Zohran Mamdani is soon to be the next mayor of NYC, no matter who his opponent is. He accomplished this by using the Trump playbook for attention-getting. His embrace of populism as a political strategy seals the deal. Nobody can come close. Whether he implements his promises or can govern is beside the point. This is an exercise in winning strategies that the Democrats are looking for. But do they get it?
Noteworthy in all this is how Mamdani managed to get as far as he has by expressing a radical agenda to which Americans are averse. Or are they?
Populism is a worldwide phenomenon and, for some reason, the left-leaning media and news analysts have attributed it to right-wing philosophies. In fact, when examined, pure populism is more embraced by the left, which adds an ironic note to everything happening in the world.
By definition, “populism” has two main elements. The first is a generalized grievance toward a nebulous “elite” faction of society. These are the bad guys in the smoke-filled rooms, international bankers, royalty, and billionaires. They are all up to something. With Trump, this includes the so-called “deep state,” which is a bureaucratic class not considered “elite.”
All the right-wing populists from Giorgia Meloni in Italy to Javier Milei in Argentina are targeting this entrenched class of evil desk jockeys. The other, more traditional, elites are not ignored, mind you, but not as scrutinized.
The second earmark of a populist has been an interest in the redistribution of wealth. This actually means free money. The right-wing populists approach this element by reducing taxes on the lower-income folks. Trump’s “no tax on tips” plan falls into this category of populism.
The left-wing populists want to gouge the rich as best they can. In Mamdani’s case, he is promising to tax the millionaires more so the public can have free public transportation, free child care, government grocers, etc. These promises and threats are more of a traditional form of populism.
None of this is new, but what is new is the Trump playbook on how to get attention and support by talking to everyone who will listen, speaking your mind, saying outrageous things, and letting the opposition call you names, like “Hitler” (in the case of Trump) or “Marxist” (in the case of Mamdani).
This produces enough outrage to ramp up the attention and get people talking. Mamdani is discussed to an extreme by both right-wing and left-wing media. Even Trump, the Master himself, has talked up Mamdani. Everyone falls for the bait.
From the outside looking in, it’s not a fair fight. New Yorkers hate Andrew Cuomo for failing the state and for being a douchebag, they hate Eric Adams (now withdrawn) for siding with Trump, and Curtis Sliwa is NY nostalgia posing as a candidate. The fact is that the smiling populist Mamdani using modern methodologies will embarrass both parties with the win.
Will he completely ruin the city? That that remains to be seen. In fact, this is not as important as the symbolism of him winning.
This spells the ruination of the Democrat party for a few non-obvious reasons. The party is incapable of seeing that the Trump playbook is at the core of the Mamdani victory. Combine this with a traditional populist message as a formula for success. Then consider the fact that the Democrats eschew real populism and always have. They will see this the way Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez see it – as a victory for socialism, which it is not.
Because the right keeps calling Mamdani a Marxist or Communist and he is billed by the Democrats as a Democratic-socialist, this positioning is set in stone: socialist. But the ideas and approach are a variation on Trumpian populism. So everyone will miss the point.
Bernie Sanders won’t stop carping about how the Dems must push further left and embrace socialism to win again and re-take power. Momdani will be the proof Bernie’s needed.
This election recalls George McGovern’s presidential-election shellacking of 1972. It is still in the cards for the Democrats. They are not changing any positions in the short term and will double down on unpopular ideas and remain clueless in the years ahead.
You can thank Zohran Mamdani for this. — JCD
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