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Remember “affordability” mania?

The time was 2025. A young charismatic democratic socialist candidate for New York City mayor named Zohran Mamdani became a viral sensation. His secret? “Affordability.”

Ask him about almost anything and he’d turn the conversation to affordability. When a reporter asked Mamdani to respond to President Trump’s claim that he was the better-looking politician, Mamdani responded, “My focus is on the cost-of-living crisis, bro.” Queried about whether Hamas, the terrorist organization, should disarm, he began with “I believe that any future here in New York City is one that we have to make sure that’s affordable for all.”

Mamdani won the election, and pretty much everyone agreed that “affordability” was the key that unlocked City Hall.

“Affordability” was “the mantra that carried” Mamdani to victory, proclaimed Vox. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and political strategists like David Axelrod, James Carville and Waleed Shahid all agreed. As Shahid put it, “Zohran cracked the code so many Democrats are searching for: laser-focus on affordability … this is a playbook.”

All this annoyed Trump, who’d campaigned on lowering prices in 2024. Affordability was a “con job by the Democrats,” he told reporters. “Affordability is a lie when used by the Dems. … We are the Party of Affordability!” he declared on Truth Social.

One of Mamdani’s first priorities as mayor was to impose a partial rent freeze on more than a million apartments, about 40% of NYC’s rental stock. That was temporary good news for people in those apartments, but good luck finding an economist who doesn’t think this will make housing less affordable over the long term.

More recently, Mamdani endorsed a plan to require Amazon and other companies to stop using third-party contractors to deliver packages to New Yorkers. It’s a naked sop to the Teamsters, who’ve long wanted unionized drivers to have a monopoly on deliveries.

If passed, the Delivery Protection Act will create some jobs for drivers, while killing more jobs for gig workers. More important, it would surely make deliveries slower and more expensive. The only study estimating the costs — sponsored by its opponents — found that it would add $664 in delivery fees per household annually.

Take that with a grain of salt if you like, but it’s telling that the........

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