Image: Wikipedia.
On October 30th, Peggy Noonan, one-time primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986, now a regular opinion contributor to the Wall Street Journal, informed fellow New Yorkers that “You have Been Warned” not to vote for Zohran Mamdani. But perhaps bowing to reality, she tells us, “At the very least, don’t give Democratic Socialist Mamdani an overwhelming win he can call a mandate.” Sorry Peggy, I voted early, for Mamdani and wouldn’t have voted for Cuomo or Sliwa under any circumstances. If it’s any consolation, I don’t think Mamdani will win by that large a margin. But if he does, it will be a mandate, not merely something “he can call a mandate.”
At the outset, Noonan tells us:
“Only five years ago, in the first autumn of the pandemic, the big question was whether New York was over, finished. It was a real debate. The threatened collapse of commercial real estate, the rise of remote work and the growing knowledge you didn’t really have to be here to be at the top of your profession, the financial hit of the pandemic itself, the demonization of the police after George Floyd, the retirements and departures from the New York City Police Department, the rise in crime . . .
We made it through that. We are up and operating again, getting our strut back. Midtown Manhattan is clogged again with impossible traffic, downtown’s booming, people are back in the office and out on the town, Broadway is back.
It didn’t happen overnight, took a lot of moxie and grit, but we made it through. And you wouldn’t think we would be on the verge of handing ourselves a brand-new setback in the choice of our next mayor. But we are.”
Pardon me but the “New York is over” discussion/debate is the one of the most shopworn ever. This city survived seven years of British occupation during the American Revolution, a Civil War that included draft riots that are still the largest civil urban disturbance in American history, a food riot in 1917, where women stormed the city’s poultry markets, assaulting customers and destroying chickens, a race riot in 1919, riots in Harlem in the 1930s, 40s and 60s, the Great Depression, the 1970s fiscal crisis, the Blackout of 1977 and the accompanying looting and 9/11 – all before the Covid19 pandemic. Are we really supposed to believe that one, four-year mayoral term will “finish” New York City?
Noonan is cryptic about how NYC “made it through” the pandemic. Maybe because it’s at odds with her Reaganite small government (the parts that help people anyway) – “government is the problem not the solution” ideology, she fails to inform us that in addition to our “moxie and grit” (which is true) about $26.5 billion in federal aid also helped us weather the storm. As a matter of fact, as with the financial meltdown and “Great Recession” of 2007-8, government money creation/spending with the lion’s share going to banks and brokerages that had been instrumental in creating the crisis in the first place – was also the key to the entire country’s recovery from pandemic’s economic fallout as well.
The second, tired old trope Noonan trots out is that Mamdani’s “never had a real job.” It’s the same charge often lobbed by people on the right against Bernie Sanders, even though a quick search reveals that he worked as Head Start teacher, psychiatric aide, and carpenter before turning to politics. And Noonan does the same thing here, either unwittingly, or worse, perhaps purposely lying to her readers (for their own good, of course). Before running for office, Mamdani worked as a foreclosure prevention and housing counselor. There, he assisted lower-income non-white homeowners in Queens with eviction notices and efforts to remain in their homes. He has said the experience motivated him to run for office to address the housing and affordability crisis.
Noonan goes on to dis the entire New York State Assembly, where Mamdani has served for about five years, as nothing more than “a badge you wear while you scrounge around for attention and connections.” As of January 2025, Mamdani was a member of nine Assembly committees: the Committee on Aging; the Committee on Cities; the Committee on Election Law; the Committee on Energy; the Committee on Real Property Taxation; the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus; the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force; the Asian Pacific American Task Force; and the Task Force on New Americans. Mamdani had been the primary sponsor of 20 bills in the Assembly—three of which became law—and the co-sponsor of 238 bills as of May 2025.As a member of the Assembly, Mamdani helped to launch a successful fare-free bus pilot program and participated in a hunger strike alongside taxi drivers.
Noonan continues:
“Mr. Mamdani’s major stands are famous and often repeated. They involve freezing rents, increasing property taxes in “richer neighborhoods,” and no-cost childcare up to age 5. The platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which he is a longtime member, is what you would expect—tax the rich, fight police brutality and mass incarceration, free college and medical care for everyone.
How will “the rich” react? They’ll understand all this means taxes and crime will go up, so they’ll be less inclined to stay. In the pandemic we worried as billionaires fled to Florida; now I fear millionaires fleeing nearby. It’s too early to say, everything at this point is anecdotal, but the New York Post this week reported sudden bidding wars among New Yorkers on million-dollar homes in Westchester County and Connecticut: “Real-estate brokers in these suburban markets report a frenzy reminiscent of the early pandemic exodus.” At a recent open house in Scarsdale, the report went on, a real-estate agent said the SUVs were double-parked down the block. “It’s like the Knicks at the Garden right now.”
Noonan herself admits this alleged mass exodus of the rich from New York City should Mamdani be elected, is based purely on conjecture and anecdote at this point. But what does statistical evidence show? Free lance journalist Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein writing for the liberal magazine/website The American Prospect took a look. She begins by noting:
“The evidence for this is thin: mostly memes shared by tech and finance people, bolstered by Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent musing about how the expected capital flight might be a good thing. And the claims are not limited to New York City. A decade ago, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared about the rich, “Ladies and Gentlemen, if you tax them, they will leave.” When Oregon passed a wealth tax in 2010, Nike CEO Phil Knight said that the law should be called “Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law” for the way it would create a death spiral of capital flight.
