What Mamdani's rise means for the US Democratic Party's future

Can Mamdani's shocking victory in New York City shake up the conservative status quo politics of the Democratic Party?

- SANJOY CHAKRAVORTY

Ohran Mamdani's completely unanticipated yet comprehensively decisive win in the New York City primary election for selecting the Democratic Party's mayoral candidate has sent tremors, even shockwaves, through the party establishment. For those of us who have been observing the party, it has exposed again the deep corruption at its top levels. At the same time, this otherwise small election—after all, it is merely a party primary in a single city—has provoked the expected tropes of cultural warfare and identity politics in the US, but at a national scale: xenophobia, Islamophobia and red-baiting in particular.

Let us focus on the corruption in the Democratic party, which for the last two decades has been trying to suppress popular (and democratic) aspirations by pushing candidates for US president who are aligned with the party establishment and its centrist positions; status quo candidates rather than insurgents, disruptors or originals. It began with the first attempt to get Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket in 2008. Despite the best efforts of the party establishment (controlled by Bill and Hillary Clinton cronies), including well-documented 'dirty tricks,' an unknown upstart called Barack Obama, a first-term Senator and African-American to boot, swept the party and later the nation with his charm and intelligence. Progressives everywhere marveled at the magic of democracy.