Big news from Argentina is the electoral victory of the Advancing Liberty party of President Javier Milei.
Milei initially won the presidency in 2023, brandishing a chainsaw as a message of how he was going to cut the runaway government that has been destroying the lives of Argentinians.
Big government power has been a tradition in Argentina. Now Milei is turning things around.
Economic growth is picking up from stagnation, and inflation is down from over 200% to a little over 30%.
A victory for his party in midterm elections was seen as crucial for his ability to carry on with a mandate. He won much beyond what was needed.
Ironically, as Argentinians voted to support the leadership of a politician the likes of whom they have never seen, someone running to shrink government and advance liberty, in America's largest city, New York, they are about to elect a new mayor who touts all the ideas that have been destroying Argentina.
Zohran Mamdani is running on a socialist agenda that has failed everywhere it has been tried. But this doesn't seem to matter to New York voters.
With the election, as I now write, a week away, Mamdani holds a double-digit lead in the polls. His election appears a done deal.
So, the question now is not how to stop him but to try to understand how and why some Americans are at a point where they buy into such foolishness.
Rent control, free buses, free child care, city-owned grocery stores -- the only thing missing is free ice cream for all. And pay for it all by taxing the wealthy and taxing business.
An example of the mindlessness is to tout, as does Mamdani, almost doubling the minimum wage to $30 per hour as part of an overall agenda to make life in New York City more "affordable."
Affordable implies lower costs, lower prices. But raising wage costs and raising business taxes increases prices. Surely a third grader can figure this out.
The question now is if this is a sign of a direction of the country or if this is a one-off in a disproportionately left-wing city.
We cannot dismiss that this is a sign of a direction of national sentiment. Specifically, the socialist seeds are planted in our Democratic Party.
As I recently reported, new Gallup polling shows 66% of Democrats with a positive view of socialism and 42% of Democrats with a positive view of capitalism.
Gradually, Democratic leaders are crawling out from under their rocks and endorsing Mamdani. Latest is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Jeffries clearly understood the implications of coming out in support of this guy, and he minced his words with caveats. But in the end, he endorsed him.
It is not just a matter of the clear experience with the failures of socialism. Just recently, the Fraser Institute published its annual Economic Freedom of the World Report. The report shows with clarity that countries that are most economically free -- less government, less intrusive regulations, laws that protect private property -- have per capita income six times higher than countries in which these economic freedoms are not protected.
Our country is not at a fork in the road, trying to decide which way to turn. The reality is we already took a wrong turn. The massive government spending and debt weighing us down mean we must unwind from many bad decisions in the past.
The current government shutdown is a sign of where we're headed. We're shut down because Democrats want to spend even more money.
This defines where we're going.
Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Zohran Mamdani with great hesitation for a good reason. He knows that Mamdani and his friends in the Squad in Congress, fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America, set the new brand of the Democratic Party.
It's sad. But it's true.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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