Take It From A Lifelong New Yorker. Mamdani Isn't Cutting As Mayor

 

 

Ever since Theodore Roosevelt rose the prominence of in New York City politics our state and our city have had a dynamic unlike almost any other in the country. If someone from the upper class deigns to be part of the average New Yorker we will overlook your wealth and privilege.

This has been true with multiple governors of both parties. The most famous example is Theodore's cousin Franklin but one of our most popular governors was Nelson Rockefeller. He managed to win office over the equally wealthy Averill Harriman who while a capable governor couldn't quite abandon his patrician upbringing.

This has been just as true of some of our best mayors. John V. Lindsay, the silk shirt Republican, managed to win reelection when he threw his loyalty behind the Miracle Mets of 1969. Ed Koch was very much a figure of the everyman and for all the oddities of Michael Bloomberg, the fact that he rode the subway to work made us appreciate him at a certain level.

Now no one can hide the fact that New York, perhaps more than other states, has had its share of weirdos in elected office. I don't think George Santos could have been elected to Congress anywhere else. (He represented my district, everybody!) And that has increasingly become the trend of New York mayoral politics: I don't think Anthony Weiner would have considered running for Mayor anywhere but NYC two years after being forced to resign from Congress because of sending pictures of his genitalia to others. (I don't even think he could have made it in Florida.)

Which is why I have to tell you that Zohran Mamdani, the hero of so many progressives, socialists, communists and every other left-wing nut in America, is unfortunately  continuing the trend we've had since De Blasio and Eric Adams won the previous three mayoral elections. I grant you the fact of his youth, attractiveness and charisma has managed to obscure that fact from those in the DSA who worship and so many in the media who praise him. But that's because none of them live in New York and don't have to deal with him on a day to day basis. To coin a phrase Mamdani is the kind of man who you  have to see govern to actively dislike.

I'm not even talking so much about his policies though I'm going to get to his failures in this article. I'm saying that there are certain basic things you have to do as mayor of New York, many of them symbolic and inconvenient but that you have to do as part of being the leader of a place that has been famously referred to as 'The Ungovernable City'. (That was the title of a biography of John Lindsay and its basically as true today as it was half a century ago.)

It is forgotten by most people on either side of the aisle that the role of mayoral is far more a symbolic position then one of real power. You are the face of everything that happens in your city but the governor of the state has the power to do anything that happens in it. You have some power, paradoxically, if you live in a smaller city in a rural state than in a bigger one in a big state. A mayor of a small town in South Dakota or New Hampshire has more power over what happens there then the Mayor of Tallahassee or Los Angeles.

But you are also the face of government in your city and you have handle every local issue at a way that the state just doesn't. Therefore you get blame when he things go badly for your city and very little credit when things go well. Mayor is, at best, a stepping stone for the governor's race; you can never go directly from it to higher office as Rudy Giuliani, De Blasio and Bloomberg have all found out in recent presidential primaries. The job is only worth slightly more than a pitcher of warm spit.

As I said when Mamdani won the mayoral primary last year his nomination had less to do with New Yorker's desire from a democratic socialist to be the leader of our city then our refusal to be responsible for Andrew Cuomo, who'd had to resign as governor in 2022 to become mayor. Combined with the failures of Eric Adams and no real Republican party to speak of Mamdani didn't win so much by acclimation but by exhaustion. He couldn't have been nominated for dogcatcher in any other city much less become mayor.  And the fact remains the more conservative boroughs such as Queens and Staten Island rejected him as well as the makeup of the New York bases of minorities. He was elected by a coalition that was mostly made of college educated progressive and upwardly mobile minorities.

Now if you are 33 years old and have never had a staff bigger than five as Mamdani had and you've been elected to run the biggest city in America, the main job you have to do is build alliances with the old guard and the people who've been in elected office longer than you. You also have to stand by those who were with you at the start. Mamdani has made it clear this primary season he has no intention of doing that, having chosen to burn bridges with legislators who backed him early in his run in Democratic primaries and choosing to endorse DSA candidates to primary incumbents. This has made him popular with many young people in New York and has hurt his relationship with prominent figures like State Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul.

