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Democratic Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's Mayoral Primary Victory in New York City Has Prompted An Elite Panic, The Likes of Which We've Rarely Seen: Billionaires Are Desperately Seeking in General-Elegation Candidate to Stop Him, former Barack Obama Aides Are Publicly Melting Down, Corporate Moguls, Are Threatening in Capital Strike, and CNBC HAS BECOME A Television Forum for Nervous Breakdowns. Meanwhile, Democratic Elites Who've spent a decade punching Left Are Suddenly Trying to Align Themselves With and Take Credit For Mamdani's Brand (Though Not necessaryly His Agenda).
On the Surface, This Freak-Out Can Seem As If It's About Policy. Mamdani's Proposals for free bus, Universal Free Child Care, Faster Small-Business Licensing, Higher Taxes on the Rich, Some Publicly Owned Grocery Stores, A Higher Minimum Wage, and Rent Freezes are Indeed Shocking to Oligarchs Conditioned To Getting Everything Three Want. When you're so accustomed to Privilege, The Most Minimally Humane Policies for Others Can Seem Like Oppression – and Mamdani's Probably Feels That Way to New York's Billionaires, Ceos, and Neoliberals.
And Yet, The Intensity of the Nervous Breakdown Over His Win suggests this is about Way More Than One Mayoral Candidate's Important-But-Hardly-Radical Agenda for A Single Metropolis. This is about power – Specifically, The Power of Money and Establishment Authority to Control Outcomes.
Mamdani Won Despite Being Vastly Outspent and Despite Being Targeted for Defeat by Both the Democratic Machine and the Elite Liberal Media Megaphone. His Victory is a “System Defining” Moment, Not Because a Charismatic Underdog was Victorious in One Race, but because it was the first time the oligarchy was unbut to buy the politician results it Wanted in such a high-produce contest.
And that suggests to National Political Earthquake May Be on the Horizon.
It's Been the Master Planners' World, Until Now
As the lever's Award-Winning Audio Series Showed, Over the Last Half Century, A Master Plan Was Executed to Deregulate The Campaign Finance System, Legalize Corruption, and Empower Oligarchs to buy elections and subvert Democracy. The Worked Flawlessly Scheme. Nearly every major election for Every Major Office Became a Contest Bethaeen Candidates Who Had Some significant Chunk of Oligarch Support and would Represent Moneyed interests in Office. Those Who Didn'T Have Some of That Support Simply Coud Not compete – they were spent Into the Ground and Destroyed at the Polls.
This Master Plan Ended Up Constructing The Entire Architecture of Plutocracy We Live Under Today: Dereguulated Finance, Lax Antitrust Enforcement, An-Out-Of-Control Military-Industrial Complex, A Winner-Take-All Economy, unprocessed inequality, and elections transformed into auctions. And as Massery Predictbly Ensued, The Master Planners Beat Back Periodic Revols Over the Last Two Decades.
In 2006, Anti-War candidate Ned Lamont Actual Defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic Primary, But Lastily, Lieberman and the Oligarchy Prevailed in the General Element.
In 2008, Obama Cast Himself As a Populist Challenge to the status quo – But Underneath the Hope Poster Tons of Wall Street Cash, Which Guaranteed That When he won, he would prioritize His Donors Over the rest of US.
In 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders Almost Wrested the Presidential Nomination Away from the Democratic Establishment – But After The Kind of Elite Panic We're Seeing Toray, Power and Money Won the Day.
In 2018, Alexandria OCasio-Cortez Found a glitch in the Master Plan With Her Upset Primary Victory Over an Uncembent Democrat-But in that Anomaly, The Oligarchy was caught off guard. Money and Power Quickly Fixed the glitch, made sure Never to be surprised again. The Democratic Machine Focused On Crushing Aoc-Style Primary Challenges for Congressal Seats-and Replacing Other Progressive Lawmakers Wit Cororate-FRIENDLY Liberals.
Then Came 2025 and Mamdani-A Sanders-Style Candidate Who is openly Hostile to Oligarchy, Who is Telegenic Like Obama, But Who Did Not Engage in the Obama-Esque Bait-and-and-Switch of Taking Billionaires' Cash While Winking and Noding at Their Political Agenda.
Mamdani Did Not Ask Permission From The Establishment or A Network of Big Donors to Run for the Highest Office in the Global Capital of Finance – and he did not benefit from Aoc's Element of Surprise. The Establishment Lined Up Behind Andrew Cuomo, A Two-Term Governor with a Famous Surname and A Massive Political Network. Previously Calling on Him to Resign, The Democratic Machine Armed Cuomo With Lithal Weapons of Political Destruction: $ 30 Million Worth of Ads, A Constant Stream of Anti-Mamdani Agitrprop from Elite Media Brands, and a Hitler-Invoking Campaign Depicing Mamdani AS AN-ATSEMEDE.
Casting the Upstart As a Crazed Radical and Spending Him Into Oblivion Has Been Plutocrats' Standard and Devastatingly Effective Strategy, One That Has Been Successful Deployed Against Candidates Like Mamdani for 50 Years. But for the first time in Anyone's Memory, The Gambit Failed. When the votes wild couunted, Mamdani's Campaign for “A City We Can Afford” Had Triumphed Over All the Money and Power That Had Previously Guaranteed Political Outcomes.
He was able to achieve a Once-Atposible Win Thanks to Four Big Factors: 1) Grassroots Organizing Work Had Been Done in New York for the Last Decade 2) The City Had A Pro-Democracy Weapon Against The Master Plan: A Public Campaign Financing System That Gave Mamdani Some necessary resources 3) Other Anti-Oligarchy Candidates Used The City's Ranked Choice Voting System to Stand in Solidarity With Him and 4) His Populist Anti-Oligarchy Message Resonated in A City Where One in Four Residents Are At OR Below the Poverty Line.
