May 8, 2026 - Shots Exchanged in Strait of Hormuz

To answer today's poll question, you first need to wrestle with the meaning of a "slur." The dictionary says it's language used to demean or degrade a group – an insinuation designed to harm through contempt rather than argument. We know it when we see it in a racial or ethnic context. But what about class? Does that count?

That question got a whole lot more interesting this week. By now you've probably seen what New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did on Tax Day – filmed himself standing outside Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's $238 million Midtown penthouse, the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history, to pitch a new "pied-à-terre tax" on luxury second homes. Griffin wasn't amused. He called it a "personal attack" and a "profound lack of judgment" – and then he did something about it. More jobs going to Miami. A planned $6 billion Park Avenue development with thousands of jobs attached? Now in doubt.

Then another big name weighed in. Vornado Realty chairman Steve Roth said the phrase "tax the rich" – when "spit out with anger and contempt by politicians" – is just as hateful as certain racial slurs. He even put it in the same sentence as "from the river to the sea." Strong words. Probably too strong. But I'm not sure he's entirely wrong, either.

Look – "tax the rich" is probably more policy position than slur. When Mamdani says the city's $5 billion budget gap means wealthy New Yorkers need to pay more, that's a debate worth having. Fine. But filming yourself outside one specific man's home to use his address as a campaign prop? That's not policy. That's a shakedown. And let's not forget – AOC showed up to the Met Gala in a dress that said "Tax the Rich". Around that same time, she helped run Amazon and 25,000 jobs out of the city. There's a pattern here.

Here's my bottom line: shaming a group for what they have is still shaming. That's prejudice – and it's one almost nobody has been willing to push back on. Until now. Margaret Thatcher warned us that socialist governments "always run out of other people's money." Mayor Mamdani may be proving her right – except it won't be his money that runs out. It'll be New York's.

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