SACRAMENTO — As a pessimist, I always figured it was a matter of time before Democrats would decide to counter the rise of a grievance-based populist Right with a grievance-based populist Left. We saw shades of this in the 2020 election, when Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders came perilously close to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
My worst fears weren’t realized in Tuesday’s election, but the results did leave me with some concern. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans have created never-ending chaos. They’ve embraced an imperial presidency, massive tax increases (tariffs), abusive ICE raids and have put divisive culture-war stunts above bread-and-butter issues even as inflation soars and the economy stumbles.
So, as much as I disagree with Democrats, I was pleased that Democratic candidates won the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Those politicians are moderates who focused on cost-of-living issues, so it’s a sign the party might be learning that Bill Clinton-style centrism is a better strategy than Sanders-style socialism. These are Blue states, but a deeper dive shows that Democrats made huge gains in deeply Red areas. Latino voters shifted back in their direction.
But there’s always an outlier, and on Tuesday it was a big one. Zohran Mamdani won a convincing victory in the New York City mayoral race. Sure, New York is a liberal city and he beat two ne’er-do-well opponents. Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 amid scandal. The red-beret-wearing Curtis Sliwa founded the crime-fighting Guardian Angels in the 1970s, but was never a serious challenger.
In his victory speech, Mamdani showed his rhetorical skill, his penchant for bombast and his populist take: “We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible. And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.”
Mamdani did focus on cost-of-living issues, which are dominant in a city where $4,000 a month rents you a tiny dump without a dishwasher. But instead of taking a traditional approach toward reducing prices, he promised to impose a rent freeze on property owners. His major issues are all disastrous, including government-run grocery stores, universal day care, free buses and a $30 minimum wage. It would all be funded by a $5-billion increase in corporate taxes. It’s typical socialist claptrap, backed by soaring invective against oligarchs.
Avoiding any subtlety, Mamdani began his speech by quoting Eugene Debs: “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” Debs was a fascinating character, but was a self-described radical who ran as a socialist for president. His opponent, the odious Democrat Woodrow Wilson, had him jailed for 10 years under the Espionage Act for giving an anti-war speech in Ohio in 1918. Debs campaigned from his cell and ultimately was released by President Warren Harding in 1921, per PBS.
I found this Mamdani line most alarming: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” There’s nothing more troublesome than a government that finds no problem too small to care about — and governments have a terrible track record for solving large ones.
Mamdani did make some nods to boosting bureaucratic efficiency and improving public safety, but populists always pepper their speeches with promises that almost everyone can support. His defense of immigrants was stirring, and his jabs at Donald Trump were entertaining. He also spoke out against antisemitism, which perhaps softened concern about his views on Israel. He has a gift for gab, but Mamdani poses a danger for those of us who would like American politics to return to normalcy.
His policy prescriptions are ruinous. Another socialist, Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, correctly quipped that “rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” That’s because rent freezes discourage housing construction, leading to scarcity, crumbling buildings and higher prices over time. Government grocery stores are a joke. Wherever they’ve been tried, they’re best known for empty shelves. Free buses become roving homeless shelters. Corporate tax boosts will send companies to the suburbs.
New Yorkers’ best hope is that the city’s budget constraints will impose some fiscal reality on Mamdani’s pipedreams, and that he’ll end up governing in a more prudent manner. I don’t live in New York, so it’s not my problem. But I do fear that national Democrats might be lured by his gifted oratory and empty promises and choose his type of populism over the boring, but moderate alternative.
That would mean two parties that prefer culture wars and big-government easy buttons over abundance-oriented governance, with the nation swinging between its far-right and far-left flanks. Like Debs, I can see the dawn, but it’s not leading to a better day for democracy.
Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
