In a recent appearance on Fox News, Victor Davis Hanson, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, expressed concern over the Democratic Party's ideological trajectory, particularly with the rise of figures like Zohran Mamdani.
Hansons remarks, delivered on "The Ingraham Angle," highlighted a perceived shift within the party towards policies that he argues are antithetical to human nature and individual freedom.
Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist, has built his political platform on principles of wealth redistribution, expansive government intervention, and class-based politics. According to the Daily Caller, Hanson pointed to Mamdani and other progressive leaders, such as Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as emblematic of a movement within the Democratic Party that seeks to implement policies that, in his view, stifle personal initiative and property rights.
Historically, socialists always come in after capitalists have made prosperity, and then they offer and improve prosperity, Hanson remarked to Laura Ingraham. And its contrary to human nature. People like initiative. They like pride in their property. Some people like to work a lot and get compensated.
Hanson further argued that when the government assumes control over innovation and productivity, it inevitably suppresses dissent and curtails freedom. He elaborated, It gives you that freedom of opportunity. And then the society at large benefits, Laura, from all these millions of agendas and ideas that improve, that people are free to innovate and to take experiments and risk. But when the state monopolizes all of that, its contrary to human nature, and then it has to be repressive.
Hanson drew historical parallels, suggesting that even democratic socialist experiments can lead to repression, citing figures such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin as extreme examples of socialist regimes that resulted in mass atrocities.
Moreover, Hanson contended that socialist systems inherently create a privileged class that remains unaffected by the policies they advocate. Talented people who can help the economy, who are successful or demonized, they flee. People who want things for nothing come in. Theres open borders, he noted.
They destroy personal liberty, and they stamp out any dissent or criticism. And theres always an elite, the billionaire Castro brothers, Chavez and Maduro. They always are never subject to their consequences, their ideology. Here in California, we are becoming socialist.
As Mamdani's campaign gained momentum following his victory in the Democratic mayoral nomination in June, he garnered support from key party figures. Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed him in a New York Times op-ed in September, and by October, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries publicly backed Mamdani after initially avoiding questions about his candidacy.
Upon his election as mayor of New York City, Mamdani announced plans to implement significant economic reforms, including a $30 minimum wage, city-operated grocery stores, and increased taxes on what he termed richer and whiter neighborhoods. These proposals underscore the broader ideological shift within the Democratic Party that Hanson warns against, as they reflect a move towards more government intervention and redistributionist policies.
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