<a href="https://alt-market.us/americas-future-food-stamp-riots-and-communism/">Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us</a>

There’s a lot of black-pilling Republicans out there this week after a handful of elections in the northeastern US led to “sweeping” Democrat victories in New York, New Jersey and Virginia. As is always the case whenever Republicans lose any race no matter how insignificant to the bigger picture, suddenly the sky is falling and doom is about to come crashing down on America for all eternity. The panic has become quite tiresome.

Keep in mind, the gloom is limited mostly to social media and is exacerbated by a few hundred conservative influencers. As usual, these people still don’t realize that the social media world is not the real world.

If you were shocked by someone like Zohran Mamdani winning the mayor’s race in New York for example, then you have not been paying any attention to what’s been happening in blue cities lately. I predicted that liberals would turn out in droves to vote for the guy back in July. In my article <a href="https://alt-market.us/batman-vs-the-joker-democrats-will-turn-to-extreme-socialism-to-save-their-party/">“Batman vs The Joker: Democrats Will Double Down On Chaos To Save Their Party”</a>, I noted:

“Leftists in the US will rally around uncompromising socialists like Mamdani because they’re tired of pretending that they care about “democracy”, free markets, property rights, moral codes or freedom in general. They need an all encompassing vision, even if it’s a monstrous and dystopian one. And, they want leadership that is transparent and unapologetic in its psychopathic intent. They don’t want to play the role of humanitarians anymore – They want to take the mask off and taste the flavors of blood and power…”

It’s New York, folks. It’s one of the largest hives of far-left scum and villainy in the world and conservatives only make up 26% of the city’s population.  OF COURSE Mamdani won. He represents everything the political left wants; a radical repudiation of western culture and free markets. Let’s not forget, these are the same people who celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

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The same goes for New Jersey. In Virginia, the GOP decided to run a woman (Winsome Earle-Sears) who positioned herself as a “Never-Trumper” in 2022. She claimed that Trump was a liability for the Republican Party and that he should step aside. She then suddenly flipped in 2024 after Trump won again. OF COURSE she lost the race in Virginia. Conservatives have scruples about their candidates. They aren’t going to show up at the ballot box for someone who trashes their party leader and then jumps on the bandwagon at the last minute.

My point is, the hysteria going around social media over these “losses” is limited to a tiny bubble of people bouncing their ideas around in perpetuity. These few elections are in no way an indicator of America shifting far-left. They are, however, a reminder that our country is thoroughly divided on almost every issue and policy. Conservatives and progressives could not be more opposed in every way.

And, as I keep saying but I’m not sure if conservatives are hearing, it’s a reminder that leftists and Democrats are fighting A WAR while conservatives continue to play politics.  The leftists are consolidating around communist figures and ideas of radical insurgency.   Meanwhile GOP members and influencers are freaking out about “how to get more college-age white women in NYC” to vote for them.  It’s pure stupidity.

I would like to use the EBT/SNAP debate as a model for this divide because I think it’s revealing. Food subsidies are the epitome of socialism and the growing dependency on government that they create cannot be denied. Over 42 million Americans are now collecting SNAP; that’s 12.5% of the population. When the program first started in the late 1960s (on a national level), only 1.4% of the population qualified.

When SNAP was created it was promoted as a stop gap, a temporary safety net for people out of work and looking for employment. The primary focus of welfare benefits was supposed to be the disabled and the elderly, not able bodied working-age people (who now make up 80% of SNAP recipients). The program was a helping hand and then it became a crutch or a trap.

Right now the government shutdown is up in the air and emergency funds will do little to keep food subsidies running. The crux of the shutdown is the debate over healthcare benefits (more socialism) going to illegal immigrants (at least 1.8 million illegal migrants collected ACA in 2024). Only 5 Senate Democrats are need to vote for a clean funding bill, but they have refused 14 times.

As I have been warning for the past couple months, the Democrats are hoping for food riots that can be blamed on Trump and conservatives. Another few weeks and yes, this could happen in some major cities where Democrats refuse to enforce property theft laws.  The Democrat message is this:  “We will use mob violence and chaos to FORCE you to give us what we want.  Even if you win elections, we are in control…”

It’s political extortion.  Give them what they want and they will only continue to mobilize angry mobs over and over again to exert leverage over government decisions.

But what will the result be? Corporate chains and grocers will inevitably close up shop and those cities will become permanent food deserts. Leftists can’t force retailers to stay open, stock shelves and put employees at risk. Food riots will not have the effect that Democrats are hoping for.  Businesses will leave these cities. Smart people will leave these cities.  And the Democrat politicians still running the cities will be targeted by the same criminal mobs they have allied with.

