The fashionable, millennial, Muslim, African-born, Hollywood-trained Zohran Mamdani recently won the Democratic primary in the race for mayor of New York City.
He might be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare if that’s how he sounds. However, he is also somewhat similar to him.
Both of them are charismatic leaders who have defied their parties and capitalized on the current political culture that rejects traditional allegiances. As a result, they have gained enough support from disgruntled voters to win elections, despite the fact that many members of the political elite believe they are the kind of candidates who shouldn’t be able to win their grandmother’s support.
According to Lorena Gonzalez, working-class people want someone who truly challenges the current quo, advances an economic populist agenda, and persuades them that something will change.
Even she, the head of the union-representing California Labor Federation, is tired of Democrats.
Sometimes I ask myself, “Why am I still in this party?” “I said,” she said. I get to the point where I’m like, “Come on, grow some balls, go decide who you’re for,” when I see them cozying up to tech, when I see this abundance issue that streamlines worker protections, when I see this fascination with billionaires, and when I see them agreeing to not tax billionaires and not doing anything about rent control.
Or, as Trump stated in a social media post following Mamdani’s victory, “Yes, this is a big moment in our country’s history!”
Many Americans are approaching the Fourth of July with a sense of apprehension, if not downright panic, due to the tenuous peace between Iran and Israel.
Trump is correct—I don’t say it much, but Mamdani’s win might mean more than just a single East Coast mayoral contest. Whether they are brown-skinned hipsters or orange-hued boomers, people on both the left and the right want for authenticity and someone to believe in.
According to political strategist Mike Madrid, the Democrats are experiencing their own Tea Party moment, when populist rage consumes the establishment, as it did starting in 2007 when the Republican party’s far-right started its now-successful takeover. Trump simply took advantage of the party’s decline; he was never the catalyst for it.
According to Madrid, this is only a populist uprising by the Democratic Party against the establishment base.
The current situation of the Democratic party has been the subject of endless pontificating. Is a more centrist course necessary? Should the progressive end be embraced? In actuality, however, the electorate has already made up its minds. As Trump promised but did not deliver, they do desire lower grocery prices. However, they also want democracy to remain intact. Additionally, they wish to purchase a home and possibly avoid having their neighbors deported. Actually, though, in that sequence.
Additionally, many, if not most, of the Democrats currently in power are not trusted to deliver. They want outsiders, or at least someone who can sound like one, just like the Republicans who came before them (Mamdani, 33, is a member of the state Assembly).
Gonzalez, who spends a lot of time speaking with voters, stated that both Democrats and Republicans, left and right, believe there aren’t many distinctions between the two parties now and are fed up with supporting career politicians who haven’t produced results on economic concerns.
Mamdani, who rapped under the name Young Cardamom and whose mother is film director Mira Nair, ran on a platform of an affordable New York. Rent-controlled apartment payments were frozen, new affordable housing was constructed employing union labor, child care and transportation were provided for free, and—you guessed it—grocery prices were lowered. Whether he succeeds or fails, a large portion of New Yorkers who, like us, are struggling with the expense of living, wanted to hear those remarks.
And he did it not only with credibility but also with entertainment value that acknowledges the impact of his mother: he walked the length of Manhattan to engage with people, he jumped in the Atlantic Ocean in a suit and skinny tie, and he hammered it up Bollywood style for the South Asian aunties.
Charm and bravery.
Naturally, this is how Trump gained his own popularity by making the grandiose promise to speak for the working poor who are increasingly in risk of becoming unheard. Indeed, he is a swindler who obviously works for the wealthy. He can still give a line to his base, though: They’re devouring the cats. The dogs are being eaten.
In California, where we will soon be choosing a new governor from a crowded field of establishment contenders, that might be the most important lesson. Even Kamala Harris, perhaps more so than Harris, embodies that insider persona, and Gavin Newsom, in spite of his vacillating between centrist and pugilist positions, is unable to portray himself as anything other than an old-guard candidate for president.
In the words of Amanda Litman, co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, a PAC that encourages young progressives to run for office, “What makes someone like Zohran so compelling is that even if you don’t agree with him on everything, which few voters do, you understand that he believes it and that you know where he’s coming from.”
That, in my opinion, is what separates him from, say, Gavin Newsom—namely, does Gavin believe what he says? Is he a bully himself? “It’s a little unclear,” Litman continued.
However, it is very evident that voters are angry, particularly those who have been Democrats for a long time.About 20% of the Republican base is now non-white, which is almost twice as high as it was in 2016, according to a new Pew report released this week. Trump attracted almost half of Latino voters, while Republicans have gained support from Asian and Black voters. Aww.
The orthodoxy’s two main tenets—that they are the party of the working class and that they are the party of non-white voters—are among the Democrats’ actual problems, according to Madrid. The question then arises, “Well, how do you get them back?” as both of those are becoming more and more untrue. Having some kind of economic populist policy framework is how you regain them.
More and more federal officials are concealing their identities, evading simple inquiries about their affiliations, and misleading the public in order to make arrests.
According to Litman, the best strategy for winning over voters is to run fresh candidates who don’t have any baggage or background. “My organization had 1,100 people sign up to learn more about how to run for office themselves in the 36 hours following Mamdani’s election,” she said. Voters are alienated from the current options rather than indifferent in democracy, as seen by the largest jump since the inauguration.
It’s not impossible to beat the establishment. According to Litman, they are simply uncontested. We will be better off, in my opinion, if the Democratic Party establishment, to the extent that it exists, can realize that the individuals and the strategies that brought us to this point will not be the ones that lead us out of it.
Perhaps more Mamdanis are out there, just ready to take the lead. Trump may have provided the best advise I’ve seen in a long time for Democrats seeking guidance, emphasizing outsider and insider Democrats who have established their reputations by upending the establishment, such as Mamdani.
He said on social media, “I have a suggestion for the Democrats to get them back into the game.”The Democrats should nominate low-IQ candidate Jasmine Crockett for president, AOC+3 for vice president, three high-level members of the cabinet, and our future Communist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, after years of being left out in the cold, including losing one of the greatest presidential elections in history in the 2024 election. Our nation is truly screwed!
Or not.
That would be a slate, wouldn’t it?
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