LJUBLJANA ¨C Emancipatory movements around the world rightly rejoiced at Zohran Mamdani¡¯s victory in the New York City mayoral race. Clearly, today¡¯s populist right has no monopoly on the ability to mobilize crowds and attract new or disillusioned voters. Democratic socialists can do it, too.
But as Mamdani well knows, his victory will be met by attempts at economic and financial sabotage. The U.S. political establishment ¡ª both the Republican and Democratic ¡°deep state¡± ¡ª has a fundamental interest in seeing his mayoralty become a fiasco.
U.S. President Donald Trump himself appealed to New Yorkers to vote for Mamdani¡¯s leading challenger, the former Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. With Mamdani in power, Trumpian populists and mainstream Democrats will suddenly be speaking the same language. They will do everything they can to make Mamdani appear a failure. In Trump¡¯s case, that may even involve another ¡°emergency¡± declaration to justify sending in the National Guard.
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