None of it worked. The months of smears. The months of sabotage from the Democratic establishment. The absurd accusations of antisemitism. The even more absurd insinuations that Zohran Mamdani is a secret Islamic fundamentalist plotting to impose Sharia law on the Big Apple.
Voters saw through all of it. They were persuaded by his message of turning the page on billionaire-backed policies and making New York City more affordable for the working class. And they handed him a decisive victory.
This momentous victory wouldn’t have happened if Bernie Sanders hadn’t laid the groundwork during his two historic runs for president, giving birth to the revitalized, millennial-led democratic socialist movement out of which Zohran comes. Bernie, too, began his political career as a local mayor, and he seems to see much of himself in Mamdani.
After the mayoral primary, when the election would have been all but over if the rules of normal politics had been followed (instead of former governor Andrew Cuomo throwing the “vote blue no matter who” rulebook out the window and running as an independent), Sanders emerged as Mamdani’s most outspoken supporter on the national stage.
Of course, all of the democratic socialist elected officials who have won office in recent years are, in a sense, following in Bernie’s footsteps. Members of the congressional “Squad,” for example, support universalist economic redistribution and embrace the “democratic socialist” label Bernie dusted off in his first run for president, just two years before the first of the “Berniecrats” were elected.
But Zohran is Bernie’s heir in particular ways. First, he is, to a unique extent, a product of the post-Bernie “millennial left.” He was deeply involved in its main organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), for years before he ran for office.
In high-profile races, DSA branches have often supported candidates with roots entirely outside the group. But Mamdani is a…
Auteur: Ben Burgis
