Does the Mamdani Moment Signal an Off-Ramp for the Carousel of Scapegoats?

Some Democrats believe listening to voters means accepting Trump’s divide-and-conquer strategy. Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York City shows another way is possible, writes Matt Gallagher

Establishment Democrat figures didn’t support Zohran Mamdani in his victory as the new Mayor-Elect of New York City. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/AP

New York City has fallen – at least that’s the apocalyptic ‘MAGA’ worldview, in which the election of 34-year-old Muslim democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as Mayor-Elect marks the dawn of a new ‘Islamo-Marxist’ dark age.

Terrified by visions of breadlines in Times Square and a burqa on the Statue of Liberty, radical keyboard warriors furiously type that ‘Western civilisation is being destroyed from within’.

“He’d never have won were New York full of New Yorkers,” wrote right-wing pundit Michael Knowles. Meanwhile, conservative William Wolfe declared that “Americans didn’t elect Mamdani – foreigners did”. And self-styled “proud Islamophobe” and Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer labelled the Democratic Party’s Mayor-Elect of New York City an “enemy combatant”.

Mamdani’s Muslim faith and support for Palestinian civil rights have made him a lightning rod for America’s rising tide of nativism and resurgent Islamophobia. But even as Trump and his allies have called for his deportation, many top Democrats have stayed silent – or worse.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand warned of Mamdani’s potential ties to “global jihad”.

Hillary Clinton hinted that Jewish New Yorkers may have cause for concern.

Barack Obama, as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and others declined to endorse him.

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