Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoral election is the moral repudiation of an establishment that mistook political access for virtue and money for merit. Against a torrent of billionaire donations, media scepticism, Islamophobia and the hostility of his own party’s leadership, Mamdani prevailed. His win is a signal that the old arithmetic of wealth and influence no longer guarantees power.For decades, the Democratic Party’s national elite has wrapped itself in the language of empathy while serving the priorities of financiers and lobbyists. Mamdani’s campaign exposed that contradiction with clarity and courage. He spoke not of abstractions, but of the basic question that defines civic life: Who can afford to live in this city? His answer was simple and moral. He called for publicly built housing, rent protections that give tenants dignity, universal childcare and free city buses. He proposed publicly owned grocery stores to provide affordable food and break the monopoly of private chains that profit from hunger. He pledged to make the wealthy contribute their fair share.What distinguished Mamdani was not only the content of his programme, but the candour with which he stated its premise: Government should serve those who labour, not those who lobby. He proclaimed that t …
