What Mamdani Means

Something good can happen in this damnable country.

It’s midnight under a heat dome in New York City and yet the city is ringing with cheers.

The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for mayor—and thus almost certainly the general election in November—has cracked something open. It’s like a sudden summer storm. It’s possible to be hopeful again.

Until this very morning I would have said I was a liberal. Tonight I am a leftist. Tonight it seems blindingly obvious that the DNC, The New York Times, The Atlantic and all the overbearing stumpers for centrists have spectacularly failed us.