There are certainly a number of people out there that are in actual need. I would never hold it against someone if they turned to a government program for support when life goes wrong. If they’re trying to rebuild and get a job and they need a short term boost, that’s okay. I prefer charity be private and personal rather than government enforced, but I grew up dirt poor; I know people will take whatever help they can get and usually they don’t care if it comes from the government.

The problem arises when welfare becomes a social mainstay, or an expectation. The level of entitlement surrounding SNAP is truly incredible. The number of people taking to the internet to call for blood because “Trump is stealing their SNAP” is disturbing. It’s the same thing that always happens with socialist projects – They draw support because they start small and innocuous. Then, they turn into an expensive society draining monstrosity that the populace is addicted to.

A number of commentators have been ringing warning bells about potential food riots, but I would like to point out some positives if cuts to SNAP continue.

First, the program was never supposed to become as large and costly as it is today. Reducing it to people who are truly in need (disabled, elderly and short term jobless) would help to reduce government spending which helps to reduce national debt and inflation.

Second, with 42 million people on food subsidies, grocery retailers are collecting billions in taxpayer dollars through artificially created demand. This demand eats up supply and, in turn, helps to drive up food prices. Cutting down SNAP would lead to a reduction in grocery traffic and deflation in prices for everyone.

Third, if labor shortages are persisting as the BLS claims, then able bodied people living on SNAP for years will now be forced to go back to work, filling the labor pool and solving the shortage problem. All the talk of migrant deportations leaving industries without workers? That goes away.

Free stuff is not free stuff. There is always a terrible price to be paid for government subsidized living. There are only two kinds of people that support long term welfare for the able bodied – Entitled people who are lazy and don’t want to work for what they have, and the politicians that want those people to vote for them.

Zohran Mamdani won in New York in part because of his many promises of socialist handouts, from government run grocery stores with cheap food to a rent freeze to free public transportation and subsidies for minorities and low income residents.  Mamdani is growing a “free stuff army” and the only way he can fund these programs is through overt taxation; he has admitted this.

He claims rich individuals and corporations will pay the heft of the bill, but we’ve seen similar attempts in cities like Seattle and San Francisco. They all end the same way – With wealthy residents leaving the city by the thousands and taking their businesses with them. The socialist politicians are then left with only middle-class taxpayers who then bear the pain of funding those programs.

The goal of the far-left is to make everyone equal: Everyone becomes equally poor. Meanwhile the wealthy have the ability to simply leave and go to economies where they are more appreciated. Socialism and communism lead to a larger wealth gap, not a smaller wealth gap.

Mamdani will likely attempt a capital flight tax, which will not work. Businesses and money will rush out of New York like blood from an arterial wound. The rent freeze will push many property owners to stop leasing or sell, which will result in a shrinking rental market for the poor and middle class. Within 2-3 years the metropolis will be an economic wasteland.

Socialism only works when you can force everyone to participate in the scam, and even then it still ends with a far lower standard of living for most people. The only places where this doesn’t happen are highly homogeneous countries with small populations and vast natural resources.  In every other case, progressive economic policies encourage dependency and then trigger disaster.

Is America facing food riots if the shutdown continues? Probably. In limited pockets of the country certainly, but mostly in places where Democrats are already running the economy into the ground. In other words, people who vote far left will suffer the most.  The riots will take place in their backyards.

Is the increasing radicalism of the left a sign that the US will descend into full bore communism? Is Mamdani just the beginning?

No, that’s not going to happen. Even if GOP fears over the mid-terms turn out to be accurate, elections are not the only determinant of the direction of a nation. Millions of conservatives and patriots are not going to allow widespread communism/globalism to take hold. We’ve already got a taste of that under the Biden Administration. We’ve also seen many progressives brag about how they plan to take revenge on us (for winning in 2024) once they get back into power.

Conservatives need to STOP constantly worrying about the next election and start considering what needs to be done now.  They need to stop playing politics and start defending themselves against the insurgency that is targeting them. Many of us are prepared to fight an internal war before we become a punching bag for the political left (there will never be another covid shutdown, for example).  And if a war happens, the left will lose.

Let’s hope violence isn’t necessary.  Let’s hope that a political solution is possible, but let’s prepare accordingly anyway.  The only way war can be avoided is if the political left changes their ways and stops poking the bear.  Who actually thinks they will change?

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

The Democrat message is this:  “We will use mob violence and chaos to force you to give us what we want..."


America’s Future: Food Stamp Riots And Communism?

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