So, Democratic Socialist (ie. has politics a 70s liberal would have agreed with, but is less racist) Zohran Mamdani has won the nomination as the Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor.
I’ll point out here that there have been a few such attempts. Stoller writes about Lamont’s challenge to Lieberman, in which Lamont won the primary, then Lieberman won the election. It’s similar to what will be tried here: The oligarchical part of the Democratic party will align behind another candidate, possibly even the Republican one. Those who don’t will try to co-opt Mamdani, and turn him into a centrist left-winger.
Mamdani is more radical than Sanders; he isn’t a Zionist, for example. But he’s basically suggesting policies than no Democrat during the 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s would have found extraordinary.
What Stoller calls system-defining elections, I call sub-ideological revolutions. FDR changed the form of capitalism practiced in the US, so did Carter and Reagan. Mamdani, for all the screams from rich operatives like Larry Summers and various oligarchs, isn’t a radical — any more than FDR was. He doesn’t want to switch to economic Communism (i.e., worker ownership of the means of production or Soviet-style central control), say, or a single-party state. He wants real changes in how capitalism is practiced, and some changes to who has power in Democracy.
Sanders’ runs in 2016 and 2020 were an attempt at a sub-ideological revolution, or, system-defining elections. This is why Obama intervened and lined everyone up behind Biden, a nearly unprecedented step.
Likewise, Corbyn represented such an attempt, except Corybn got further, winning the Labour leadership. It’s not an accident that (and we have receipts, so don’t argue) Labour operatives actually sabotaged him in two elections to ensure a Conservative win. They wanted the old ideology/system to keep running more than they wanted their party to win. And once Corbyn was removed, his successor, Starmer, purged the party of the democratic socialist left. Once in power, Starmer doubled down on austerity and politics no different in substance, but actually more punitive, than those followed by the Conservative party.
The Reform Party in the UK is now coming on hard.
Be clear that sub-ideological transitions/system changes can be bad. Neoliberalism was a bad change. In the UK, if Reform sets the new system/ideological norm, it will be awful.
This is one reason why I said that Corbyn was the UK’s last chance: If the left failed, the right would then get its shot, and what the right wants to do is beyond awful.
It’s why Germany is beyond hosed: Doubling down on military Keynesianism (which won’t work in a corrupt, neoliberal system), while cutting social welfare will simply lead to the new-right getting into power. Their policies will make most people worse off, not better.
As for Mamdani, he’s a good sign. The fact that men, as well as the youngs, went for him is also excellent, because it shows that men and youngsters aren’t really “right-wing” in any way that matters. Yet. What they want is change. If they are offered good change, they’ll take it. However, they’re so desperate that if all that’s on the menu is shitty change, or the status quo, they’ll take shitty change.
This was obviously going to happen. I wrote years ago that we wouldn’t see real change until the mid-2020s, at the earliest, because it required generational change as well.
Mamdani tells us that what sort of change will finally win in the US is not yet decided. It doesn’t have to be MAGA stupidity and meanness.
So if you want something better in the US, if you want a chance at a New New Deal, get behind Mamdani and people like him — hard.
There still remains a question of whether Mamdani can deliver, even if he is elected. Will he be be co-opted? Will he run into opposition from enemies so powerful he either can’t overcome them? Or will he use them as a rallying call? Is he competent enough to create and run a new system like the one he’s suggesting?
This is a chance because, if Mamdani wins and then improves New Yorker’s lives, he’ll be copied. And if you’re in a position to do something to improve the chance of this happening and then working, I suggest you do so.
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Feral Finster
1. Settle down. Cuomo will run as an independent in the general election, solely for the purpose of splitting the ticket. That, combined with an all-out propaganda blitz (most of which will have nothing to do with Palestine) will ensure that Mamdani will lose. Muh Freedom will be saved.
2. “It’s why Germany is beyond hosed: doubling down on military Kenesianism (which won’t work in a corrupt neoliberal system) while cutting social welfare will just lead the new-right getting into power and their policies will make most people worse off, not better.”
