Zohran Mamdani, newly elected Mayor of New York, believes he “will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.”
We’ve come a long way from Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death.”
This is more than a policy debate.
Reflecting on Mayor-elect Mamdani’s quote in a recent opinion editorial, Emily Seidel, CEO of Americans for Prosperity, calls this “a perfect crystallization of the current divide in our country that we’re seeing deepen on a daily basis.”
Mamdani’s sweeping promise ignores the lessons of the past 250+ years of American history — and signals a troubling erosion of trust in the founding principles that have served us so well.
Free markets, individual liberty, and limited government are some of the principles that have fueled American progress.
Their results? Extraordinary.
From the Wright brothers taking flight in a North Carolina field to entrepreneurs who sparked a technological revolution that changed the world — these breakthroughs didn’t come from government mandates. They came from individuals and communities empowered by freedom and opportunity.
Adherence to our founding principles is why our country has seen more innovation and prosperity faster than any nation in history.
As Emily notes in her op-ed, grand promises of government solutions aren’t new — and they rarely end well.
Just look south, where nations like Cuba and Venezuela once pledged to fix every social and economic problem through centralized control.
The result? Shortages, lost freedoms, and deep inequality.
Turns out, when government promises to solve everything, freedom, opportunity, and equality are the first casualties.
No government program could ever match the successes of free people pursuing opportunity.
Here’s why bottom-up solutions are better:
Bottom-up solutions unleash innovation, create prosperity, and give every American the chance to pursue their version of the American Dream.
We are at a critical inflection point in our nation’s history.
We need to decide what kind of country we want to be. One where solutions come from the ground up, powered by free people and opportunity? Or one where every challenge is met with another layer of bureaucracy and another promise that “government will handle it”?
Emily Seidel puts it plainly: One vision bets on bureaucracy. The other bets on you. History—and common sense—tell us which vision delivers lasting progress.
If you’d like to read more about the choice ahead and AFP’s prescription for the future, you can read Emily’s op ed here.
And, if you agree with AFP and want to get involved in the competition for our country’s future, you can join the movement to empower every American here.
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