Good afternoon, beautiful people, and happy Tuesday. Today, we are diving into the mayoral campaign of Zoron Mandani in New York City. We’ll look at his progressive alliances, the signature tax the rich moments, identity, and faith politics, and the broader implications for business, taxpayers, and civic life.
Let’s get into it. Welcome to Nelly Miranda. [Music] So, who is Zoron Mammdani? He is a state assemblyman from Queens in New York running for mayor of New York City. He identifies as a Democratic socialist. He is part of the left wing of the Democratic party. He was born in Uganda, raised in New York, and his identity, immigrant background, and Muslim faith plays a key role in his story.
So, in the next few days, let’s do everything that we can to see that Ziran is elected mayor of New York. My name is Assembly Member Zahan Mani, and I am running to make the city affordable. I’ll freeze the rent for millions of tenants, make buses fast and free, and deliver universal childare. The government’s job is to actually make our lives better.
So, what’s your take? I should be the mayor. Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done. I’m freezing your rent as the next mayor of New York City. As always, please make sure you like, share, and subscribe to support the channel. Okay, so Mr.
Mom Donnie, also known as Mr. Free, is offering a vision of free city buses, rent freezes, higher taxes on top earners and corporations. All those programs sound attractive in campaign mode. Accessible transit, affordable housing, free child care, governmentr run grocery stores, but we’ll have to see how that plays out in real life.
Are you ready for a city we can afford? But there is a myth about this city, one that has persisted for far too long. It’s the lie that life has to be hard in New York. the lie that only the rich or the lucky get to live a good life here. I believe every New Yorker deserves a life of dignity, safety, and stability, and that it’s city government’s job to deliver that.
I believe we can freeze the rent for more than 2 million tenants and build hundreds of thousands of affordable homes. I believe we can make the slowest buses in the nation fast and free. And I believe that we can deliver universal child care to make it easier to raise a family in this city. So the big question is who pays? What gets cut? What happens to businesses and economic growth under that model? Now here’s an important piece.
Mani’s rally in Queens where he was backed by major progressive figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Okaziocortez. And in that event, he declared things like, “New York should work for the many, not the few.” The polling at the moment showed strong support. The crowd was much more receptive when the progressive stars of the Democratic Party, Representative Alexandria Okasio Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, walked on the stage.
And we will send a loud message to President Donald Trump that his authoritarianism is no good here. We will send a message that to ICE that secret police do not belong here. At a moment when Americans are extremely distressed about where we are as a nation economically and politically. A victory here in New York will give hope and inspiration to people throughout our country and throughout the world.
This rally was called is not for sale with Mamani’s three big campaign promises. Universal child care, freeze the rent, and making buses fast and free. Good evening, New York City. Can we hear it for the elected officials, the labor leaders, and the New Yorkers who have joined us this evening? I believe this is significant because it illustrates the left-leaning coalition solidifying around an agenda that challenges traditional business and taxpayer norms.
It signals a shift not just incremental but structural. And if that kind of agenda takes hold in a major city like New York, the ripples reach far. For business owners, taxpayers, workers, you should want to know what these proposals mean in practice. Every promise of free comes with a cost. It just means someone else has to suffer for it.
Yes. The the point’s been made. The majority of people that will vote for Mandani and put him in office won’t be the ones getting taxed and paying for these things. So, it’s kind of easy for them to vote for him because it doesn’t affect their lives in their eyes, but it does affect their employer, which affects their landlord and affects everyone else that sets the prices for them, right? It it certainly does.
And I think it’s frustrating when we hear that affordability is what people are turning out for. I’m not saying affordability isn’t an important issue. It certainly is and both parties need to address it. But what I think a lot of these individuals that are coming to hear AOC, Bernie, Momani, is it about affordability or is the promise of free things that he can’t actually deliver? And this is actually going back to what has been a month-long discussion of Charlie Kirk and the legacy he’s left.
But Charlie Kirk understood that socialism was appealing to young people. He understood it a long time ago. He understood it a decade ago. It never went anywhere. It’s still here. So, there are a lot of young people and a lot of New Yorkers that feel like things are unaffordable because they are. And when they hear somebody else will just pay for it.
Don’t worry, we can fix all of your problems by taxing the rich. They have more than they need. That is appealing. I’ve watched both debates. The only solution that Mom Donnie has given these young people is tax the rich. And when he’s questioned, and I give the moderator some credit about that, about well, you don’t really have the power to do it.
Kathy Hogal says she’s not going to do it. He hasn’t given a good substitute for how he plans to pay for all these free things. So, I would remind the young people, I understand that affordability is a problem. It certainly is. Both parties need to address it better. But just promising all these things you can’t deliver, that’s not a solution that’s going to work for anybody.
Then we arrive at a moment that grabbed headlines. During the rally, the crowd allegedly broke into a chant of tax the rich, tax the rich. Yes, you heard that correctly. And according to reporting, New Yorker’s Governor Kathy Hokll said she heard the chant said, “Let’s go Bills.” Now, the football team, the gap between what was said and what she heard is telling.
