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Self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, and his victory speech was far from an attempt to moderate his tone or make peace with enemies made on the campaign trail.
Using socialist-tinged language that is mostly foreign to American politics, Mamdani framed the victory as a turning point in a global struggle to reclaim power for the working class from the wealthy.
Mamdani began his speech to the Brooklyn crowd of supporters by quoting Eugene Debs, the early 20th-century socialist activist.
“As Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,’” Mamdani said to thunderous applause. “For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands.”
The 34-year-old Mamdani, set to move into Gracie Mansion with the start of the new year, is promising nothing less than a redefinition of the role of government. On the campaign trail, he has discussed opening city-run grocery stores, aggressive rent freezes, universal child care, and a plan to raise the minimum wage to $30.
“We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about,” said Mamdani. “We will usher in a city government that helps everyone.”
Is Socialism No Longer a Dirty Word?
In recorded interviews on the streets of New York City, The Daily Signal spoke to several residents who argued socialism could work in America’s largest city.
“Socialism, when it was in the Soviet Union, saying everybody has to be equal, that socialism is bad,” an employee at Bryant Park told The Daily Signal. “But socialism taking care of the needy, I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
For many in the younger generation, the word “socialism” does not carry the same meaning as it does for older Americans who lived through the Cold War. In Washington Square Park, close to several New York University (NYU) buildings, several students told The Daily Signal that “socialism” is not a dirty word for them.
“I feel like younger people who are pretty educated on the subject and have actually looked into Zohran’s stuff know that his policies are democratic socialism, and it’s actually kind of feasible, and it’s not that scary,” a young woman said the day before the election.
“But if you’re older, and you’re going to vote for [Andrew] Cuomo or you’re Republican and you hear ‘socialism,’ it’s like the world’s going to end.”
“I think our generation is really focused on aiming high, a more just society,” another young woman in Washington Square Park said. “And I think socialism, like, really empowers that.”
“I feel like … older people, they were raised in a certain time where it was more conservative,” another said. “But we want things advanced now. And New York in general is just a progressive—don’t come here if you’re conservative … Like, no offense.”
Mamdani’s Enemies
Mamdani has taken New York City politics by storm, discussing many of the same issues that President Donald Trump discussed during his rise: the high cost of living and a lack of opportunity for normal, working people.
But that’s not to say that Mamdani is just railing against abstract threats. Mamdani’s political enemies are easily identifiable in the way he presents the world—the rich and powerful robbing an until-now powerless working class.
“The billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those making $20 and hour,” Mamdani said in a call for class solidarity.
After promising to support unions, Mamdani also set his sights on employers who are not cooperative with organized labor.
Mamdani supporters celebrate at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater on election night, Nov. 4. (Angelina Katsanis/AFP/Getty Images)
“When workers have iron-clad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small, indeed,” he said.
With perhaps the biggest issue of his campaign—the high cost of housing in New York City—Mamdani does not speak strictly of abstract forces either. He is taking on landlords themselves.
“We will hold bad landlords to account, because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants,” he said.
The Coming Fight With Trump
Much of Mamdani’s campaign has dealt with local issues of affordability, but he also emphasized his opposition to Trump’s policies in the closing act of his campaign, as well as after his victory.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power,” Mamdani said to thunderous applause from his supporters.
“Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” he added, anticipating a confrontation with the White House.
Mamdani promised to join with allies in opposing immigration raids and deportations in the city.
“New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant, ” he said. “So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”
Trump has already acknowledged the likelihood of a tense relationship.
“It’ll be very interesting,” Trump told The Daily Signal of a socialist running America’s largest city. “But here’s the good news: He’s got to go through the White House. Everything goes through the White House, at least [with] this White House, it does.”
(Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty Images)Mamdani already appears to be forgoing the possibility of having a cooperative relationship with the president, unlike that of Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has supported the president’s capital crime crackdown and deployment of the National Guard.
For many in Mamdani’s base, this strident opposition to the president is music to their ears.
“Oh, f— no,” an older man told The Daily Signal outside Mamdani’s victory rally in Brooklyn when asked if he feared a clash with Trump. “We want him to fight him, push him back. No. I hope that he actually brings things together. We hope that he will help the president understand there are people who have needs.”
“I am hoping that he keeps Trump out of the city,” another male supporter said when asked for one thing he hoped Mamdani would do as mayor.
Asked if he worried about a clash between the two figures, he replied, “No, that’s a good thing. Cuomo would have been a puppet. Cuomo would have been like [incumbent mayor] Eric Adams, selling his soul at the first opportunity.”
He continued: “You don’t want National Guard marching on the streets. You don’t want to lose your health care. You don’t want to lose your hospital benefits. You don’t want to lose your school lunches … .”
In Central Park, a female supporter of Mamdani additionally singled out opposition to Trump as the primary issue of the race.
The big issue is “standing up to our executive administration that’s acting illegally,” she said. “We need a mayor who’s going to act like the mayor in Chicago, act like the mayor in Portland, and really stand up to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], to the National Guard. We know it’s coming to New York. And that’s my No. 1 priority, is standing up to the fascist takeover.”
The post With Mamdani’s Win in NYC, Class Warfare Politics Have Arrived appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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