Of Princes and Paupers

One thing that modern American politics reliably delivers is "identity" drama.

- KOLI MITRA

The political class is obsessed with this, though normal people care little for it. Rather, they do care, but only because they are being fed the idea that everyone else is against them. There is relatively little (if hyper acerbic) real racism in the U.S. today, but there is enormous racial tension/conflict. Everyone is propagandized by social media to believe, perversely, that OTHER groups are targeting them. (There are some great recent books on this phenomenon by John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, and others.)

This drama is playing out in the 2025 New York City election. Leading candidate Zohran Mamdani has urged his demographic group to be “normalized” and treated just like any other “New Yorker” — contrary to what he sees as the current climate of “phobia.” Yet, the city’s residents are overwhelmingly backing him to be their next leader. He's beating veteran New York politician Andrew Cuomo by 15 to 20-point margins. The election betting markets give him a 92% chance of winning. Given how tiny the relevant minority is, how could he be winning this big if every other New Yorker didn’t think of the group as a “normal” part of the city?

Former New York Governor David Paterson, the first (so far only) African American—as well as the only legally blind person—to hold that position, who surely knows a thing or two about racial tensions being politicized, expressed concern about this. He likened Mamdani’s use of identity politics to Donald Trump’s use of the same. Paterson said “The fears are generated by the same concerns that people have about President Trump.... He targets different audiences and speaks about whole people in a negative way. Zohran Mamdani has done the same thing. But he’s speaking about people who are regular Democrats or regular Republicans.”