New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, once a figure of contention among leaders from both major political parties, has seen a remarkable surge in his political standing just six months into office.

The 34-year-old democratic socialist, a prominent figure on the progressive left, has garnered unexpected praise from both Donald Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

He has also emerged as the face of the region’s sports renaissance. Now, days before New York’s primary elections,

  • SparroHawc@piefed.world
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    2 months ago

    Progressives have been hoping for someone like Mamdani to actually win an election for a long time, now. If he is what finally instigates a break in the wall the Democratic party has erected, it’s not surprising that others are picking up their sledgehammers.

    • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      But leftists are both useless and totally destructive at the same time according to neo-liberals.

      I hope this brings enough change to make the Democrats actually progressive instead of giving lips service to it then doubling down on corporatism.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        2 months ago

        Who cares if the Dems go progressive? It’s the voters who are important. The Republicans kept resisting the rising far right movements like the Tea Party, and then MAGA, but the voters just bulldozed right over them.

        The corporatist establishment Democrats all made it extremely clear that they would prefer a corrupt asshole like Adams for Mayor, but the people told them to go fuck themselves, and now the DNC has no choice but to get on board.

        The voters don’t have to do what the DNC demands, but the DNC has to live with whoever the voters force upon them.

      • Tolc@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I hope this brings enough change to make the Democrats actually progressive instead of giving lips service to it then doubling down on corporatism.

        Its hilarious how people think this is even practically possible

        • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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          We’re literally talking about a progressive that just became the mayor of the city that is at the very heart of American finance and capitalism. AOC could get elected president and you would still be saying it’s not practical.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        True leftists, like any medium-small minority, can make or break any coalition of medium-small minorities. And likewise, they can’t really direct policy all on their own, because the rest of the minorities in the coalition aren’t on board yet. One minority can’t make it, but they can break it.

        I also hope this brings progressivism to the Democratic party. That would be a good way to bring more of the coalition on board.

        • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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          2 months ago

          Thank you!

          The thing that drives me crazy is when progressives act like they have a massive majority of the people behind them.

          Back in the day, Jerry Falwell leveraged his Moral Majority into power by sending his church people into every local GOP club.

          If the usual attendance was twenty folks, the MMs would show up with fifty. They might only have fifty followers in the whole town, but all of them were there where it counted.

      • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        the Democratic Party is a lot less monolithic than people make it out to be, it’s just that a lot of influential people in the back end have been fighting to keep progressives out, arguing that they needed to stay close to republicans to win “moderate” voters.

        More visible progressive wins will erode that narrative and allow various parts of the coalition to abandon the neoliberal orthodoxy imposed on them by corporate consultants. We can’t get anywhere untill that dead weight is dropped. Maybe the Democratic Party won’t be the one to adapt to the new conditions, maybe something new will take their place, but nothing is going to happen till that narrative is dead.

        • BadmanDan@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The Democratic Party has HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of politicians in it. From far left to center right.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        2 months ago

        Leftists already attacked him for not firing the cops involved in last winter’s snowball fight.

        Kamala Harris received 1,748,140 votes in New York City,

        Zohran Mamdani received 1,036,051 votes

        Thank goodness he wasn’t getting more help from the Left.

          • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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            2 months ago

            I edited my comment to point out that Mamdani got fewer votes than Harris did when she ran in NYC, and Harris did worse against Trump than Biden did.

            People vastly overestimate how popular their positions really are

            • bthest@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              lol You mean a presidential race got more votes than a mayoral race? Ya don’t say?

              • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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                2 months ago

                Mamdani got 51% of the vote going against sex criminal Cuomo and shock jock Silwa.

                Harris got about 65% of the NYC vote.

                No way can you pretend that ‘the Left’ beat the dems.

                • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  Mamdani got 51% of the vote going against sex criminal Cuomo and shock jock Silwa.

                  That’s still over 9% more than the runner up got.

                  In a three way election.

                  Without the support of his own party.

                  With tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars spent on 24/7 smear campaigns against him by both major parties.

                  With a unanimous local billionaire-owned media alliance fearmongering about him.

                  While spending a total of $10.7m


                  Compared to all that, the unequivocal DNC leader getting 65% in a presidential election where 100% of the party political machine was behind her, she was the only alternative to a literal fascist idiot and also sex criminal experiencing severe cognitive decline, and they spent over a billion dollars is absolutely PATHETIC.

                • DrWorm@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Because general elections historically always have higher turn out. I think that’s what they’re trying to get at specifically.

          • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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            2 months ago

            Kind of proving my point there.

            People had a choice between a known molester, an idiot, and the Democratic Socialist and the DS barely edged through.

            It’s almost as if the progressives don’t have a commanding majority and have to work with others if they want to advance.

            • Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Could just tell them what’s been told to progressives for decades, “Vote blue no matter who.”

              • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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                I can’t think of one time in recent US history that a 3rd Party candidate split the ticket and hut the GOP.

                In fact, the GOP regularly throws money to the Libertarians and/or the greens if they think it will help them.

                If people had voted blue we might not have the Supreme Court that threw out Roe V. Wade.

                You might want to read up on Frederick Douglas. In 1860 he had a choice of supporting a strong Abolitionist or Abe Lincoln. Lincoln had repeatedly said that he would keep slavery if it meant keeping the Union together.