No amount of money will turn europeans, the biggest wimps on the planet, into soldiers. There is a reason that army recruiters do not focus their efforts on old age homes for geriatric metrosexuals. That is understood, but all that is beside the point.
The point is to show the Americans who the most loyalest little bitch is, in order to get the Americans to fight Russia on their behalf, to show the Americans that they are worthy, that they really really want it.
Oakchair
There is a conspiracy theory that the anti-violence, love not war, hippie peace culture was in part created by the CIA and oligarchs. They did this in order to condition their ideological opponents to become pacified.
Hopefully Zohran Mamdani avoided that conditioning. Hopefully he views acquiring power as a means to an end instead of the end. Hopefully he understands that oppressors won’t stop stomping on a human face because of lectures. Most importantly he needs to understand that the democratic establishment, the media and every institution are controlled by the oligarchs. The same people who cheer and smile as millions are slaughtered.
different clue
If he can keep running on the same things that he is saying now, and get elected on those things, then he will try to achieve some things in NYC. NYC is a small place and a limited arena of action. His enemies within and beyond NYC would try to sabotage and block his every effort every which way.
If he gets elected, hopefully he will actually try to do all the things that are theoretically legally possible within NYC. That way , if he tries, and he is stopped, his supporters will get educated on who the enemy is and how the enemy works, and will begin thinking deeper and further about how to deal with the enemy.
The NYPD and especially its fascistic Police Union, will be one of his most vicious and evil enemies if he is elected.
I hope he is studying/ will study the mayoralty of Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago. I remember reading and hearing at the time that most of what Washington wanted to do was being blocked by the Chicago Aldermen, led by one “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak. And he knew it. So he spent much of his energy first term breaking the Aldermen, including Fast Eddie, and then got elected to a second term. And almost immediately died of a heart attack, which was a tragedy and a loss for American social-economic politics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Washington
mago
Mamdani won the primary, can erasure be far behind? Wait for it. It’s on the way.
shagggz
mago, considering NYC is the biggest Zionazi hive outside of Isnotreal, erasure would be a reasonable expectation.
Robin R Payne
Does Zohran Mamdani Matter?
Short answer: No.
Medium answer: Maybe…if you believe being mayor of NYC is significant.
Cuomo lost the primary but is backed by big money/establishment liberals. Of course he will run as an independent because NYC needs moar wealth management and hi profile fascist curious dickheads.
Long answer: I honestly don’t give a fuck; I am leaving the USA for Colombia in a few months.
someofparts
speaking of the Zionazi hive –
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/07/the-end-of-israels-economy/
Should we expect an influx of angry Zionists if that country falls and none of them are willing to risk moving back there?
Like & Subscribe
This guys bonafides smack of Obama. An injection of Hopium when times are dire. I smell CIA. What is truly under the rock that is Zohran? There is something or many things, I assure you. There always is. He mentioned the magic phrase that ties him to the establishment thus indicating he is an imposter as they all are — DEI. Any serious “leftist” sees DEI for what it is and no, I’m not talking about the rightest critique of it.
The irony of Trump calling him a communist lunatic on the one hand and on the other hand he praises the likes of Putin and Kim Jong Un, both of whom are communist lunatics. He criticizes Mamdani’s looks and yet considers the al Qaeda leader of Syria a hunka hunka burnin’ love. Zohran is every bit as dashing and handsome as Donny’s man-crush Ahmed al-Sharaa and I bet Zohran gives better back rubs.
Too much has changed to compare anything to FDR. IN fact, too much has changed to compare anything to Reagan. It’s likened to comparing pineapple to rhubarb or a zebra to a marmot.
Mark Level
I am going to be contrarian and go less cynical and defeatist than nearly all the commenters here. Since Russell Dobular of Due Dissidence is a NYC voter, they have done excellent coverage of Mamdami, which started out pretty negative, but is less so now.
Some things their coverage has shown: 1. Cuomo is radioactive toast. He killed many thousands of elderly during the initial phase of Covid, these elderly included relatives of NYC voters. 2. He also sex-pested at least 13 women, severely, and they had an organized response to it. He subpoenaed the gynecological records of the women complainants, showing himself even more of an utter scumbag! 3. He is old and sundowning, a la Biden and Trump.
