SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
LJUBLJANA – 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 US political establishment – both the Republican and Democratic “deep state” – has a fundamental interest in seeing his mayoralty become a fiasco. US 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.
For the left, then, this is not only a moment to act, but also a time to think about the bigger picture. The United States is transforming from a two-party political system into one comprising establishment Republicans, establishment Democrats, alt-right populists, and democratic socialists. One can already see the makings of new coalitions stretching across the old party lines. Back in 2020, Joe Biden hinted that he might nominate a moderate Republican as vice president, while Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, urged supporters of Bernie Sanders, the independent democratic socialist US senator from Vermont, to vote for Trump after the Democratic Party nominated Biden.
The big difference is that while Trump’s brand of populism easily achieved hegemony over the Republican establishment (clear proof, if any were needed, that his concern for ordinary workers was a sham), the split within the Democratic party is getting stronger and stronger. Indeed, the struggle between the Democratic establishment and the Sanders wing is the only true political battle in the United States today. As The Guardian’s Emma Brockes put it: “Mamdani’s biggest threat is not Donald Trump, it’s the Democratic old guard.”
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