The election of Zohan Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim Asian American mayor has the radical right clutching their pearls. Social Democrats winning Democratic congressional primaries since then has sparked even more plotzing among Fox News viewers and Trump Party (a.k.a. the former Republican Party) loyalists.

Those on the right claim falsely that Social Democrats hate free market capitalism. But we no longer live in a free market economy. We live with underregulated crony capitalism. Some say we live in a “Corporatocracy.” The free market system that built the greatest economy the world has ever known has gone the way of bell bottom jeans and peace signs.

We have evolved over the last 50-60 years, with the help of radical right-wing thinking and policy, to what I call “corporate colonialism.” Colonialism is what every European nation did for hundreds of years to smaller, weaker countries. It’s the reason we broke with Great Britian 250 years ago.

In a Corporatocracy, huge corporations (often created and owned by oligarchs) have too much influence over what we buy and the prices we pay. Large multinationals use their size and economic power to eliminate competition, including many local “mom and pop” businesses. Large companies have often corrupt relationships with the governments that are supposed to be regulating them. Conglomerates gain these unfair advantages by lobbying lawmakers and showering them with donations through opaque political action committees.

This system is the fault of bipartisan shenanigans by both Democrats and Republicans. However, those on the radical right fall much more easily for propaganda from a vast right-wing media complex, a corrupt Trump Administration, and the corporations themselves that socialism is our greatest enemy.

Does anyone think that socialists, or any other “leftist” organization, would gain many votes if Americans knew this supposed free market economy was actually working for them? If this mythical economy, allegedly blessed by the founding fathers, was still benefiting working stiffs, Mamdani would still be an unknown housing counselor and starving rapper.

Radical right media mavens and their sycophantic Republican followers try to convince you that democratic socialism is the worst thing since Type 1 diabetes. Don’t be fooled. Corporate colonialism has brought us high food prices, rising utility costs, unclean air and water and devastating climate change. We want alternatives. And right now, many voters think Democratic Socialism looks a whole lot better than predatory unrestricted enterprise masquerading as free market capitalism.

Duane Kanagy
Gettysburg