There were only 3 candidates who ran strongly in the ranked choice voting, Mamdani clearly the leader, Cuomo a not-close 2nd and Brad Lander, the progressive Jewish rep. who co-endorsed Mamdani making it a slam dunk for Zohran.
Mamdami stood out during one of the Dem. party debates when a loaded question was thrown at the dozen or so candidates (3 leaders and 8 or so dwarfs), What is the first place you will visit when you’re the new mayor? Because of the Zionist base of NYC voters, they fell all over themselves barking, “Israel!! Israel!! Israel!!” Mamdani said he’d stay in NYC and focus on serving his constituents. The others reacted with rage. How DARE he!!!???
Follow-up questions thrown only at him, from a virulent Zionist website:
“Zohran Mamdani Refuses to Say Israel Has a Right to Exist ‘As a Jewish State’ During NYC Mayoral Debate”
by Corey Walker
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
During Wednesday night’s New York City Democratic mayoral debate, Zohran Mamdani once again refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, sparking immediate backlash among the other candidates.
In one of the final questions of the debate, moderator David Ushery asked the candidates which foreign country they plan on visiting first if they become mayor of New York City. Several candidates — Andrew Cuomo, Adrienne Adams, and Whitney Tilson — responded that they would visit Israel on behalf of the city if elected.
Mamdani stated that he would focus on addressing issues within New York City rather than venturing out of the country.
Melissa Russo, another one of the moderators, pressed Mamdani on whether he would “visit Israel” if he becomes mayor.
“As the mayor, I will be standing up for Jewish New Yorkers, and I will be meeting them wherever they are across the five boroughs. Whether that’s in their synagogues and temples or at their homes or at the subway platform,” Mamdani said.
“Do you believe in a Jewish state of Israel?” Russo asked Mamdani.
“I believe that Israel has a right to exist,” Mamdani said.
“As a Jewish state?” Russo pressed.
“As a state with equal rights,” Mamdani responded.
Cuomo interjected, arguing that Mamdani’s response indicates that he does not believe Israel has a right to continue “as a Jewish state” and that the progressive firebrand “will not visit Israel.”
“I believe that every state should be a state of equal rights,” Mamdani continued.”
He was calm, clear and rational despite universal hatred directed at him (well, apart from Lander) on that stage. And the voting results strongly suggest that voters saw, and appreciated that.
This is in an environment where shit like this is shared from our “representatives”:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/america-greatest-country-on-earth-next-to-israel-state-department-spokesperson-tammy-bruces-old-clip-goes-viral/ar-AA1HgwV3
The Borg of Billionaires, Zionists, etc. threw everything and the kitchen sink at Mamdani, one of the tabloids (I think the NY Post) did an old O.J. move on him, put him on the front page with darkened skin and made his beard bigger so he’d fit the image of a Jihadi Terrorist.
He finessed Colbert with charm and aplomb. Colbert, a CIA/ Deep State media asset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GywvFiiK2OY
Just under 14 minutes, and note that the audience, the Colbert audience, was with him!! Note also that CBS deleted the whole segment because the Gotcha! failed to work, quite the reverse. (Also note that DD included Colbert’s sycophancy toward the Donald when he was on to show Colbert’s value as a “journalist.”
The guy has skills. He is extremely smart vis a vis retail politics. And as the DD guys have pointed out, nearly 2 years into an insane, over-the-top open Genocide, the temper of ordinary people to Zionist slaughter has changed. Humans, even deeply propagandized ones, can stand only so many images of children and women having heads, legs, arms etc. blown off. At some point those who can watch the indefensible with approval becomes a very tiny number.
Even if Cuomo runs against him, the vote will be divided by 3 right wing Shitheads, Eric (Corruption is my middle Name) Adams, Corporate Killer Cuomo, and old-school Vigilante “I Wanna Be a Cop for the Landlords” Curtis Sliwa, who formed the vigilante “Guardian Angels” decades ago to attack poor people for Giuliani-style “broken window” crimes, and led directly to the formation of Trumpian Proud Boys and other such knuckle-draggers.