Avid Ayn Rand readers will remember that this conjecture is essentially the plot of Atlas Shrugged: Tired of being exploited with high taxes, the rich go on strike and leave the world to die without their talent and money. The argument is often delivered as common sense, the grown-ups in the room revealing what is obviously true to the petulant children who want to raise taxes.”
This exactly how Noonan frames it:
“A young Zohran supporter will wave a hand: Goodbye, who needs you? But every Upper West Side family buying a $1.5 million home in Greenwich was a New York family that threw off a whole world of local jobs and spending—delis, hair salons, babysitters, dog walkers, cleaners, dentists—and every one of them paid the already-high New York City taxes that pay the bills in this town. We’re going to miss them if they leave. Left behind will be the kulaks who won’t leave even after their crops are confiscated.”
Noonan figuratively pats the “young Zohran supporter” on the head, “Oh you just don’t understand how the real world works child” (where does that leave old Zohran supporters like me?). Notice how she spins the idea that a family in a $1.5 million home “throws off a whole world of local jobs and spending,” without citing any data to provide an accurate picture of how much of their wealth actually trickles down to the local community, though undoubtedly some of it does. And the kulak reference? It’s bizarre to the point of being incoherent, though some of her readers might recall that “kulaks” had something to do with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, which may have been her aim.
On the other hand, Kaiser-Schatzlein cites research from the Fiscal Policy Institute, which studied New York state tax filings from 2023 to determine how many millionaires left New York due to a personal income tax increase in 2021. They found that the top 1 percent of income earners (those who make above $815,000) typically move out of the state less than any other income group. This top slice of income moved out of the state at an average rate of 0.2 percent on net. She notes further:
“[W]hen high earners leave New York; they don’t seem to do so for tax reasons. They tend to move to other comparatively high-tax states, like Connecticut, New Jersey, and California. The FPI finds that a full 72.9 percent of those with high incomes leaving New York went to high-tax states.”
Noonan mentions Connecticut in her article. Perhaps she’s unaware that it’s also a high tax destination. I would guess she might have wealthy friends living there, who might also own homes in Florida, California and elsewhere, while also continuing to keep a place in Manhattan. The expense of living in all these places, except for low tax Florida, doesn’t really seem to be that much of an issue for people with this kind of wealth.
The article gets markedly worse from there with Noonan indulging charges that Mamdani is an anti-Semite and is accusing people of being Islamophobic if they don’t vote for him. Again, a vague reference to Mamdani having been “long been accused of a deep, persistent antisemitism,” followed up by:
“I won’t quote the clips suddenly flooding social media, the apparent result of someone’s late and incompetent oppo research, of his saying things that betray to my ear an obvious animus. There is a reason more than 1,000 American rabbis have warned his victory would threaten the safety of Jews.”
Why won’t Noonan share one or two of these quotes? OK, they betray to her ear an obvious animus. That’s fine but what would they betray (or not betray) to the rest of our eyes if she were to share them with us? More than 1,000 American rabbis have warned Mamdani’s victory would threaten the safety of Jews. Seems like an extreme view to me but fine if that’s how they feel. It is their right. But what are we to make of the multitude of Jews who enthusiastically supporter of Mamdani?
Something else I find deeply disturbing about Noonan’s article and the whole tenor of this mayoral campaign. Mamdani’s been called a Communist. He is not. Mamdani has been called a terrorist. He is not. Mamdani has been called a Jihadi and he is not. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani is elected and doesn’t “do the right thing” (i.e. what Trump wants him to do). House Republicans want to strip Zohran Mamdani of citizenship and possibly deport him over alleged form omissions. Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani’s only real rival in the race recently laughed at the suggestion that Mamdani would be “cheering” over another 9/11. The level of tolerance for this and lack of outcry from people in positions of prominence in this country is astounding. We wouldn’t stand for it for a moment if the candidate were Christian or Jewish. It is also a possible incitement to violence against Mamdani and/or members of the Islamic community, not only in New York City but across the country. It is a prime example of who some of us are, unfortunately, and the morass we are all sinking into under the “leadership” of Donald Trump and his ilk.
Noonan hasn’t one word to say about any of this. She ignores it. It’s OK to oppose Mamdani. But a lot of people are in an outright panic over the prospect of him becoming mayor. I’ve never witnessed something like this in the almost thirty years I’ve lived in New York City. I have little doubt some of it is being orchestrated by powerful interests that are terrified of anything that would advance even the mild form of democratic socialism being put forward by Mamdani and DSA and the fairly mild measures to alleviate the cost of living they advocate. They know there is widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, yet they offer nothing to alleviate it. Their answer is expressed by Trump’s call for a National Guard quick reaction force in each state for “domestic use.” Their answer is what Jack London referred to as the “Iron Heel” of terror and repression to keep people in line, while Trump’s billionaire friends spend untold sums on his monuments to himself.
Mamdani, DSA and the growing progressive movement across the country – which includes a lot of non-socialists – are providing a clear and comprehensive alternative to Trumpism. Again, it’s fine to oppose that, if it’s not your cup of tea, and fine to criticize Mamdani for his stances on the issues, if you are opposed to them. Noonan could have done this, while at the same time using her prominent voice to tamper down the panic and reassure people that New York City will survive, whether Zohran Mamdani succeeds or not.
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