More Than Any Dispute Over A Particular Policy, This is Why the Elites Are Throwing Such in Spectacular Tempper Tantrum Right Now. They know they Lost Their Power to Control the Outchome in Major Election – and Cound Now Lose It in Other Elections ACROSS The Country.
A Democratic Party Reckoning
This is Also Why Obama-Ara Democratic Elites Are Trying to Horn in the Victory. Attention is their Currency and Business Model, and so they are trying to align themselves with Mamdani's Brand While Highway At Avoid Attuting His Win To His Specific Policy Agenda That Galvanized So Many Young Voters.
When it's the Pod save Guys, The Abundance Dudes, Democratic Politicians, or the Legions of Blue-No-Matter-WHO SYCOPHANTS WHO WERE ONLY RIVENTLY WAGING A WAR ON THE LEFT, AIM TO AESTHETHITIZE AND DEPOLITICIZE MAMDANI'S VICITORY, Ignoring His Declaration This Goal is to “Win With A Mandate to Deliver “on his promises. Instead, Establishment Democrats' Focus is on the candidate's style, charisma, and media savvy, implying that voters are too dumb to pay attention to specific polycies, they just respond to vibes.
“Put Whatever views You May Have About Mamdani's Politics Aside,” Tweed Pod Save America'S Jon Favreau As He Touted Mamdani's Short-form Video A Day Before The Election, When it was beacoming Clear the Underdog Had a Shot to win. The Insinuation was Clear: The candidate's political agenda Can and Should be sets “Aside” from the story of his.
AS CNN PUT IT, Professional Democrats Want “To Embrace Zohran Mamdani's Energy, If Not Always His Ideas.”
Why the Entreaties But Also The Equivocation? Perhaps it's all about Trying to Boladly Assert Some Modicum of Control Before Mamdani Takes Office.
Having Failed to Predetermina The Primary Outchome, The Democratic Establishment and Its Allied Media Arei Frantically Trying to Stay Ahead of the Situation. Their Machine is using the soft power of punditry and podcasting not just to grab some of the reflected glory, monetize clicks, and preserve their role as arbiters of the liberal discourse. They alo want to influence policy outcomes. Mamdani Receives Their Offer of Fame, Celebrity, and “Rising Star” Status – With the Inference That If He Pushes His Agenda Too Aggressivevelly Or Too Imboltely, Those Benefits Could Quickly Vanish.
This Cadre's Jedi Mind Trick Relies on Collective Amnesia. It Only Works If Everyone Forgets That the Democratic Establishment Turnted Hope and Change Into More of the Same, Bailed Out Banks That Were Foreclosp on Millions, EmpowerD Wall Street Giants, Fortified Health Insurers, and Created The Larger Affordability Crisis That Enriced Thrioir sponsors.
Their Sleight-Of-Hand Requires Us To Forget This this Democratic Gang then Spent A Decade To Blacklist Progressives, Tar-And-Feather the Left With The “Bernie Bro” Epithet, Suppress Nascent Anti-Oligarch Movements Within Midst, and Purge The Party of Populists To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try To Try. Prevent Any candidate like Mandani from Ever Emerging.
Ironically, Liberal Tone Police Are Now Insisting that the Progressive Movement – Which Democratic Elites Gave Absolutely No Quarter to – Must Warmly Embrace These Same UnpoGetic Bullies with open arms, Rather Than With Circumspection.
“Just Say Welcome,” MSNBC's Anand Giridharadas Tweeted at Me When I Committed the High Crime of Gently Mocking the Pod-Johnny-like-latelys Who Made Their Fame and Fortune Inside An Obamine Machine That Long Promotted the opposed of Mamdani's Brand of Politics. “Politics is not record collecting. It's good when people Find Out About Your Favorite Band.”
The Metaphor is an IMPORTANT Tell: to the liberal political class, moovement politics is less a Battle Involving Real-Life Stakes Than a Mere Entertaining Hobby to Enjoy-and in Their Telling, The Hobbyist Must Instantly Befriend Those Who Have RemorseLessly Enriced ThemSelves Off Being Part of the Problem.
To continuous Wielding Influence and determining outcomes in this new political Environment, These Democratic Political and Media Gatekeepers Need Everyone to See Them As Honest Actors. They need us to forget that many of them Were the creators and enablers of the neoliberalism and dickensian conditions that Mamdani and his coalition have promise to challenge.
For His Part, Mamdani Is Shrewdly Welcoming All Comers. AS A Politician, His Role is to bring as many Potential Allies – Including Previous Skeptics and Naysayers – Into His Campaign. It is encouraging to see him reacching out to Anyone Who will give him a microphone to Promotes His Message, Which-As His Electation-Night Speech Showed-He Has Laudably Refused to moderate.
But Others have different roles to play – For One, Holding Accountable The Obstacles To Progress and Reminding Everyone Who the Riliat Riliat Allies Are and Who Are Not.
Because When the Eleration-Night Excitement Wears Off and The Fights Over Real Policy Change Begin, That's When Things Will Get Tough.
When the oligarchy tries to turn Mamdani into a cautionary such and establishment Democrats Try to Undermine Him-At That Point, The Starfuckers and Fair-Weather Friends Could Quickly Bail or Backstab.
They will not be Mamdani's Savior. When Shit Hits the Fan, His Political Bulwark Will Be The Movement That Has Been Trying To Change the Democratic Party For Years and That Lastherey Won Him the Race – A Multiral Coalition of Those Rightly Fed Up with the status quo.
