Heartland Daily Podcast

On November 20, 2025, Donald Kendal, director of the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at The Heartland Institute, was a guest on the Lars Larson Show. He was asked to be on to talk about the election of socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, and a new Heartland Institute Rasmussen Reports poll showing the growing appeal of socialism to younger voters. 

In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!

Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Creators and Guests

Host
Donald Kendal
Donald Kendal hosts podcasts In The Tank and Stopping Socialism for The Heartland Institute.

What is Heartland Daily Podcast?

The “fire hose” of all podcasts produced by The Heartland Institute, a national free-market think tank.

Jim Lakely:

This is the Heartland Daily Podcast. The other day, Donald Kendall, director of the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at the Heartland Institute, was a guest on The Lars Larsen Show. He was asked to be on to talk about the election of socialist Zoran Mamdani as mayor of New York City and a new Heartland Institute Rasmussen Reports poll showing the growing appeal of socialism to younger voters. Have a listen.

Lars Larson:

A large license show. Welcome back to the program. Are teachers and parents brainwashing young Americans into supporting socialism? It's one of the current questions that's been troubling me a lot because a stunning number of young Americans are saying today that they are likely to vote in the next presidential election and that they would like to see a Democrat socialist in the Oval Office. I'll get the thoughts of David Donald Kendall, who is director of the Emerging Issues Center at the Heartland Institute.

Lars Larson:

Donald, welcome back to the program.

Donald Kendal:

Alright. Thanks for having me.

Lars Larson:

Do you have a theory as to why so many young Americans seem to like socialism even though I I would swear most of them don't seem to understand that place awful places like Venezuela and Cuba are are examples of what socialism does.

Donald Kendal:

Yeah. Well, I don't think they have the the best grasp on the history of socialism. I mean, the blood soaked history is so clear. Anytime this kind of collectivist Marxian, ideology is put into practice, it ends in just horrible, horrible outcome. So I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Donald Kendal:

They don't definitely don't know the the history. And I think it's just the rhetoric. I I think they they go out there and they hear this rhetoric about, you know, the the cost of housing and all of these things. And you've got people like AOC, Bernie Sanders, Zoran Mamdani promising solutions to this. And I think the the the core issue in this you could actually flush this out in the Rasmussen poll results that we that we just got back, that one of the biggest issues for younger voters is the affordability of housing.

Donald Kendal:

And right now, you got Zohr and Mamdani going out there saying, hey. I've got the solution to this. It's a terrible solution. In practice, it's gonna be awful. It's gonna make things worse.

Donald Kendal:

But younger people see that and say, hey. At least this guy is trying.

Lars Larson:

Yeah. But but but trying, I mean, that's like the, it's the thought that counts kind of thing when you get a, you know, kind of a a bum gift at your birthday or Christmas or something. You say, well, yeah, aunt Susie got me a sweater I'm never going to wear, but it's the thought that counts. I guess it works in those kind of circumstances. Does it work when it comes to practical things like feeding yourself or getting housing or providing medical care?

Lars Larson:

Because I don't think it does.

Donald Kendal:

Oh, it absolutely does not. Again, the track record for that is is extremely clear, but it'll be met with the the same response that socialist apologists have been saying for years when it comes to people pointing out the history of socialism. Well, that wasn't real socialism. They'll try to deflect to lay blame onto others, and the same thing will happen here. Zoran Mamdani, even if he is able to get his agenda across in New York City, and it does result in the disaster, which it would, you know, he's not gonna self reflect.

Donald Kendal:

He's not gonna say, oh, yeah. You know, these policies aren't good. They'll just blame it on, you know, all of the wealthy people that uprooted and left the the city before he took power, or he'll talk about the establishment Democrats that are keeping him from getting his agenda truly across. It'll be the same sort of thing. That's not true socialism.

Donald Kendal:

That but that's what it'll be met with.

