Mamdani’s Jim Crow 2.0: How will women and minority groups get groceries in socialist NYC?

An old saying suggests that actions speak louder than words. Assuming that to be true, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is an ardent supporter of identification requirements — requirements that many Democrats, including powerful legislators in his state, categorized as oppressive, racist, bigoted, and analogous to the racial segregation practices known as Jim Crow. […]

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An old saying suggests that actions speak louder than words. Assuming that to be true, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is an ardent supporter of identification requirements — requirements that many Democrats, including powerful legislators in his state, categorized as oppressive, racist, bigoted, and analogous to the racial segregation practices known as Jim Crow. Mamdani once again showed that Democrats wholeheartedly support identification requirements when they align with their political ambitions and interests. When they do object to them, it is nothing more than hyperbolic performative nonsense.

During a press conference touting his proposed government-run grocery markets in New York City, Mamdani discussed the logistics of their operation, including how the city will prevent patrons from exploiting the subsidized grocery locations by purchasing groceries at a discount and reselling them for a profit. The methodology behind these preventive measures was predicated on a “library-card-esque system,” or, in other words, an identification-requirement system.

“This is a program for New Yorkers to be able to put food on the table, not a program for people to be able to make a quick buck through reselling,” Mamdani said when answering a question about enforcement procedures at the proposed government-run grocery markets. “I’m going to pass it over to our EDC head, Jeanny Pak, to add some additional details.”

Pak then explained the city’s commitment to identification requirements to ensure that no fraudulent or illegal abuses would occur at Mamdani’s government-subsidized food markets in New York City.

“We are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers, whether it be a sort of a library card-esque thing, and also we manage who’s buying, and that is focused on everyday New Yorkers,” Pak said. “So, we are mindful of that, and so we’re going to make sure that we have all the things in place to ensure that that does not happen.”

However, the people were repeatedly told that requiring citizens to use identification is oppressive, according to Democrats. They said that scores of women and racial minority groups will not be able to get such identification requirements because of poverty, sexism, racism, or some other obstacle. And, any government law or program requiring citizens to have an identification requirement is tantamount to “Jim Crow 2.0,” or at least that is what numerous Democrats have said during the last year, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Moreover, the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the country, of which Mamdani is a part, has regularly brandished identification requirements for citizens as an effort to “marginalize working-class Americans” and a “campaign to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights Movement,” among other unsubstantiated hyperbolic assertions. So, assuming their claims would be true, and assuming liberals, Democrats, socialists, communists, and others on the Left believe their own claims to be true, then how will all the women and racial minorities permitted to purchase groceries in socialist New York City?

The answer, of course, is the same way women and racial minority groups would be able to get voter identification. They would be able to do so because they would not be hampered. All claims to the contrary are duplicitous messaging meant to sow fear and discontent among the Left’s political base.

Members of Mamdani’s administration, and other Democrats, have dismissed such comparisons and denied any similarity between voter ID laws, legislation such as the SAVE America Act, and Mamdani’s government-run grocery stores. Moreover, members of Mamdani’s administration claimed that the library-card-esque system was little more than an “inventory management tool.”

REPUBLICANS SLAM MAMDANI’S ID REQUIREMENT FOR CITY-OWNED GROCERY STORES

“Comparisons to voter ID laws or the SAVE Act simply do not apply,” said Mamdani spokesman Cassio Mendoza. “This is not an identification system, nor is it a mechanism to verify who someone is, where they live, or how much they earn. It is a practical inventory management tool to ensure affordable groceries remain available for the people who need them instead of being cleared off shelves for resale.”

So, in other words, it is indeed an identification system, but it is just the kind of identification system approved and sanctioned by Democrats and others on the Left. It’s the kind of typical left-wing hypocrisy that has existed for decades, and the kind of nonsense that rabid left-wing supporters eat up. It is a narrative predicated on indoctrination and manipulation, not truth or facts.

Ironically, Pak’s explanation to use such identification procedures — or Mamdani’s Jim Crow 2.0 — is a sound strategy to prevent fraud, abuse, and illegal activities, just like it is for Republicans wanting to use it for election security purposes. Democrats claimed attempts to force identification requirements were rooted in oppression. That was a lie. Instead, it was rooted in Democratic fabrication and baseless fearmongering.