Call it the Zohran Mamdani Effect. Or call it a familiar page out of the shopworn Democrat playbook.

Either way, it amounts to one of the most tedious recurring projects in American leftism. And one prays that voters have the good sense to reject it.

Friday on the social media platform X, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, widely regarded as a candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, effectively acknowledged his party’s Mamdani-led leftward lurch by calling for a “national billionaires tax” and an “economic reset.”

On Tuesday, Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City enjoyed a clean sweep in the party’s congressional primaries. All three Mamdani-endorsed socialist candidates won their races, two of them handily.

Meanwhile, New York’s Democratic establishment reacted with alarm.

Newsom, whose presumptive 2028 campaign has already featured some high-profile gaffes, appears to have read the writing on the wall. The message? Move left or get left behind.

“It’s time for a national billionaires tax and a new social contract,” Newsom wrote. “10% of Americans own two-thirds of the wealth. Wages have stagnated. The cost of living has skyrocketed. The system is fundamentally broken. The federal tax code, a corporate code, and an inheritance code were written for a different set of Americans. It’s time for an economic reset.”

In an accompanying video, the governor added a few specifics. Newsom proposed, for instance, that proceeds from the tax would go toward a national public equity fund that gives all Americans a financial stake in the artificial intelligence industry.

But the crux of the message was exactly as we have heard from Democrats for decades: Tax the rich.

Newsom recently opposed a ballot measure that would enact a one-time 5 percent tax on Californians whose assets exceed $1.1 billion. In that case, nearly all new revenue would go toward health care, with the rest set aside for education and food assistance, according to NBC News.

Of course, when it comes to identifying the object of new tax revenue, one must always use the word “allegedly.”

Indeed, conservatives generally oppose taxes not because we hate health care and love billionaires. After all, Republicans have already had our reckoning with soaring prices and wealth disparities. We elected President Donald Trump in hopes that he would help fix the problem.

Conservatives generally oppose taxes because we know where the money goes. Rather than helping people in need, public money in recent decades has merely enriched the federal bureaucracy. No one can look at the suburbs of Washington, D.C. — the wealthiest in America —  and reach any other conclusion.

We have also witnessed perhaps the most egregious fraud scandal in the history of public expenditure.

Moreover, history tells us what happens each time socialists take power. Their cronies grow richer, while the people sink deeper into poverty.

In other words, to give Newsom his due, voters on both left and right do see a “fundamentally broken” system.

On the right, however, we refuse to ignore history by voting more money to leftists in government.

Of course, with Mamdani solidifying his hold on New York City politics, we can only hope that voters nationwide will reject the socialist message. Take one look at Newsom in that video, for instance, and trust your instincts. Does he look like a guy determined to help the least fortunate among us? Or does he look like a slick political chameleon?

Alas, the Cold War ended in 1991. No one under 40 can remember the ideological struggle between Western Civilization and Soviet-led Communism.

In the Age of Mamdani, therefore, a new generation must fight the same tedious battle.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Gavin Newsom Calls for ‘National Billionaires Tax’ to Trigger ‘Economic Reset’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.