“Public Housing for Everyone”

If there is any doubt that this definition applies to the Democratic Socialism in America, Cea Weaver, New York City’s new housing official, should clear that up.  She was appointed by the city’s new Democratic Socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, as head of his Office to Protect Tenants.

National Review reports on what Weaver has said on the subject:

She believes that “rent control is a perfect solution to everything” — not least because it is an “effective way to shrink the value of real estate.” She considers that “private property is a weapon of white supremacy,” she believes that “homeownership is racist,” and she holds that the highest aim of government ought to be to “impoverish the *white* middle class.”

Rent control, of course, also contributes to the lack of housing.  If the price of apartments is kept artificially low, it won’t be profitable to build them.  It also means less money to keep them maintained.  Market forces do not come from capitalist ideology–they are laws of nature that operate in every economic system.

But Weaver has an ideological tactic in mind:

A year ago, Weaver told Sam Seder that, once she and her friends had won power, the government would be able to say to landlords in New York City, “Hey, um — you know — you are not maintaining this building, and we are the City of New York, we have an interest in making sure that housing is well maintained, and — and we’re gonna take this building away from you.” This, of course, is a classic two-step trap of the type that has been beloved by communists for more than a century. First, by capping rents at unsustainable levels, the authorities render it impossible for property owners to repair and maintain their buildings. Then, when those repairs and maintenance don’t get done, the city takes the building on the grounds that the landlords are derelict. The result is what Weaver has openly wanted all along: namely, “massive government interventions” and “public housing for everyone.”

Progressives are defending Weaver, saying that these controversial statements are from old tweets (they are not that old)–as if that makes them no longer representative of how she thinks–and, anyway, she is not wrong.

For how the Soviet Union confiscated privately-owned buildings, including churches, by such tactics, see  Gates of Hell, Matthew Heise’s history of Lutheranism under the Soviets (see my review).  And for Soviet-style public housing for all, see the depressing, run-down concrete towers that were and are everywhere in the former Soviet Union and its empire.

Surely a minor official in a city bureaucracy can’t overthrow capitalism. Though, as the National Review editors observe, “Given that New York City has more people living in rented housing than any other American city has residents, this is a position from which a great deal of mischief can be made.”

But the Democratic Socialist Party is growing in numbers and influence.  In addition to Bernie Sanders in the Senate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Greg Casar (D-TX) are DSA members in Congress.  Nationwide, in state and local governments, some 250 DSA members hold office. But more than that, mainline Democrats are also open to that ideology.  According to a recent Gallup poll, 66% of Democrats view socialism positively.

Marxists believe their ascension is inevitable, determined by unalterable historical laws.  Despite the fall of the Soviet Union and despite Cold War conservatism falling out of favor in today’s right wing, Marxism has not gone away.  We need to remember Nikita Khrushchev’s prediction:  “We will bury you!”

Photo:  Soviet Apartment Blocks by Aigars Mahinovs, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons