By Douglas V. Gibbs
Socialism, Communism, or just basic collectivism all embrace the same belief when it comes to private property. Personal possessions are not to be tolerated, and confiscated for use by the state for the “greater good” and “fair distribution.” The language changes with the decade, but the doctrine never does. In Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural speech, and with the hiring of Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s Tenant Director, it is clear that the Mamdani administration in New York City agrees, and plans to treat property as a collective good.
Like every collectivist movement in history, Mamdani’s promise is simple: rather than embrace rugged individualism, he plans to move New York toward “the warmth of collectivism.” We’ve heard these kinds of promises before. “We’re not taking your property — we’re just making sure everyone gets their fair share.” Despite the soft-spoken rhetoric, and “the government will step in…if your landlord does not responsibly steward your home” promises that claims government takeover is a good thing, the truth is unmistakable. When the state becomes the arbiter of fairness, and the controller of possessions, the citizen becomes a subject of force and owns nothing.
But, as the WEF told us recently, “You’ll own nothing, and be happy.”
Mamdani, like every socialist, is anti-property-ownership. He once posted on X, “People often ask what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market and towards a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”
John Locke listed the most important natural rights as being Life, Liberty, and Property. When Thomas Jefferson wrote “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, he stated he changed it because he didn’t want people to think they entitled to property from the government. It is something to pursue, like all of our other rights. Natural Rights are not something to be guaranteed, or given by government, but to be something that government may not make any laws regarding. That’s why the First Amendment begins, “Congress shall make no law,” the Second Amendment ends with “shall not be infringed,” the Third Amendment begins “No soldier shall,” and the Fourth Amendment at its core reads, “shall not be violated.” That’s not language giving government any authority regarding our natural rights; it’s language telling the government “hands off” our rights.
While socialists like Mamdani sees private property as an economic concept, it is much more than that. It is the foundation of personal liberty. The Founders understood this so deeply that they wove it into the very DNA of the American experiment. Property is the physical expression of one’s labor, one’s choices, and one’s independence. Which is precisely why collectivist ideologies despise property ownership and personal possessions. Their attitude is that you must own nothing; that way, you are dependent upon the state. If you depend on the state, you obey the state. And if you obey the state, the state no longer serves you… you serve it. This is the quiet truth behind every utopian slogan. The rhetoric on the surface is painted and patted down and sprinkled with compassion and fairness, but the results are always coercive.
Modern collectivists like Mamdani rarely use the words “confiscation” or “state control.” They prefer the vocabulary of moral superiority, the kind that makes resistance sound selfish. They use words like “redistribute,” or “democratize,” or “reimagine,” or “ensure equitable outcomes.” These are not harmless buzzwords. They are the linguistic crowbars used to pry open the door to government authority.
Satan always appears as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). In the same way, the Left never sells collectivism as collectivism. They sell it as compassion. They operate as political magicians using verbal of “sleight‑of‑hand.” In truth, their collectivism and attacks on personal ownership are a direct assault on the principles of this country and the principles of the U.S. Constitution.
The idea of God-given Natural Rights and the Blessings of Liberty are Constitutional concepts that includes property ownership, and our rights are not negotiable privileges. Government is there for certain services and to ensure we have an orderly society, but our natural rights predate government. Therefore, our rights are not to be defined, controlled, determined or taken away by government just because it decides it must happen for socialist reasons. The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause is only there for certain occasions, and even then if the compensation is not viewed as “just” by the owner of the property in question, constitutionally the government has no authority to confiscate it.
Collectivism flips the American model upside down. Instead of government existing to secure your rights and make no laws regarding your rights, your rights exist only as long as government approves of them.
History shows us the failures of socialism and the successes of the American free market system and the principles of liberty. Every collectivist experiment, from the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, began with the same moralistic language about fairness and equality. And every one of them ended with shortages, corruption, political repression, and a ruling class exempt from the rules they impose. The pattern is so consistent it might as well be a law of political physics.
Today, Mamdani is planting the same ideological seeds in American soil. Like his other socialist comrades in the Democratic Party, he wraps them in deceptive packaging, calling them justice, equity initiatives, wealth taxes, “public good” mandates, and the warm embrace of collectivism. But, the root of it all is unchanged. The message is simple: You didn’t build that. You don’t own that. The state knows better than you how to use it. Home ownership is “racist,” and a “failed public policy” while calling for the impoverishment of the middle class. Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s Tenant Director, calls home ownership, “white supremacy.” Simply a variation on an old theme, class warfare.
This is not progress. This is not compassion. This is the oldest political con in the book.
Americans who are falling for the tasty worm on the hook in places like New York City will learn the hard way that socialism is not about “treating people fairly,” as the media spins it. In the end these policies always result in economic collapse, misery, and death. If we wish to preserve the republic the Founders entrusted to us, we must recognize collectivism for what it is and stop the cancer before it metastasizes. It goes way beyond policy debate, because what we are up against is an unforgiving and merciless philosophical assault on the very idea of individual liberty and our natural rights.
Understand, once the state claims authority over what you own, it will soon claim authority over what you say, what you believe, and how you live. It begins small, carrying a smile of compassion, but it never takes long for it to go way beyond private ownership of property into the very existence of freedom itself.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
