Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral primary win signals a potential leftward shift in the Democratic Party, despite right-wing criticism. The US faces challenges of relative decline, potentially leading voters to embrace extreme political ideologies.
Last week in New Delhi, at the India Policy Forum 2025, FT’s Martin Wolf posed a vital question for India and the world: is Trumpism permanent or temporary? Trumpism is the leading example of a broader phenomenon: populist authoritarianism in democracies. The phenomenon was identified way back in 375 BC in Greek philosopher Plato’s Republic.
Populist authoritarianism is driven by a blend of insecurity and grievance in the middle and lower-middle classes, directed simultaneously both up and down the social and economic scale. In the US, this insecurity is driven by a blend of deindustrialisation, inequality, racism and fear of a rising rival superpower. All this, said Wolf, made Trumpism likely to endure beyond Trump.
Now, Trump is not the sole example of what Wolf called ‘patrimony’ – as opposed to liberal democracy – where rulers use jingoistic nationalism to justify limits on free speech and other human rights, attacks on independent institutions, and inward-looking economic policies promoting domestic jobs and manufacturing even if it means higher prices for consumers. Other examples of populist strongmen within a democratic framework include Recep Erdogan in Turkiye and Viktor Orban in Hungary.
But a separate event suggests that right-wing populism may not be the outcome of relative US decline. The Democratic Party primary election for the next mayor of New York was won handily by the 33-year-old (Muslim) Zohran Mamdani. New York city is overwhelmingly Democratic. So, Mamdani is bound to become the next Mayor of New York, a political position that has propelled others into the race for US president.
Mamdani is the son of Mira Nair, who directed films like Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding. His father is a distinguished anthropologist at Columbia University. He was born in Uganda and became a US citizen as recently as 2018. He beat a powerful (Christian) rival, somewhat tainted by corruption allegations, Andrew Cuomo, once governor of New York state.
Mamdani represents the extreme left, just as Trump represents the extreme right. The former is an unflinching supporter of Palestinian rights. He has promised to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes if the latter comes to New York. Wow.
Right-wing analysts and politicians have denounced Mamdani as an antisemitic supporter of terrorism. In interviews, TV anchors focused on his views on Israel, expecting to scupper his chances. Instead, he won handsomely, proving that the Israel lobby carries more weight with the rich and powerful than ordinary voters. Jews constitute almost 11% of New York’s population. But that did not matter. He says many young Jews have voted for him.
Donald Trump Jr, Trump’s eldest son, shared a post by ‘anarchist’ writer and former Fox News commentator Michael Malice a.k.a. Michael Krechmer: ‘I’m old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it,’ adding his own line, ‘New York City has fallen.’ Elise Stefanik, one-time Trump pick for UN ambassador, branded Mamdani ‘a Hamas terrorist sympathiser’.
New York City councillor Vickie Paladino called Mamdani ‘a known jihadi terrorist’. The reaction of New York voters has been ‘So what? Let us tackle the problems of the city, not of the Middle East.’
One swallow does not make a summer. Mamdani’s performance may well mean that the Democratic Party is turning left sharply. But that does not guarantee Trumpism’s defeat. Democratic Party has been looking defeatist and flaccid after Trump’s big victory in last year’s presidential election. It has been unable to fiercely combat the president’s proposals on foreign or economic policy.
US elections are typically won by centrists like Barack Obama or Joe Biden, not extremists like Bernie Sanders. But the combination of grievances highlighted by Wolf that have fuelled extremism in the Republican Party may do so in the Democratic Party, too. The next Democratic candidate for president can’t be Mamdani because (like Elon Musk) he is not US-born (he was born in Kampala, Uganda), an essential condition. But look out for other leftists.
The US is in relative decline, though still the strongest global power. Managing decline is difficult, as shown by ancient Greece and Rome, and more recently by Britain. Voters are not interested in being told they are still the best-off in the world. They feel the decline, and are fed up with the waffling of centrists who cannot end decline and its accompanying grievances. So, voters who normally avoid extremes are now willing to do so.
Much depends on how Trumpism works out in the next four years. Pessimists like me believe that economic growth will slow and inflation will rise in the US, dismaying voters. Despite Trump’s claims, the US trade deficit will not shrink. It represents not unfair practices by others (as Trump claims), but structurally-embedded US overspending, where domestic savings are grossly inadequate to finance its investment. It requires large capital inflows from abroad, the mirror image of which is a large trade deficit. If Trump fails, an extreme left candidate like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the next US president.
Will India be happier with extreme leftism than Trumpism? That is unclear. Both Mamdani and Trump favour protectionism, reduced defence assistance to friends abroad, and reduced spending on international public goods (like policing sea lanes). India needs to build its economic strength fast to stand on its own feet.
This article was originally published by The Economic Times on Apr 23, 2025.