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Now, as to what if anything Mamdami can accomplish if elected, I am probably closer to the audience here.
He’s floated some great ideas. He got started with videos where he interviewed ordinary New Yorkers, very diverse group, about why they voted for Trump and not Kamala. Some of his ideas, like reviving an old Fiorella La Guardia program from the Depression era to take unused city properties and make them discount groceries for the locals, improving city mass transit and making it cheaper, and increasing the # of licenses for food trucks so people can have $8 meals instead of $10 meals will resonate with many.
He has taken endorsements from the likes of Liz Warren and other establishment figures. Most won’t endorse him. Petulant little bitch Obama won’t even acknowledge he exists, nobody like that should be allowed in the Dimmie party!!
Now obviously, he WON’T be allowed to touch the Golden Calf: there will be NO regulation of Vulture Finance, almost certainly no taxes on the richest even though 90% of the voters would certainly initially (before the propaganda blitzkrieg) support that. Etc.
Electoral politics is sold-out garbage, I know that as well as anyone. However, if real political change is coming with the continued NeoLib, Endless War garbage, wouldn’t it be nice if someone from the actual left could make some changes? Do we have to cede the field only to Right-Wing assholes who’ll disagree with us on 95% of policies? (But might agree that Tammy Bruce saying Israel is the GREATEST country in the world is offensive.)
Again, the real fight is outside the political system. I am not hopeful, but there have been people who made differences in local politics. Kshama Sawant, who formed Workers Strike Back in Seattle and got the local minimum wage raised to $15 over a decade ago, against fierce opposition and vicious smears from the press, the oligarchs, and her local Dimmie colleagues, is someone else whose voice DD has foregrounded.
https://money.cnn.com/2014/06/24/news/economy/seattle-marxist-minimum-wage/index.html
One of the rare times I agree with diff clue. I hope Mamdami has good bodyguards if elected, because a person like this is seen as very dangerous by the creme-de-la-mierda of the Elites, they could shop out an actual CIA MK Ultra victim to quickly squash Mamdani like a bug. I have no reason at this moment to believe L&S’s usual shallow take that he is another AOC in waiting. I acknowledge that this is possible, only time will tell.
No field of action should be surrendered immediately & permanently to the Master Class. This includes electoral politics. It hasn’t mostly (except for Sawant, e.g.) made much difference for decades but IF there is, clearly, a growing desire for actual (not Obama faux) Change in the majority it is praiseworthy that someone is trying to pry that barred door open.
To quote Ecclesiastes, there have been decades to mourn, it’d be nice if there were a time to laugh, but certainly the Zionists and Billionaires will be vigilant to prevent even a scintilla of actual hope or change.
bruce wilder
NYC politics are arcane and obscure to me. Like, basic things — what does the mayor control? what is a mayor responsible for?
rail transit? schools? zoning? police? sanitation? NYC is huge and rich, but exceedingly Byzantine in its institutional organization. It is hard to imagine a mayor without a political machine doing much. That structure was built for (and against) machine politics and there is no machine as far as I know.
I saw a clip of Mamdani saying he would arrest Netanyahoo on the ICC warrant — (sarc) as if (/sarc). And, I heard he promised to end cooperation with ICE — immigration and migrant dumping being controversies for the current and previous mayors. Oh yeah — free bus service gets mentioned.
The most promising thing about Mamdani is who he freaks out. And, I don’t know that freak out is genuine. Maybe it is kayfabe. Like the media reporting on the non-existent “Squad” (while conspicuously under-reporting the rise of the far more numerous security-state Democrats in the House).
Some of us hunger for a voter rebellion that never comes. Some faint sign of a deeper collective political consciousness able to see thru and resist cynical manipulation. But, then Son of Soros whispers and thousands of boomers are marching for “No Kings”. Or knitting pussy hats. Or celebrating the life of George Floyd. Performative virtue-signaling of the nihilistic political activist in the place and role of the agitator predictably prevents mass political organization and change. AOC and Bernie begat the most progressive corpse in the White House since FDR. Corbyn begats Starmer.
