For leftists, there is no more heartening political development in the United States right now than Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral primary last month — a victory that offers hope for a more livable working-class future and shows that socialism can win, not just in the distant future but right now. But let’s pause to also enjoy the absolute meltdowns from class enemies, genocide fans, and other assorted defenders of the status quo and all-around terrible people. They’re not handling it well.
Here are some typologies of elite freakout over Mamdani.
The biggest freakout has come from a ruling class that has been coddled for decades and suddenly fears well-deserved expropriation (even though Mamdani is only proposing a small tax hike on them that would have to be approved by the state).
JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, called Mamdani “more a Marxist than a socialist” and said Mamdani was pushing the “same ideological mush that means nothing in the real world.” In a similar panic over even the smallest threat to the prerogatives of wealth, Donald Trump has called him a “pure communist.”
An awkwardly named PAC called New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, armed with at least $20 million, is backed by hedge funder Bill Ackman, Gristedes supermarket chain founder John Catsimatidis, and other billionaires uninterested in sharing the wealth. According to the Wall Street Journal, this group is in some distress over Mamdani:
How they plan on beating him . . . remains something to be worked out.
Political strategists…
Auteur: Liza Featherstone
