UTRECHT – Tarring politicians or public intellectuals as “communists” to discredit anything they propose is an age-old method for stopping debate, usually before it has even begun. We saw this most recently with the rise of Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York. When he was campaigning, he faced vociferous opposition not only from the right, but also from many on the center left. Yet the overwhelmingly dominant theme of his campaign was to address the city’s cost-of-living crisis through public investments financed with higher taxes on the wealthy. Is that not a reasonable goal?

© Project Syndicate