She knows good and well they are not chanting about a football team at a political event, a Zoron Mandani event at that. I think she was just embarrassed. Lots of cheers and a few booze, particularly directed at the governor of New York. Do you want to elect Sauron Mandami as the next mayor of New York? It was the largest rally to date in this New York mayoral campaign.
More than 10,000 supporters of Zoron Manni packed Forest Hill Stadium on a Sunday night. But when Governor Hokll tried to speak about why she supports Manny, the Democratic governor was met by some booze and a chant that overpowered her words. Those were chanting tax the rich. Well, this crowd is fired up. I can hear you.
Mom Donnie himself came out on stage to the governor’s rescue. In the progressive vernacular, tax the rich is populist gold. It simplifies complex budgets into an us versus them narrative. But in my opinion, that simplification hides serious consequences. Higher taxes tend to slow investments.
They tend to erode incentives. They push businesses out. And when you see political leaders playing koi, oh, I misheard. I thought he said, “Let’s go Bills.” You sense that there’s a tension between progressive momentum and establishment caution. Now, I don’t think Kathy Hokll actually buys into the socialist agenda. She’s just going along with it because she knows that is the only way to stay in power in New York.
This should ring alarm bells. Are these policies really sustainable? What happens when paying for everything becomes the default? Siaka uh somebody was doing some numbers putting the pencil to paper just for the free child care services free child care services which would cost about $6 billion that is nearly the budget of the entire New York police department which kind of tells you something about his priorities does it not? Yes, it does.
Actually, to the point that he said before that the police is the problem and he wants to pay for the child care. Imagine this. You remove the police, which they want. When you talk about Marxists, and now your kid, and it’s so crazy to watch people applaud for the government to raise their kid earlier and earlier, and once they’re able to get into those New York schools that are about 90 plus% liberalleaning, if not just liberal, far-left itself, now you’re training those kids to become worker bees.
and actually away from the American dream, which is to own your own lifestyle and own your own business. And these people want more worker bees. And that’s what he’s trying to set up with this childcare scam. Basically, next up, we’ll talk about identity, politics, faith, and backlash. Monni is a Muslim, and he uses that identity as part of his narrative.
Not a bad thing in itself. In fact, representation matters. But when identity becomes the central storyline, it can shift focus away from governance to symbolism. I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. I get threats on my life, on the on the people that I love. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City.
I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab. Madam was lamenting the fact, this is at his rally yesterday. He’s sort of getting very emotional that his aunt couldn’t afib and was worried about um you know being bullied around.
It turns out the whole thing was a lie. His aunt was living in Tanzania, never was in New York City to first in the first place. I mean that’s the kind of nonsense that he’s pulling out. Don’t you love when the performance calls for tears, but the eyes didn’t get the memo. Eyes are still dry as the desert. I know he wanted to tap his eyes like, “Come on, don’t embarrass me.
” But seriously, not every New Yorker is Muslim, and in fact, the majority are not. For identity politics to appear to be at the forefront, well, I guess second to the free agenda, it raises red flags. And we’ve seen push back. There have been Islamophobic attacks, but also criticisms that Mamani himself has not distanced himself fully from certain controversial phrases or affiliations around the Middle East.
For example, the phrase globalize the antifada. He has responded by saying that he opposes violence. And to be clear, no one should tolerate bigotry or hostility toward religion or ethnicity. But we must also insist that leadership is about competence, about public safety, about budget discipline, not just identity. When critique of policy gets reframed as bigotry because of who the person is, we lose the ability to have an honest conversation about results.
For immigrants, for faith communities, for business owners, this dual message holds. Yes, identity matters, but do not settle for identity politics. All right. Now, so let’s ask, what does Maani’s campaign mean for NYC and by extension for the broader political landscape? If the left progressive model he embodies win, which it looks like it is going to win, New York’s in hot water because Maani’s whole pitch is built on the tax and spend model, free buses, free child care, rent freezes, even cityrun grocery stores. It sounds nice, but nothing’s
really free. Higher taxes mean higher costs, and those costs always land on workers and consumers. On public safety, he’s softer than the defund the police crowd. But the focus is still on social programs over enforcement. And that’s risky. When people do not feel safe, they leave. And when people leave, businesses follow.
At its core, this race isn’t just about Maani. It’s about where New York is headed. If the socialist experiment works here, other cities will copy it. If it fails, the price will be steep. And when politics become more about identity than results, the city loses focus. Representation is good, but accountability and common sense matter a whole lot more.
When government promises more free programs as if there isn’t already enough free programs, something always gives. Service quality drops, taxes rise, or debt piles up. When a campaign leans way too hard on identity, how do we test their performance since the real test should still be results? To wrap this up, Zoran Mdani’s campaign is a litmiss test for where parts of the Democratic party are heading.
Bold redistribution, identity politics, expansive government, and if you care about fiscal discipline, about the ability to succeed in business, about safe and thriving neighborhoods, you’ll want to watch this campaign closely. What do you see is the biggest risk if this socialism model spreads like wildfire? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
And if honest commentary brings you value, please make sure you like, share, and subscribe to support the channel, and tap the notification bell so you never miss an update. Thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one.
