“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” he said.

This shouldn’t be surprising.

Mamdani has previously spoken in favor of “seizing the means of production” as “the end goal” and has said he doesn’t like capitalism and has “many critiques” of it.

In 2020, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Puducherry State posted on Twitter:

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

“Comrade Arya Rajendran, age 21 new Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram , Kerala. She will be the youngest mayor of a major city in the world. Here she leads a detachment of Red Volunteers in @CPIMKerala. #CPIM #LeftAlternative #Communist“

Mamdani quote tweeted it with the comment:

“them: so what kind of mayor does nyc need right now?

me:”

Mamdani recently selected Cea Weaver to be executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

In reporting that piece of news, the New York Post published previous Twitter posts by Weaver.

“Seize private property!” she said on June 13, 2018.

“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy,” she said in August 2019.

“Elect more communists,” she said in December 2017.

A video of Weaver has been circulating on X in which she says, “We’ll transition from treating property as an individual good to a collective good. Whites especially will be impacted.”

If someone walks like a Marxist, talks like a Marxist and hires like a Marxist, well…

Regarding collectivism, Ayn Rand, a writer and philosopher who lived in Soviet Russia under Vladimir Lenin, a Marxist, said the following:

“Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme–collectivism.”

In a previous op-ed, I wrote how socialism is a lot closer to home here in Utah than we may think.

How about Marxism?

As it turns out, there’s a person who is running for the new progressive-friendly first congressional district in the state who appears to be a proud supporter of Mamdani’s: Nate Blouin.

Blouin naturally draws comparisons to Mamdani because he has been endorsed by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a known “democratic socialist” who supports Mamdani.

Blouin speaks favorably of Mamdani.

In an interview on YouTube with liberal-friendly Utah political commentator Bryan Schott, Blouin invoked Mamdani to explain the type of campaign he was going to run.

“People are excited to have a candidate who is bringing on-the-ground energy,” he said. “You saw how much passion Zohran Mamdani brought out in New York City. I’m not going to claim I can keep up with him, because he’s a whole different force, but we’re going to try. We’re going to take on that same sort of fun campaign in a compact district like this that takes maybe 30 minutes to drive across.”

Blouin’s support of Mamdani goes beyond campaign style.

Blouin has reposted and posted various statements on X in support of Mamdani’s “warmth of collectivism” comments.

“they’re going to want to kill him for this but he’s so right, individualism as an ideology needs to end,” posted someone named “onion person” along with the video clip of Mamdani’s swearing-in ceremony comments.

Blouin reposted it.

In a quote post of user J.J. McCullough, who said in response to Mamdani’s “warmth of collectivism” comments, “This was really such an appalling line and he deserves all the dunking he’s getting for it. It’s a terrible catchphrase to be associated with Democrats and proves just what a liability for the party he has the capacity to be,” Blouin responded, “oh no people working together how horrible meanwhile here’s the first line of Utah’s state song”

He then included a screenshot of the line “Utah! People working together”

In a quote post of Mamdani’s “warmth of collectivism” comments, Blouin said, “I will think of the opening line of Utah’s state song, Utah… This Is The Place, from now on when I hear about the warmth of collectivism! ‘Utah! People working together”

X user Acyn posted a clip of Mamdani saying, “For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty,” and Blouin reposted it with his own commentary, demonstrating ideological symmetry with Mamdani:

“all my homies hate disagreeing better”

Also from Acyn was another quote from Mamdani, in which he said:

“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this:

“No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives. For too long we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public”

Blouin reposted it.

There can be no mistaking that Blouin is a proud big government progressive, and if he’s ideologically aligned with Mamdani, as his posts seem to clearly indicate he is, then the question needs to be asked if he’s not just a “democratic socialist” but a full-blown Marxist.

This matters because the fruit of Marxism has been people like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro and Kim Il-sung.

Is ideology that led to those leaders what Blouin thinks the people of Salt Lake County want? Is it what Salt Lake County wants?

None of this is fearmongering, though it may be criticized as that by progressives who would rather you not clearly know the ideologies of those running for elected office. If someone like Mamdani shows through his language that he believes in Marxist principles and hires people who talk like Marxists, and Blouin is signaling his support for that person and their beliefs, then it’s completely fair – and, frankly, the responsibility of the media – to demand Blouin explain explicitly what he believes. Anything less would be journalistic malpractice.

And if you somehow don’t think that a Marxist could win a congressional seat in Salt Lake County, I implore you to consider that the only reason Blouin is running for this seat is because he knows how far left it is. He acknowledged as much in his interview with Schott, saying that he probably would not run if the district was purple. Think about that. He’s not saying he wouldn’t run if the district was red. He said he would probably not run even if the district was purple.

Declared candidates have stressed that there’s a chance to elect a true progressive, to the point that Ben McAdams, widely viewed as a more moderate liberal, is trying to convince voters just how progressive he is.

Blouin may never even get a chance to run for Congress because we don’t know whether the current map will hold. But if it does, and the Democratic primary turns out to be every bit the race to the left that it seems like it will be given that the map is heavily skewed in favor of Democrats, it will be hard to get more to the left of a Marxist.

Contact Standard-Examiner editor Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.