The 2025 election results in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Seattle are troubling to me, a student of the human mind. The election of “democratic socialists,” and the Muslim mayor-elect of the largest American city, cause my greatest concern for America, “the land that I love.”
The liberal candidates won decisively. The incoming Virginia Attorney General made controversial public statements about an opponent. Critics of capitalism reacted positively to the results.
Am I a political scientist? No.
Can I predict the future? No.
Do I have a deep understanding of Islam? No.
Do Muslims worship the same God worshipped by Christians? No.
Is the written authority of Muslims, the Quran, similar to the Bible? No, the Quran and the Bible are dissimilar.
How much do I know about Islam? Very little.
Do I know the difference between truth and fiction? Yes, in psychiatric terminology, this issue is called “competency,” a common concern addressed frequently by psychiatrists.
Is it unethical for a psychiatrist to render opinions of public leaders he or she has not personally and professionally examined? Yes.
Does this column provide a psychiatric assessment of Mamdani? No.
How do I intend to waste my reader’s time? Let’s see.
I know none of the candidates in the recent elections. The surprises in the 21st-century American mind are puzzling. Ordinarily, minds are not easily changed. Recent cultural changes occurred unusually fast. Technology changes faster than we can understand or manage without some adversity.
“Human nature is everywhere and always the same,” according to philosophy. Enlightenment thinkers believed human traits and behaviors are constant across history and cultures, but current evidence challenges this view.
The human brain is highly adaptable, with learning linked to changes in its neural connections. It may be the body’s most flexible organ.
While philosophers have argued for the constancy of human nature, contemporary developments suggest that our beliefs and behaviors are, in fact, subject to significant shifts based on cultural, societal, and technological influences. The events unfolding in recent elections reflect how collective perspectives and values can evolve rapidly, challenging long-held assumptions about the American character.
Many factors help explain changes in the American mind. Among causative phenomena are the nearly constant stimulation the brain receives from graphically appealing messages that promise to make us look good and feel good. Notably lacking are equally stimulating messages stressing the importance of being good. Further, we are in the midst of clashing views of the very nature of the meaning of “good” itself. In fact, much of the hatred in our environment stems from the battle over good versus bad, right versus wrong, moral versus immoral, and the meaning of the past to the present.
To soothe my unrest, I learned more about “democratic socialism,” Islam, “political transparency and affordability,” policy issues of the mayor-elect, and the Muslin’s campaign ethics, topics I will share in part II of this article.
“Stinking thinking” is a term used by Max Lucado in his book, Tame Your Thinking, 2025. It is a widespread form of thinking uncritically. Suspension of critical judgment is how we enjoy most forms of entertainment, sleeping through sermons, academic cheating with AI, and passively observing millions of people invade our borders, and protesting legal procedures to return the invaders to their places of origin.
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM is a philosophy supporting a democratic system and a socially owned or democratically controlled economy, aiming to address public needs over private profit, according to those who willingly suspend their critical judgment.
The Core Principles of democratic socialism include democracy in all spheres, social ownership, opposition to capitalism, strong social safety nets, and rejection of authoritarianism and dismissal of history, according to those assured of personally profiting from this economic scheme.
Rejecting authority and ignoring history causes each generation to start from scratch. If history shows that socialism hasn’t succeeded, denying history becomes the strategy for those pursuing power and wealth over facts.
Key Policies of Democratic Socialism include universal healthcare, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressive climate action, higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, strong labor unions and workers’ rights, and public ownership of certain essential services or major industries (e.g., energy, transportation).
Universal healthcare began in the UK 75 years ago. Many physicians left for the US due to dissatisfaction, and the system faces ongoing challenges. In the UK, wait time for elective surgery is longer than 18 weeks. In the US, it is immediate, depending on insurance coverage.
Despite the bait-and-switch promises of politicians, nothing, of course, is “free.”
What really happened on November 4, 2025? Mamdani sold New Yorkers the Brooklyn Bridge. He did it with a charmingly deceptive smile, intellectual superiority, and money from patient, wealthy anti-American haters.
The story of the Italian Beggar’s Bridge can help those who love America understand the Mamdani’s sale of the Brooklyn Bridge, similar events separated by hundreds of years.
A small, financially drained town in Italy needed a bridge, but no funds were available for the project. The political leader was also likable, cunning, and bright. He publicly announced that a free new suit of clothes would be given to all beggars. At the appointed time, a long line of beggars formed outside the leader’s palace to obey the following commands:
1. Open the Gates.
2. Admit all the beggars.
3. Remove the beggars’ old clothes.
4. Give every beggar a new suit of clothes.
5. Send the beggars out.
6. Close the Gates.
Enough money was found in the beggars’ old clothes to build the bridge.
The Italian beggars willingly suspended their critical judgment when something free was announced. New York voters also willingly suspended their critical judgment when many “free” things were promised
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.
