Zohran Mamdani is Not Coming to Eat Your Children

 

Let’s be clear about one thing. A Democrat is a Democrat. We have neither the time nor the bandwidth to split policy hairs when the country is being burned to the ground. The only thing we need to know about any Democrat is that they’re not Republican.

The media would have us believe there’s some deep chasm between “moderate” Democrats and “progressive” Democrats. They talk about “leftists,” as if there’s some diabolical cabal of radicals planning to turn the whole country gay and woke. They talk about “centrist Democrats” as if they just disagree with Trump on an issue or two.

All Democrats share some core beliefs, even if they never think about them, even if they take them for granted. Rule of law. Reproductive rights. Civil rights for all. Healthcare for all. Strong safety net. A few others. Republicans, for the most part, want these things as well, but they’ve been brainwashed into thinking otherwise.

Still, the legacy media continues to outdo itself in its credulous but dishonest reporting of anything having to do with Democrats, which it took to new heights in its coverage of the sudden rise of Zohran Mamdani, most likely the next mayor of New York City.

The New York Times, as usual, is especially culpable, and not just because this is happening on their doorstep. Virtually every piece they’ve written on Mamdani’s victory — including those that were positive — has been a “Democrats-in-disarray” story. As if the differences between Mamdani and, say, an Alyssa Slotkin or an Abigail Spanberger — or some other capable Democrat they’ve assigned to the “moderate” bucket — couldn’t possibly be reconciled. As if there were hordes of disaffected Democrats, all across the country, who will now be turned into Trump voters because New York elects a Muslim socialist for mayor.

The faux hand-wringing over Mamdani is more stupid than funny. It features the entire parade of media pundits issuing dire warnings about the imminent destruction of the Democratic party.

OMG, he’s a socialist. OMG, he’s anti-Israel. OMG, his policies are too radical. OMG, he’ll never play in Iowa. And the biggie: OMG, he’s antisemitic. Nobody has accused him of eating children, yet.

Okay, I’d never heard of him, either. I was as surprised as anybody when he won. From all reports, he ran a brilliant campaign. He had to, given the forces he was up against, though it must be said that distaste for Andrew Cuomo ran way deeper than any of the so-called Democratic consultants suspected. Perhaps one big takeaway here is the utter uselessness of said Democratic consultants.

Of course, we have no idea how Mamdani, a wee lad of 33, will perform as mayor of a major city, especially in a political snake pit like New York.

Still, it’s amazing how much of a lightning rod he’s become in such a short time. Certainly, much of that is just simple racism, which is less overt among Democrats, but not nearly as rare as we like to think.

But it’s the performative hysteria over Mamdani’s supposed antisemitism that is the most hyperbolic, so let’s get that out of the way.  

Can we stipulate that there is no way a Muslim candidate in NYC would not be subject to wild claims of antisemitism, under any circumstances? Can we further stipulate that there is no way such a candidate could ever prove a negative? Imagine having to deny something that never enters your mind.

And what does antisemitic even mean these days? Is it antisemitic to think Bibi Netanyahu is a monster, right up there with Trump? Is it antisemitic to take a nuanced view of a major humanitarian crisis? Is it antisemitic to not have the exact answers to Middle Eastern tensions, which have persisted my entire lifetime? The accusations of antisemitism are disingenuous at best, vicious at worst. Either way, they have no basis in reality.

Have any of these fools stopped to wonder how a kid brought up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and who went to high school at Bronx Science, could possibly be antisemitic? He surely grew up with Jews in every classroom, and on every team. Surely he dated a few. I lived on the Upper West Side for many years, and I have no doubt that a rap-singing politician of any ethnicity has many Jews among his friends and advisors.

But the antisemitism narrative formed instantaneously, and the wild claims were coming from all sides, including Democrats — even including James Clyburn —and shame on them. More evidence that the old guard needs to step aside.

And here’s another piece of this story that is utterly bonkers. The media has breathlessly conflated this mayoralty race with national politics, and they’ve somehow made Mamdani the face of the Democratic party, at least for this month. And they don’t mean that as a good thing.

But national politics? Seriously? Seems they might want to wait first until he actually becomes mayor, and then until they see what he actually does as mayor.

New York is not Iowa. New Yorkers don’t think about the price of corn. They think about how many roommates they’ll need to rent that tiny apartment that they’ll rarely see anyway because they’ll be working twelve hours a day. Messaging directed at them does not translate to the national stage. And it’s not meant to.

But even as he was tapping into the disaffected youth vote, Mamdani was likewise a magnet for the city’s vast immigrant populations, especially in the outer boroughs. He met them. He spoke with them in Spanish, Urdu, and Bengali. You can bet they gave him an earful about the Gestapo tactics of ICE. And you can bet he listened — ICE has his name too.

There were other demographics that Mamdani won, but what they all have in common is their conviction that New York City is no longer affordable, even for the well-off. Rental prices are beyond outrageous. The price of everything is through the roof. When I was there this year I paid $25 for a basic bacon-and-egg breakfast in a no-frills coffee shop. If you’re not extravagantly rich, you’re priced out.

Mamdani’s ideas for New York — the issues he ran on — aimed high. Maybe too high, but good for him. He grabbed on to the affordability issue and stayed on message. He called for free bus transportation, free daycare, rent regulation, city-owned groceries, and other good ideas that are commonplace in Europe — where socialism is not a dirty word — but unlikely here. If he gets even a fraction of them through it will be a major triumph.

Still, he’s hitting the right notes. He’s being called a “generational talent,” sort of like Mallory McMorrow, my kickass Michigan state senator, now running for our second U.S. Senate seat. She describes herself as a “white, Christian, straight, suburban mom,” yet she has plenty in common with this bearded, immigrant, Muslim, rapping dad.

Both are rising stars in the Democratic Party. Both are under 40. Both have young children whose lives, they must assume, are at stake. Both are looking at very bleak futures imposed on them by malignant forces with too much money, too much power, and too little concern for the real world.

That’s the story the media is ignoring. The Mamdani phenomenon is not about antisemitism or socialism or anybody’s religion or ideology. It’s about people feeling their way of life is being dismantled by forces beyond their control.

They’re not happy about it. They’re not seeing enough Democrats rise to the occasion. And they hope Mamdani can come through for them.