In a stunning upset, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. For a Democratic Party that has seemed sluggish and out of touch, with poll numbers near record lows, the Mamdani playbook of viral, energetic and proudly partisan politics is no longer an outsider strategy that can be ignored as electorally irrelevant.
And with a majority of party infrastructure having clung tightly to a known sexual harasser, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it is time to take a good hard look in the mirror.
Washington has changed, even from the days of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) obstruction-as-a-rule uncooperative antagonism. The newer brand of partisanship calls to mind Al Smith, the “happy warrior” of the early 1900s. Democrats wishing to hold their seats in Congress would do well to take notice.
It is not about Mamdani being on the far left — just like it was never about Trump being on the far right. The American people are ready for a Democratic Party that will fight for its principles. They are ready for politicians that do more than regurgitate the same tired talking points — who don’t equivocate or back down from positions just because the wind is blowing a different way.
To put it plainly, voters want leaders with guts — and the new generation has got them.
Mamdani and I both came to political consciousness during the Obama mania of 2008. We both watched that same president approve massive bailouts to the bankers and “experts” who had caused the 2008 housing crash. Some of our earliest memories are of George W. Bush standing amid the wreckage of the World Trade Center, then lying through his teeth about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Our generation has watched America get worse every year, as the Democratic Party has stood inert and ineffective at preventing the rollback of Roe v. Wade, the Trump presidency, the opioid epidemic and skyrocketing housing costs.
How long can Democrats cling to outdated and unimaginative ideas that alienate their base? As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tour the nation drawing crowds in the thousands at every stop, Democratic elites embraced and endorsed a man who had resigned in disgrace four years earlier, then watched as his campaign crashed and burned. How long will it take party leaders to learn their lesson?
We have a chance to inject energy and vitality into a party that sorely needs it. The Democrats can harness these young, happy warriors and let them lead from the front — a chance we pass up at our peril.
Randall Schmollinger is an artificial intelligence and tech policy analyst working for Geopoly and the Saltzmann Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.
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