                Douglas knew all the horrors of slavery first hand, and knew that it made more sense to win and be on the inside than to lose and no be heard.

            • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              I mean, he still won a significant majority even with the vote split. And he won a majority In precincts that trump won In the election.

              A more interesting question is, if there had been a been serious candidate to the left of Harris in the general election, would she have polled more like coumo did?

              I don’t think it’s safe to assume that she would have won more votes than mamadani did in the same situation. And comparing the outcomes of a national 2 candidate race to a local 3 candidate race is not really telling you anything unless you introduce the counterfactuals and do polling to fill in those gaps.

              Right now we’re seeing a lot of polling showing democrat socialists candidates outperforming corporate democrats in a lot of battle ground and purplish red states. Arguably attempting to appeal to coumo type voters damaged Harris’s chances In battle ground states by alienating unaffiliated voters.

      • Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It won’t be easy. We must keep getting progressives in office if you want more than lip service.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        2 months ago

        There are Leftists in this thread who are saying Mamdani’s no good because he hasn’t done everything he promised.

    • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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      2 months ago

      Democrats are plenty progressive, Mamdani’s policy stances are pretty normal, but without state and federal majorities we’re not gonna see fuck all for change.

  • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world
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    2 months ago

    This is how MAGA took over the republicans.

    Now we just have to convince leftists to get out and vote in the primaries and generals which might be a chore.

  • switcheroo@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Electing someone who is actually DOING STUFF for the city he’s elected to run? I mean, yeah we should totally hate that. 😩

    • kreskin@lemmy.world
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      electing someone who even understands what their job even is seems to be a welcome change. Schumer claims his whole job is keeping the dems in line with what a foreign power wants. And almost all of congress seem sto agree. Thats not their job at all. And that rot goes top to bottom through both parties. The president and judiciary also dont seem to understand what their jobs are anymore. Cops too, no frickin idea what they do exactly.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, wtf is wrong with Mamdani.

      Doesnt he know hes supposed to make big promises, then do none of it while giving handies to CEOs in his office before selling his citizens out for literal pennies per person?

    • FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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      TBF he’s renegged on a lot of his plans and watered down all of his enacted ones.

      Pretty normal for the DNC.

  • GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Republicans, propping up Mamdani?

    Interesting strategy. But you know what they say, never interrupt your enemy while they’re making a fatal mistake.

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    2 months ago

    “We were surprised to discover that, underneath all the bullshit, people just want happiness, peace and opportunity”.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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      Isn’t he self-described as a “democratic socialist”? (I mean, his faction aren’t super radical socialist as far as I’m aware, in terms of trying to bring about a workers democracy. The NYC “city run” grocery stores are just contacted out, not actually city run. But hey, it’s way, way, way better than what other US political factions are doing)

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Zohran Mamdani is reshaping the Democratic Party In New York faster than anyone expected

    FTFT. If he can spur change in the country, excellent. Democrats in Idaho still have to work with Idahoans. They don’t care about the Nicks.

    Just saying - red states are still red states. New York wasn’t that kind of red.

  • UncleArthur@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I have a horrible feeling he’s going to be assassinated in the not-too-distant future. I really hope I’m wrong.

    • Worstdriver@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’m not an American, so I could be incredibly wrong here, but don’t you have a two party system? If you don’t vote Democrat, who do you vote for?

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The person you replied to is trying to help make things even worse. Especially in a post about primaries, which Are the opportunities to make things better.

      • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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        2 months ago

        The US has over 50 parties, depending on where you vote.

        Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Constitution, Peace and Freedom, No Labels, Progressive, Socialist, etc

        • Worstdriver@lemmy.world
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          Then why do I only ever see ® or (D) behind names in your government? Why don’t I hear about the Green party candidate for Senate, or the Libertarian in a state legislature? I mean, you say there are other parties, but if they exist surely someone from one of them has made it into the government of a state or to the federal level at some point.

          Not trying to be argumentative here, just trying to understand.

          • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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            2 months ago

            You’re probably watching shitty corporate news that’s intentionally trying to tell their viewers that the only option is the 1 party (both democrats and republican parties are nearly identical when you zoom out to include progressive policies)

            The US has great independent media. Try reading something run by a nonprofit that does not take money from corporate sponsors.

            • Worstdriver@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              CBC BBC Reuters…

              And it’s not just them, but those tend to be my primary y news sources.

              Diversion aside, can you name any examples of non Democrat or Republican legislators at the state or federal level?

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      He’s a DSA member! I’d call him a DINO if he wasn’t evidently reshaping it.

      I’ll vote third party as soon as the next guy, but if the Democrats decide to run an actually good candidate, then I’m not holding a grudge.

  • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    As he should. We need to take any populist progressive momentum we have and use it to run the Democrats out of town. Along with the republicans. The two parties are just a black hole of corporate money.

    • SalamiDommie@lemmus.org
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      Because, you know, he has and will continue to reject that money. Because he is so great and has such great ethics and morals…

      Totally wouldn’t become the exact same thing. Or worse.

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        I’m not sure if you’ve met a real Mainer. You’re talking about the out of state assholes the DNC installs in our state 🤣