Once upon a time in America, the Democratic Party establishment was so terrified of a popular candidate in their own party that they were willing to destroy his political career to placate their corporate donors.
However, despite their best efforts, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who embraces “wokeness” and rejects billionaires, emerged as New York City’s preferred Democratic mayoral candidate, winning 56 percent of the primary vote.
The Democratic establishment brought their A game to try and end Mamdani’s career. During the final weeks of the primary campaign, they poured millions of dollars into defeating him, unleashing geriatric all-stars like former President Bill Clinton and Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, to publicly back the disgraced sexual predator and former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.
They were so committed to neutralizing Mamdani that leading New York Democrats like Representative Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand refused to endorse him weeks after his victory. Instead, they spent an entire weekend on cable news shows, along with other Democrats, falsely attributing pro-Palestinian chants to Mamdani instead of informing Americans about the GOP’s murderous budget bill that gives permanent tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.
What could be so terrifying about Mamdani to warrant such a collective nervous breakdown? Could it be that he’s antisemitic? That doesn’t track, considering Mamdani has consistently acknowledged and condemned antisemitism, and he won his race thanks to a broad, multiracial base of New Yorkers that included a cross-endorsement by Brad Lander, the Jewish comptroller of New York who also ran in the primary.
Was it because Mamdani, due to his brown skin, Muslim identity, and magical abilities to eat food with his hands, was somehow a terrorist sympathizer? In addition to being both offensive and racist, that assumption is laughable and silly. However, it hasn’t stopped MAGA mouth breathers like Charlie Kirk and unhinged Zionists like actor Debra Messing from spreading fearmongering on social media.
Some Republicans took it a step further. Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who allegedly misused $25,000 he had raised for child burial services, demanded that Mamdani be stripped of his citizenship and deported. A few days later, Donald Trump, recognizing Mamdani as a political threat, posted on his social media platform, “I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York.”
Trump also said he’d arrest Mamdani if he refused to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in terrorizing immigrants in his city. Trump dusted off an old anti-Black and Islamophobic classic, offering a rebooted version of the birther conspiracy he had used to smear Barack Obama in 2008: “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Trump said about Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, moved to New York when he was seven, and is a naturalized citizen. However, facts didn’t stop the racists and the members of the political and economic establishment from promoting hateful messages and ads that increased credible death threats against him.
Unfortunately, none of these dirty political attacks are new. It was Mamdani’s response, however, that gave a window into how a thirty-three-year-old member of the New York State Assembly was able to defeat a political juggernaut like Cuomo. Trump’s statements “attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: If you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Instead of parroting Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin’s approach of declaring war on the “woke,” or repeating MAGA talking points like California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, Mamdani leaned in and lifted up immigrants, workers, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. He stayed on message that he was running to make New York City an affordable home for everyone, not just the 1 percent.
Instead of bending the knee to Trump’s bullying, like so many corporate media channels, law firms, and tech giants do, Mamdani promised to stand up and fight Trump to protect those who are marginalized. Instead of pledging unconditional support for Israel and its genocidal campaign, like his Democratic colleagues do, Mamdani refused to abandon his principled stance of justice and rights for the occupied Palestinian people. Instead of buttering up billionaire donors and taking corporate money, Mamdani relied on grassroots support, saying, “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”
Clearly, there is a winning message here for a Democratic establishment that is hemorrhaging voters and hit its lowest favorability rating in more than thirty years. Mamdani didn’t do anything revolutionary—he simply relied on old-school politics, which includes reaching out to diverse communities, grassroots canvassing, creative and effective messaging, and passionately advocating for policies that help the majority of people.
Mamdani, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, before him, realized that authenticity and sincerity beat experience and age. The majority, who showed up for the “No Kings” rallies across all fifty states, demand fighters who are willing to take on an establishment that gives tax cuts to the rich and guts Medicaid and other benefits. They want people who are championing progressive reform instead of the flaccid politics of civility and a restoration of the past that benefited the few at the expense of the many. They want their elected officials to wake up and fight fascism instead of “playing dead,” which was the advice of James Carville, the Democratic establishment whisperer who helped Bill Clinton win a presidential election in the twentieth century.
Once upon a time in America, a majority finally rose and culled the desiccated, feckless fossils of the Democratic establishment and decided to bet on a new generation of leaders who had their ear to the ground and heard their pain instead of chatting with billionaire donors on their superyachts.