Tuesday, New York City will probably elect the very first authentic (as authentic as they can be), unashamed, unabashed socialist to the mayoralty of the second-largest city in the United States.
Urban centers in the United States where Democrats hold a massive registration advantage are susceptible to the siren call of socialism for two reasons. First, when resources are scarce, voting for someone for elective office who will promise the sun, the moon, the stars, and everything in between is a no-brainer. Instinctively, most voters know that what socialists promise is unattainable, but they hope and pray that some of the goodies will fall into their laps anyway.
Second, the wretched educational system in our largest cities guarantees enough low-information voters to elect Karl Marx himself. Voters not understanding the consequences of electing a socialist is how Zohran Mamdani will win the election on Tuesday.
In truth, the most significant advantage this particular socialist holds is that he’s not dead. No, I mean that. Mamdani’s energy is like a tonic to Democrats who not only haven’t had anything to cheer about recently but have been forced to vote for remnants of the 20th-century Democratic Party. Given the ideas of those 20th-century Democrats, they may as well have come from the 19th century.
The Democratic Party is old. The median age for Senate Democrats is 66 years, compared to 64.5 years for Republicans. A 2023 analysis found the average age of the Democratic House leadership was 72.
Their ideas are old. Someone should whisper in Chuck Schumer’s ear that the Great Depression is over and we no longer need the New Deal. The Democrats’ “new ideas” are socialism lite — almost as if Democrats are too cowardly to go full-blown socialist, so they combine the worst of socialism’s controls with the worst of capitalism’s cronyism. The result is Joe Biden, god save us.
What’s brewin’ in New York City is a different kind of insurgency. I don’t believe Zohran Mamdani is in charge of this runaway train. The campaign has been too slick to have sprung from the grassroots.
An example occurred in Queens late last month at a Mamdani rally that the socialists dubbed, “New York Is Not for Sale.”
“Hello, New York!”
That was all that New York Governor Kathy Hochul had to say at last month’s “New York Is Not for Sale” rally in Forest Hills, Queens, to ignite fury from the 13,000 attendees there to cheer on Zohran Mamdani.
“Tax the rich! Tax the rich! Tax the rich!” the crowd yelled back at Hochul. One man near the back roared: “Nazi!” As the governor glanced down at the lectern, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie shuffled behind her, staring at his shoes.
The uproar said everything about how Mamdani’s supporters see the Democratic Party establishment: not as leaders to be followed, but relics to be replaced. To them, Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the rest are symbols of a party that has lost touch with the working class—and deserves to be swept aside. The power, the excitement, the future, those in the crowd believe, belong to Mamdani—and to the movement that built him: the Democratic Socialists of America.
New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a half dozen other cities where Democrats are guaranteed victory in local elections are ripe for revolution. The Democrats are simply not giving citizens what they need and want. Mamdani is not only a new face, but he promises to fulfill all the desires of ordinary citizens without pain and without much effort. That is the siren song of socialism, and it’s as seductive as any political message ever created.
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The recent spate of Democratic Party candidates for significant office, including Kamala Harris, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, shares in the abject failure of their ideas and personalities to make significant changes or begin to address the critical problems facing America. For those reasons, it’s unsurprising that the party rank and file have gotten so excited about Mamdani’s candidacy.
Populist insurgencies, ever aided by the cutting edge of online culture, teach us important things about the major political parties they aim to overturn from within. The early rise of Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primaries indicated an anti-war fervor that would not be mollified by the milquetoast flip-floppery of John Kerry. (Barack Hussein Obama would be both the ultimate vindicator and decisive extinguisher of that lamented tendency on the left.) Ron Paul’s rEVOLutions revealed similar anti-imperial urges on the right; they also helped midwife the initially robust fiscal conservatism of the Tea Party, whose anti-establishment candidates sent not a small number of thrills up the leg of this very magazine.
“Populism, at least as channeled professionally through major-party politics, demands not results but proof of marketable concept,” writes Reason’s Matt Welch. Indeed, Mamdani’s probable victory will guarantee a socialist challenger to many safe Democratic incumbents, forcing them to run to the left or lose. That probably means the GOP majority is secure in 2026, even without redistricting hocus pocus.
The Democratic incumbents who will have to fight off a socialist challenger are going to have to prove they’re not dead — at least not yet.
The Schumer Shutdown is dragging on. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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