New Yorkers were handed a brutal dose of reality when conservative activist Cam Higby posted a clip of a Mamdani voter openly admitting she’d be fine with the city bleeding its wealthy dry — “tax the shit out of everybody” — even if that drove the rich away. The video circulated fast because it exposes the raw contempt for the middle class and the sticker-shock logic underpinning democratic socialism, a truth many in the legacy media would rather bury.
Zohran Mamdani’s victory this November was sold as a hopeful rebuke of the old guard, but it rode a wave of promises — rent freezes, universal childcare, free transit and aggressive “tax the rich” schemes — that hinge entirely on a steady, taxable wealthy class. Voters were courted with utopian comforts without honest accounting for where the money actually comes from when the top earners pack up and leave town.
When Dave Rubin shared a DM clip of his roundtable with Michael Malice and Alex Stein reacting to Higby’s footage, he did more than throw fuel on a culture-war bonfire; he highlighted the dangerous disconnect between leftist ideology and economic reality. Conservatives should be grateful that independent media figures are amplifying the very questions establishment journalists refuse to ask: how do you sustain lavish promises if the taxpayers who pay for them flee?
This isn’t a hypothetical scare tactic — economists and business leaders have long warned that punitive tax policies chase capital, jobs, and opportunity out of cities, hollowing out the very tax base progressive politicians promise to protect. The reactionary delight on display in the clip shows a willingness to punish success and saddle ordinary New Yorkers with the bill, an attitude that will translate into higher costs, fewer services, and a diminished city if allowed to stand.
What makes the footage so damning is the candidness: voters cheering a policy that would raise taxes on everyone — even if the wealthy leave — reveals a cruelty disguised as righteousness. It is an attitude that assumes the middle class exists only to be squeezed, and it betrays the populist rhetoric Mamdani used on the campaign trail; once the bill comes due, the “for the people” slogan looks more like class vengeance than governance.
Patriotic conservatives must seize this moment to hammer home the simple facts: balanced budgets require economic growth, not punitive exoduses of investment; public services need payers, not platitudes. New York’s future should not be gambled on ideology that punishes prosperity — the city deserves leaders who will expand opportunity and protect taxpayers, not reward resentment.
Credit where it’s due: activists like Cam Higby and commentators like Dave Rubin forced this uncomfortable truth into the light, and Americans should pay attention. If conservatives want to save cities like New York from self-inflicted decline, we must keep exposing these policy fantasies and offer a clear, positive alternative that defends hardworking families and the engines of our economy.
