Zohran Mamdani fans have no clue of the horror ‘socialists in a hurry’ unleash

It’s been said that if you’re not a communist at 20, you have no heart — but if you’re not a capitalist by 30, you have no brain. That’s all-too-befitting the sad farce of New York’s mayoral race, led by frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

How does Mamdani, as the only major candidate that comes close to the 20-30 age range, measure up?

Mamdani’s smiling, youthful energy attracted many real 20- to 30-year-old New Yorkers, as well as many older 20-something-at-hearts.

His wealth of socialist/communist ideas — abolishing private property, seizing the means of production, defunding the police, freezing rent, providing free public transportation, establishing government-run stores and more — make many such 20-somethings swoon.

Yet wiser and more sober minds know just how such notions would hurt the city.

Yes, Mamdani is over 30 — he’s 33 — but maybe he’s just a late bloomer, not having achieved much for his age.

Given his feather-light resume and fantasyland agenda, some over-30 supporters who should know better nonetheless assure us not to worry; he won’t be able to accomplish what he’s saying.

That’s a head-scratcher: They disagree with Mamdani’s core positions and also recognize his lack of ability and achievements — but will vote for him because he will fail at his agenda!

History abounds with the horrors of the communism that fuels his and his supporters’ ideologies.

Immigrants who experienced communism recoil at seeing it advocated here.

From 1917 to 1987, communist regimes killed an estimated 169 million people through executions, purges, forced labor, torture, imprisonment and mass starvation — in Communist China, the Soviet Union, Angola, Cambodia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Poland and more.

That far exceeds the 28 million deaths under fascism.

Media and education invested in glorifying Marxism and denigrating America have spread ignorance of communism’s bloody track record.

This memory hole fuels the myth that wealth redistribution creates equality, freedom and prosperity.

History proves this notion false.

Capitalism, despite its flaws and more than any other system, catapulted billions, including a quarter of humanity in China, into unprecedented prosperity and the closest ever to freedom and equality of rights; communism did the exact opposite.

Communism even fails at imposing equality of outcomes: When people are poor and live in constant fear of that midnight door-knock, abuse of power runs rampant.

Paint communism with the lipstick of equality as much as you can; you always end up with corruption as a way of life.

Mamdani and his youthful fans will say these historical communist failures were just aberrations; if communism were done right, everything would be wonderful.

Here’s another saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

It’s just human nature that when a political system is funded by appropriating the fruit of other people’s labor, those other people stop working, and everyone becomes poor.

And once the power elite successfully appropriates the fruit of other people’s labor, they don’t stop there.

Only a generation ago, New York City suffered a hemorrhaging tax base, block after block of war-zone-like abandoned and burnt-down buildings, rampant crime and murders and near bankruptcy.

The real 20-somethings never lived through that, and the 20-something-at-hearts evidently have amnesia. The city is simply not immune to the dangers of bad management.

It’s possible that Mamdani is not a real 20-something idealist; he may well be a calculating, manipulative performer for whom communism’s heart-tugging effect on the youth (of all chronological ages) serves him well for his quest to power.

That would be consistent with his benefiting hugely from his parents’ wealth and privilege while targeting others’ assets and earnings, checking off African American to increase his chances of college acceptance, living in rent-stabilized housing meant for those with lower income.

“Rules for thee but not for me” — a practice the communist elite blithely followed as millions suffered.

What does it take for New Yorkers to get off their 20-something swooning, act their age and put this nepo baby in his place?

Wai Wah Chin is the founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.