Elections In Contrast: New York Vs. Argentina… Voters Rushing In VERY Different Directions

Let’s take a closer look at why Argentina is actively abandoning the very policy prescriptions that America’s financial capital is rushing to embrace.

New York’s Mamdani was part of a big ‘Blue Wave’ election in America that stands as a curious historical counterpoint to what happened in Argentina only a week earlier.

Stripping away all the questions and claims of voting demographics, candidate quality, algorithm manipulation, muck-raking, billionaire backers, and even questions like youthful energy, campaign strategy, vote-splitting and social media presence, the simplest explanation for why New York took a flyer on a foreign-born socialite who openly embraced Communist principles is pretty simple.

Mamdani presented a vision of a problem and a solution that resonated with enough voters that they elected him. And his idea has a surprisingly strong following among elected Dems and their donor class despite the fact that so many of them tend to be the affluent urban elite.

He invoked the standard us-vs-them narrative of villains and victims that is the beating heart of exploited grievances without which revolutionary movements cannot succeed. (For as long as we had a content and thriving middle class, both parties were pretty consistent in their rejection of unvarnished socialist agendas.)

Advancement of the left’s cause came incrementally, and the idea of capturing the Democrats as a Trojan horse to deliver communist promises is hardly new. The AOC ‘Democratic Socialists’ we’ve been warning about for years aren’t employing a new strategy. It’s the same capture-from-within strategy the hard left has been applying in their attempt to capture control of the Dem party for years. AOC has been bragging about primarying moderates since she burst on the scene, and after this election, she is bragging about defeating the ‘Old Guard’ of her own party.

The enemies they invoke were paired with generous-sounding promises invoked as real answers to problems. Problems New Yorkers have been complaining about for years. Most of them pocket-book related.

Despite his having never run anything before in his life, New Yorkers trusted that Mamdani would be able to make good on promises like free food at grocery stores, the promise of rent controls to solve the problem of housing costs, and a pledge to buy up apartment blocks so he could turn them into communes.

Meanwhile, some 5300 miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina has just finished an election of its own. An election that produced the exact opposite result of the one in New York.

Millei enacted all of the policies that Trump has been trying to implement here. Of course, In America, the ‘tyrannical’ Trump is met with roadblocks at every turn, ranging from paid protests, to court challenges (even on powers that are explicitly Presidential), to Sanctuary Cities fighting tooth and nail to brand everything he does as ‘unconstitutional’ (when it isn’t), to outright defiance of US law.

It isn’t as if Argentina’s promises came without cost. They had to feel some pain. But decade after decade of failed leadership, broken promises, crime, and hyper-inflation motivated citizens to accept a solution that came with the pinch of austerity.

Any success Trump may have had in securing the border, building international trade deals, ending foreign wars, securing reinvestment in American business, and cracking down on crime, especially urban crime, has been overshadowed by, in some cases, kitchen table concerns at home. Especially where cost of living like electricity prices have gone through the roof as a direct consequence of policies they have voted for in the past.

Inflation, too, tends to be a one-way ratchet. People forget that it was pandemic policy that drove prices a gazillion times higher, and they are unlikely to see a connection between, say, eliminating crime and cheap foreign-born labor that keeps wages low and possible impacts on their own buying power.

There is a world of difference between the sweet-sounding promises made by a demagogue compared to the more traditional get-your-house-in-order remedies traditional conservatives prescribe.

The former is the miracle diet pill that makes you instantly shed pounds. (The catch being a long list of serious side effects, crippling costs, and if you ever quit, you’re in worse shape than when you started.)

The latter is the good old fashioned discipline and good judgement approach of slow, difficult progress to a desired outcome. There’s a whole lot of self-denial, but the end result is worth it.

That takes us back to Argentina. The House Committee of Financial Services has weighed in on Milei’s success.

Since December 2023, Mr. Milei has ushered in an era of economic growth in Argentina, fueled by deregulation, an embrace of free markets and trade liberalization. So far, the numbers speak for themselves. Annual inflation in Argentina plummeted from nearly 300% in April 2024 to a five-year low of 36.6% this July, impressive for a nation with chronic hyperinflation as high as 3,079% in 1990. This dramatic turnaround underscores Argentina’s fight to return to economic stability.

By the end of 2024, Mr. Milei had scored the nation’s first budget surplus in 14 years. Argentina’s poverty rate fell from 53% to 38%. The childhood poverty rate dropped by 14 percentage points, giving 1.7 million children a chance at a better future. A few months later, the Argentine economy grew by 5.8%, the fastest rate since 2022. — House CMTE Financial Services

Milei faced an election. Critics expected there would be a public backlash from his very aggressive government austerity policies, after a government that had spent the last hundred years following the big-government socialist approach to pretty much everything.

Argentia rejected the governmental rent controls for which New York voters are clamoring. His solution drove cost of living WAY down, by opening up the availability of many more units.

The impact of this deregulation was immediate and profound. As reported by the Instituto de Estadística y Censos de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (IDECBA), the supply of rental apartments in Buenos Aires soared by 160% between the last quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. But the momentum didn’t stop there. Since Milei took office, the total increase in available rental units has reached a staggering 300% by August 2025. That’s a remarkable shift for a city of over 3 million people, where the cost of living has traditionally been the highest in the country.

The surge in supply brought with it a corresponding drop in rental prices. IDECBA data shows that, measured against the Buenos Aires Consumer Price Index, rents have fallen by approximately 67% from the end of 2023 to the second quarter of 2025. When looking at the average prices for apartments with one, two, or three rooms, the decline is even more dramatic—a 75% decrease over the same period. As Libre Mercado notes, these outcomes are being heralded by supporters of deregulation as proof that reducing government intervention can expand supply and lower costs for consumers. The logic is straightforward: less regulation means more properties enter the market, which in turn drives prices down. — Grand Pinnacle Tribune

When people ask the question of why New Yorkers are running AFTER the same policy choices that Argentina is now running AWAY from, the simplest explanation might be that the difference between people in New York and Buenes Aries is that New Yorkers have never felt the bite of actually living with the policies that Argentina is abandoning.

And if we’re being honest…?

If conservatives turn out to be right about what’s waiting for New Yorkers at the end of this experiment, it could take some time before the bill comes fully due. Sadly, the longer it takes, the deeper the hole will be that they find themselves in.