in a hypothetical 2028 matchup, that wouldn’t settle the matter for good. Political tides shift. Coalitions fracture. Power changes hands. And history shows that ideas dismissed as “too radical” in one cycle can become mainstream in the next.