Lars Larson:

Well, except that right now and maybe you're right. He he will blame it on establishment of Democrats because, for example, one of the simplest, lowest hanging fruit things that he's proposed is free transit for everyone. Okay. So you no longer have to pay to ride the bus or the subway in New York City, except Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, who's not exactly the most conservative person in the world, has already said that's a nonstarter because they look at the numbers and say, how the heck are we gonna pay for it if we don't have the revenue, at least even the minor amount of revenue that they get from riders of transit? It doesn't pencil out, and even Democrats recognize that.

Donald Kendal:

Oh, yeah. And this is gonna be my this is one of my bigger predictions of this year is that we're gonna see a further fracturing of the Democratic Party when it comes to kind of the, quote, unquote, establishment Democrats and the Democratic socialist wing. I think we are really seeing an uprising in that, that democratic socialist kind of wing of the party as being able to appeal to this populist sentiment that's kind of raging throughout the country. Donald Trump was able to do that from a conservative point of view. He was able to to to gain popularity based on that kind of populist route.

Donald Kendal:

On the flip side, on the liberal part of it, that's democratic socialism. And I think that we're gonna be seeing that rising more and more. You're gonna see people like Bernie Sanders, Zoran, a AOC. They're gonna be pushed into the spotlight because the Democrats are gonna say that's their best bet on getting the youth vote.

Lars Larson:

Okay. So let me ask you this, Donald. I'm talking to Donald Kendall who's at the Heartland Institute. Is the media gonna run cover for these democratic socialists and their ambitions? Are they gonna go in and say, hey.

Lars Larson:

Mamdani promised this didn't happen for practical reasons, not because he was opposed by certain figures, but because the numbers make no sense whatsoever, or are they gonna actually, you know, are they gonna tell the audience what's really going on and say this failed, he promised it, and it is a failure of his DSA agenda? Or are they gonna run cover for the guy and make excuses for it?

Donald Kendal:

Well, that will be the the determining factor on whether or not my prediction comes to be true or not because we've kinda seen them kinda talk out of both sides of their mouth just as recently as the replacement of Joe Biden on the top of the ticket, you know, during the twenty twenty four election where they're they're all run and cover for Joe Biden. Hearing water form, oh, no. He's doing fine. What are you talking about? And then that, that, terrible debate happened, and then they had to yank the support from them.

Donald Kendal:

So it kinda just depends on where they see their power lying. If there's a a better avenue towards gaining power by supporting Zoran and put providing cover for them or doing the opposite, they'll they'll just go where the wind is blowing.

Lars Larson:

Okay. So tell me this. Is this agenda being pushed in public schools, and who's making that happen and why?

Donald Kendal:

I think that's just, like, in a passive sense, it is happening. And I think that's just kind of like the the the type of, you know, people that kinda seek those positions, whether it's just kind of your liberal arts professors that are saying, oh, you know, I supported Bernie back when it was cool, you know, that sort of thing.

Lars Larson:

You mean the socialist who now owns four houses? That's the socialist you're talking about.

Donald Kendal:

Yeah. Yeah. And only rails against the billionaires now that he became a millionaire. You know, he doesn't rail against the millionaires anymore. Yes.

Donald Kendal:

Exactly. So I think that there is that. I ran into that in school. I know many of my peers ran into that in school. I actually had a very liberal professor that we had kind of a give and take relationship in class that's actually drove me more towards conservatism, but I don't think that's the the standard in in colleges and high schools.

Lars Larson:

You know, at least in public schools do you know the one that has it gets under my skin every year? Last August, they all had the back to school, and they encourage parents, come down and buy all the school supplies for your child. Then they put it in the backpack, and they tell the child to take it to school. And then I haven't found a school that doesn't do this among the government run failure schools, but the kids walk in and they say, okay. Take all your crayons and all your pens and all these supplies that your parents bought for you.

Lars Larson:

We're gonna dump them into one bin, and everybody is going to get, you know, from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs. And they do this at that level. They're and and it really bugs me because I think you're telling kids, you can't have your set of tools, your set of crayons, your set of pencils. They all belong to the entire classroom. I think that is the first lesson in socialism.

Lars Larson:

That is Donald Kendall, who is with the Emerging Issues Center at the Heartland Institute. You're listening to the Lawrence Larson show and the Radio Northwest Network.