ICYMI: Two Competing Visions for America. Which One Will You Choose?

Nov 17, 2025 by AFP

ARLINGTON, VA—In a RealClearPolitics op-ed published today, Emily Seidel, President and CEO of Americans for Prosperity, warns against embracing the vision expressed in New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech that an expanding, more powerful government is the solution to all our problems (big and small). Seidel underscores the importance of choosing the right path — and warns of the perils that await if we continue to drift away from a belief in free people and unlimited opportunity. Read more below:

Two Competing Visions for America. Which One Will You Choose?

In his victory speech on Nov. 4, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani declared, “We will prove there is no problem too large for government to solve.” His crowd went wild.

But history has already proven that Mr. Mamdani’s claim doesn’t hold up. When government power grows too large and unchecked, good intentions give way to inefficiency, corruption, and even oppression.

Just look at our own hemisphere: Nations like Cuba and Venezuela made the exact same promise to their people – that government could fix every social and economic problem. Instead, they ended up with shortages, lost freedoms, and deep inequality.

I’d agree with Mr. Mamdani that there are tremendous challenges facing our nation – and we likely even agree on what most of those challenges are – but I believe in a far more powerful, effective, and lasting way to solve those challenges: free people, empowered by unlimited opportunity.

These are two contrasting ways of addressing society’s problems. Mr. Mamdani’s crowd made an unapologetic rallying cry for a bigger, stronger, more powerful government that will be the answer to every problem, big and small. And in doing so, offered a perfect crystallization of the current divide in our country that we’re seeing deepen on a daily basis.

It’s shocking, but not necessarily surprising.

Polling shows a decreasing number of Americans proud to be American. The highs were 20-plus years ago, when 91% were “extremely or very” proud to be American, while the historic low today sits at 58%. Since 2001, those numbers have steadily decreased both within and across generations.

We are at a key inflection point in our nation’s history as we approach our 250th anniversary. We are having foundational conversations about who we are, what it means to be American, and what we want our country to look like in the future.

At Americans for Prosperity, we have a very different view from Mr. Mamdani of the role of government and the power of free people.

Our Founders wove a deep belief in free people – and a deep skepticism of unlimited government – into our founding documents. We have checks and balances on power, enshrined rights and freedoms, and paths to prosperity because the founders valued free people over government control.

The United States is undeniably the beacon of hope for the world because it’s founded on the value of the individual and the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence. We believe every person should have an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams and determine their destiny. For free people, there is truly no problem too big or care too small. Free people don’t wait on a government middleman to solve their problems or redefine what’s possible.

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