It is learned helplessness in politics. Exhaustion and misdirection of the potential of public outrage and scandal to effect political reform. The weaponization of accusations of antisemitism to take out Corbyn should not have been able to work, but it did. The Russiagate accusations against Trump almost worked against Trump and, in an important way, did work to destroy the Democrats as an effective Party.
Real politics — real in the sense of governing the political economy with the sword of the state as opposed to the performative ceremonies and rituals of media controversy — is taking place off-stage. I expect Mamdani will be allowed the humiliation of impotently flailing about in the role of Mayor, just the latest in a series of dubious castings in the long-running reality series that is NYC politics. But, other commenters may be right that he will be given the hook before even reaching the center ring. I suspect the powers-that-be do their best work simply eliminating the best voices almost before we can hear them. I just don’t have the memory to recall instances numerous enough to form the connected dots of that pattern.
Feral Finster
@ Mark Level:
I hope you prove correct, but, to give but one example
“Even if Cuomo runs against him, the vote will be divided by 3 right wing Shitheads, Eric (Corruption is my middle Name) Adams, Corporate Killer Cuomo, and old-school Vigilante “I Wanna Be a Cop for the Landlords” Curtis Sliwa…”
Expect two of the three shitheads to drop out.
n.b. “Washington v, Verdolak” was a classic example of When Democrats Attack. Old school white ethnic politicians vs. blacks.
different clue
Putin is not a communist lunatic.
Number 1: Putin is not communist.
Number 2: Putin is not a lunatic.
different clue
If elected, Mamdani would have to spend his first term just learning the ropes. For example, he would have to find out that the NYPD would not follow his orders to arrest Netanyahu upon Netanyahu’s theoretical arrival. And if he got enough control over the NYPD to where they would follow such an order, he would behold the spectacle of the USgov putting an aircraft carrier in International Waters just off the coast of America and having a Big Beautiful helicopter with helicopter gunship escort fly Netanyahu from the aircraft carrier straight to the roof of the UN for his speech, and then straight back out to the aircraft carrier. For example.
He would learn every other rope by trying every other thing he wants to do and seeing the exact mechanics of how every other thing gets prevented. If his supporters can become a patient movement willing to live and learn and grind ahead based on ever-growing knowledge, he and they could begin beating down his own Fast Eddies as they emerge. And his movement-load of people could begin winning enough more various offices ( and appointive positions and etc.) within NYC to begin growing effective power over those things which can be determined at a City Level.
And for those things in the City which are controlled at a State level, like MTA, a DemSoc movement could begin trying to conquer elective and appointive positions in the State of New York. It would be a long slow-grinding game of WeiQi Go. (*Not that I know how to play WeiQi Go. But I intuit that it provides a useful metaphor and a useful get-the-mind-right how-to-see-it tool for political infiltration and takeover and political seige warfare.)
different clue
First enemy reveals itself.
” Primary every Democrat who opposes Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor. ” The title is advice offered, but the post reveals who that first enemy is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1lltky6/primary_every_democrat_who_opposes_democratic/
The education of Zohran Mamdani begins.
Mark Level
To Finster– of course I know they will do this, IF any of those three shitheads can suppress their toxic egos and 2 of them will step aside. Adams certainly won’t, he thinks he’s entitled. Cuomo may have been humiliated enough to step aside despite being the actual 2nd runner, which should make him the Candidate if we just go by the math. I dunno about Sliwa, he seems to be an egomaniac too, but in all honesty I haven’t watched his career in decades, since his early career.
Even if the fix is in (& we all know what Obama did in 2020) if enough young and not-rich New Yorkers turn out in a 2 person race, and assuming the DSA could have any ground game to turn out the vote (which I don’t count on) he still has prospects.
