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AMONG Zohran Mamdani’s many charming characteristics is his remarkable capacity to keep his head while others are losing theirs and blaming it on him. The remainder of Rudyard Kipling’s If also applies, notably the bits about not dealing in lies while being lied about, and not giving way to hating while being hated.
There was no dearth of liars and haters between his two remarkable triumphs this year, first in the Democratic Party primary and then in last week’s election as mayor of New York City. Inevitably, the leading culprit was Donald Trump, who transgressed the bounds of common sense and decency in repeatedly denigrating Mamdani as a ‘communist lunatic’. Many of the US president’s more irresponsible MAGA acolytes went even further, indicating that Mamdani’s NYC would resemble ‘Pyongyang plus Sharia’.
The panic revolves around proposals — rent freezes and taxing the very rich to pay for ‘luxuries’ such as free childcare and buses, alongside access to cheaper groceries across the city’s five boroughs — that are not considered radical in many European cities. Dutch environmentalist Alexander Verbeek overheard someone saying in an Oslo cafe that at last a ‘normal’ politician had emerged in the US, adding: “Here, taking care of one another through public programmes isn’t radical socialism. It’s Tuesday.”
It could be argued that Europe, too, is increasingly on the blink as far as social welfare is concerned, and appears to be headed down the Trumpian path where immigration and racism are concerned. Much of it, though, remains less unequal than the US in most respects, and the kind of proposals put forward by Mamdani tend not to be automatically slammed as a communist conspiracy.
Sure, the old social democracy has been on the wane right across the West for three decades now, but the far right is on the ascendant precisely because the alternative almost everywhere is a neoliberal status quo, regardless of how the largely indistinguishable alternatives describe themselves. Britain’s Labour Party is a case in point, which helps to explain why Zack Polanski, the newly emerged Greens leader, is enthused by Mamdani’s success.
There’s a beacon of hope in New York.
By and large, the Democrats in the US are an excellent example of a purportedly progressive party disinclined to challenge the monstrous consequences of its own policies, yet willing to march into combat against any of its foot soldiers who comes up with credible and popular ideas that challenge the nastiest aspects of American capitalism. Discombobulated as it was by the charismatic appeal and vast outreach that took Mamdani from an inconsequential contender to the clear winner of the summer’s Democratic primary, the party leadership initially refused to endorse him. State governor Kathy Hochul and House of Representatives minority leader Hakeem Jeffries eventually extended reluctant support, but Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer could not bring himself to make even that empty gesture.
Bill Clinton early on endorsed Andrew Cuomo, who had resigned in disgrace as NY governor after accusations of sexual harassment, while Barack Obama reached out to Mamdani when the latter was on the cusp of victory and offered to serve as a ‘sounding board’. Mamdani was probably too polite to tell Obama that he never lived up to the promises of his inspiring campaign and thus paved the way for Trump, but one would like to think he is too intelligent to take any advice from his detractors within or outside the Democrats, some of whom have been seeking influence after donating heavily to thwart his candidacy.
It would be wise of the Democrats to emulate Mamdani’s incredible path to victory — by focusing on affordability, embracing diversity and vowing to obstruct the Trump administration’s fascist agenda — but wisdom is not their forte. If the Democrats do indeed stage a comeback in next year’s midterm elections, it will be because of activists inspired by the path outlined by Mamdani and the 100,000 volunteers who canvassed on his behalf. They should note also how Mamdani triumphed in the face of a Zionist backlash in a city that hosts the second largest population (after Tel Aviv) of Jews, around one-third of whom voted for Mamdani. The remainder mostly opted for an accused sex offender who backed a genocidal state.
Across all of NYC’s multifarious communities, young people voted overwhelmingly for Mamdani. They obviously represent the future — much like Gen Z spearheaded revolts in nations from Nepal to Peru and Madagascar. The consequences are often depressing, not least where the military takes control and doesn’t let go. We are all too familiar with that phenomenon. No one can say how well Mamdani will do as mayor of the citadel of capitalism, but it would be premature to relinquish the hope that he represents the crack where the light gets in.
Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025
