So Mamdami won the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City. While that doesn’t guarantee him a victory in the general election, it is a stunning development that a self-declared “democratic socialist” will likely be the Big Apple’s next mayor.
Not too long ago many pundits, including me, believed that far-left socialists were finished in America. When Eric Adams was elected New York’s mayor, in a landslide 2021 victory, many celebrated the fact that a moderate Democrat, not a radical progressive, had received a majority of the votes. When Chesa Boudin lost his job in San Francisco, when both Sheng Thao and Pamela Price were fired by voters here, and when other progressives around the country were rejected by voters, I believed that the radical, Communist-inspired wokes were done. But now, here comes Zohran Mamdami, about as woke as a politician can get, and he’s triumphant in New York City.
What does this mean? Was the Left simply out for an inning but now resurging late in the game? Or is Mamdami a one-off, with no implications for other liberal cities, like L.A., Seattle, Portland and Oakland?
Concerning the latter, we too have a new Mayor, Barbara Lee. While she doesn’t seem as leftwing as Mamdami, she’s certainly a socialist even if she doesn’t call herself one. Her entire political career has been built on socialist ideas combined with Black Panther liberation theology. We don’t yet know specifically where she’s going to try to push Oakland. She’s been very quiet and un-newsworthy in the five weeks she’s been in office. This is no doubt a deliberate decision, if not by herself then by her political advisors, and it was probably a wise one. Not making the news every day gives her breathing room to assemble a team with little scrutiny, and to fine-tune her political agenda for the city, which was largely non-existent during her campaign.
Lee’s biggest challenge? To figure out just how progressive she wants to be. I have the feeling she was veering toward moderating her positions, but Mamdami’s victory may have re-energized her socialist impulses. At the same time, she’s dealing with a City Council with whom she’s largely unfamiliar. Meanwhile, there’s a movement afoot to change the Oakland City Charter, in order to make the city’s mayor “strong.” If somehow the Oakland Charter Reform Project can get their proposal on the ballot, I have a feeling it’s likely to pass. The individuals behind the Oakland Charter Reform Project are mostly former powers in Oakland city government, all of them White, not of them particularly radical. They have a representative on the City Council, Janani Ramachandran, whose recent publicity burst suggests she has her eye on higher office. Lee may make the pragmatic decision to ally with the Oakland Charter Reform Project; what Mayor wouldn’t want more power?
I don’t think Barbara Lee has actual, strong beliefs for policy in Oakland, beyond her vaguely pro-Black inclinations. But, driven by polls as she has been for her entire political life, she’s likely to be sympathetic toward the moderate middle, with its emphasis on public safety. That would be a shocking reversal of her usual politics. We’ll be watching, and reacting accordingly. We’ll also be watching Mamdami in New York, to see if wokeism can really rally from behind.
Steve Heimoff