Speaking of Obama in 2020, diff clue makes an intelligent point about Mamdami’s aspirational statement about arresting Netanyahu. I agree with most of what he says, they would never allow this– but it is good politics to at least gesture to support international law, given all the contempt that both the Biden & Trump admins show for that.
Seems like a good time to clear something up with dc, since I just praised him. You accused me of “lying about” you, which is incorrect, some threads back. I didn’t know that you griped about Obama openly stealing the (2nd) Dem nomination from Sanders in 2020 with James Clyburn and Liz Warren etc. because my memory is not that long, and those posts are not available anyway. (Ian and I had an email chat about this, I tried to get something I posted from only 3-4 months back to share with a friend, couldn’t go that far back even.)
You continually demanded that all of us “Vote Blue No Matter Who” for Kop Kamala, and after she lost (which was foreordained) you wrote repeated posts about those of us who didn’t bend the knee and swallow the Kamala Shit sandwich should have our faces torn off by Leopards. Not exactly respectful of others’ consciences or red lines. I do have a red line about supporting Genocide, which Joe proudly did and Kamala assured she would continue.
Here is where my misunderstanding of your actions in 2020 comes from. I quit the Dem party (after 4 decades of support from before I could vote) when I stupidly voted for O’Bomber in ’08 and he gave us 3rd and 4th Bush terms. If I vote for someone and they spit in my face, hippie-punch, and commit war-crimes, I would never support them again, out of basic self-respect. So I assumed you have a similar sense of self-respect to mine, and in that case you would not be supporting Vote Blue No Matter Who. To cringe before an abuser and support them seems very masochistic to me. So I assumed you were okay with Obama’s shivving Bernie given your current line. Otherwise you are practicing something that first Socrates then later Nietzsche called “Slave Morality”, kissing the ring of the hand that is beating you.
I don’t do Slave Morality, neither do I do genocide support. You have your own boundaries, but I can only respect and support my own. You can support yours & I won’t fantasize about you being mutilated by big game. Different strokes for different folks, in diversity there is strength.
I disagree with you but don’t hate you. I do dislike people who are disingenuous or make bad faith arguments (1 newbie on this site, specifically). I don’t put you in that category, you seem sincere.
different clue
@Mark Level,
Thank you for your interest in my comment. I am always interested to hear from you.
Please let me know if you have any other concerns.
mago
Gonna throw a hot cross bun in the food fight and say it’s started and Mandami’s already toast, although some claim he’s controlled opposition in which case he’s creamed chipped beef on toast, or shit on a shingle as the military grunts and prison wards used to call it.
different clue
Now here is something for two reasons. It purports to be a news story purporting to claim that Candidate Mamdani says that ” white neighborhoods should pay higher property taxes”. Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/1lmljkv/mamdani_says_white_neighborhoods_should_pay/
Now, this is disturbing for two reasons.
Reason 1: the New York Post is part of the BMM ( Big Murdoch Media). Therefor there is no way to know that this story is even true. It could be entirely made up. Or it could be finely crafted to tell a Big Lie with a few carefully cherry-picked facts slotted into false contrived contexts to create a Big Lie Picture. That is Murdoch’s specialty and what hedoes through every Media Outlet he owns.
Reason 2: what if it is actually true? If Mamdani literally said this and literally actually means it and really wants to try achieving it . . . raced-based differential property taxation . . . then Mamdani is a racist and I would vote against him if I lived in NYC.
But did he really say it? Or even anything remotely like it? Because remember, the BMM ( Big Murdoch Media) lies and lies and lies. That is Murdoch’s purpose in life.
different clue
Here is a post about a NY Post article claiming that if Mamdani is elected, ” mass numbers of police” will leave the city. Now, the NY Post is part of the BMM ( Big Murdoch Media) so this could be yet another set of pure lies. But if it is true, and police have actually been saying that, this could get several million more votes for Mamdani from people who would like to see the present NYPD cadres gone. And how convenient if they were to self-deport themselves to some other city, maybe a MAGA city. Then Mamdani could break and bust the fascist Police Union and recruit whole new cadres of non-fascistic safety-and-assistance officers.
Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1lpukge/peter/