Short Solo

Mamdani’s win is quite something given that all establishments were against him. And most disturbing, the race laid bare the Democratic Party’s real character…yet again.

Despite winning the nomination, the candidate still faced a vicious, well-funded smear effort — including pressure from Democratic billionaire donor Bill Ackman, who previously privately demanded NYPD crack down on campus anti-war protests at Harvard and Columbia.

At the same time, party leadership continued to signal support for Andrew Cuomo long after the primary, even though he lost and had previously resigned following an independent investigation that substantiated sexual allegations of unwanted touching and harassment involving 11 women.

And none of this should surprise anyone — not after the 2016 primary, when DNC insiders and Clinton-world donors made it clear Bernie Sanders didn’t have a chance as Hillary was the pre-selected nominee before a single vote had even been counted.

Every time a progressive tries to advance policies that materially help working people — for example, shifting spending from war and corporate subsidies toward universal health care and education — the Democratic establishment reveals itself as simply a different aesthetic version of the GOP: similar policy priorities, better orators of speeches.

What should be seen as positive is that despite being home to the largest Jewish population outside Tel Aviv — and despite older voters remaining staunchly Zionist — New York still elected a Muslim candidate, in part because younger Jewish voters helped power Mamdani’s campaign.

Unfortunately, Mamdani now wakes up to calls for Trump to deploy the National Guard — with smears designed to fuel panic, including the false claim that he would “open the gates at Rikers” and unleash criminals onto New York’s streets. The darker irony is that many of the most damaging actors are already roaming freely — not in Rikers, but in the offices of Wall Street.