 One has gotten the impression that Mamdani seems determined to make the New York Representatives in his image very much like Trump seemed to do the same with the GOP. And as with most things the left does it's not only less effective but it shows a misunderstanding of the situation. At best Claire Valdez, Darializa  Avila Chevalier and Eric Lander will not be able to help him in New York City until 2028 at the earliest. He would have done better to win the favor of the current leadership Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Instead he made an attempt to have one of his own primary Jeffries in the early weeks of 2026 before being talked out of it, something that will not make him inclined to be friendly if Jeffries, as expected, becomes Speaker next year.

Mamdani, perhaps more than any other mayor since Giuliani, seems to have more of an eye on national politics. The difference is Giuliani didn't consider it until his second term was nearly over and spent much of his tenure building bridges with the legislature and national leaders. Mamdani by contrast seems determined to treat both the Republican and Democratic establishment as his adversary both in terms of the Presidency and his own state.

Time and again he has chosen to try and go over their head to the people of New York, usually on TikTok or other social media. This is not an approach that has worked at any level of politics for decades and for a mostly ceremonial post it would make one question Mamdani's sanity had he not made one of the platforms of his campaign that if Netanyahu came to New York for a UN meeting he would issue a warrant for his arrest, something that even before he was elected to office had been dismissed as something impossible by every lawyer and judicial expert. It was only two months ago that he went on social media again and said what should have been obvious to anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex: that the Mayor of NYC doesn't have the power to arrest a foreign leader.

It's here by far the weirdness factor has played into who Mamdani is. There are just certain basic fundamental things the typical mayor of New York has to do to make it clear he's the average New Yorker. Considering that Mamdani comes from one of the wealthiest families in Uganda, that he is the son of a man who made some incredibly inflammatory things about both 9-11 and Israel (both of which are major triggers in New York) that he has been very prominent about defunding the police in a city where policemen are still pretty much deified, that he is incredibly far to the left even in a city where left-wing politics are tolerated – all this before his youth and inexperience – there are certain things you have to do to at least pretend you are the everyman. And here Mamdani has failed the most.

(Note: Everything I'm going to write about I'm speaking in the lens of New York politics rather than a broader spectrum. Mamdani's rhetoric only is important to me as far as it plays here, not with everyone else.)

Here again we see the comparison to Trump as he seems determined to break down norms that are considered part of his office. Earlier this year he was the first mayor ever to skip the Israeli Day Parade. Every mayor has gone there in 63 years. He didn't show up at all. Politics aside, Mamdani had an obligation to prove to Jewish voters who were skeptical of him that he saw them and heard them. He completely flubbed the play.

There have been so many similar examples of this in the past year among the Jewish community. Whenever there is a hate crime of any type committed he is never there with the cops. That was also a standard of New York mayors. You stood with the police and you said this wouldn't stand. Mamdani has been absent from them as well as several the shootings of several police officers. His office will make a statement. He rarely does.

To a New Yorker this is the equivalent of Trump going to Arlington or a soldier's cemetery and saying he didn't get what was in it for them. And yet it only seems to be the surface of the strangeness. In July he went to Sing Sing and watched the World Cup finals with the prisoners and had a photo op. In New York City that was the equivalent of  Trump holding a rally in Waco and getting a photo with the Proud Boys.

And here's a little tidbit you might not know. This September 11^th at the annual memorial where Ground Zero used to be the families of the victims of 9/11 have been circulated a petition insisting Mamdani not attend because of the things both his father had said as well as some of the associates and friends Mamdani has been associated with himself. (That's as polite a euphemism as he deserves.)

We still don't know if Mamdani plans to attend or not. While it would be incredibly odd for him to be absent at an event every mayor has attended for the past twenty four years there is an excellent chance it could devolve into chaos by his mere presence. Given his already controversial views on the subject if he were there and said anything that remotely deviated from the carefully formed script that we've had there for twenty four years he could very well be booed. New York has increasingly become a tense place for many reasons in the last few years in places it shouldn't be. And if Mamdani does what he has does so many times before he might be lucky if he is escorted away by the cops safely. (To be clear his reputation with the NYPD isn't great already.)

And that's before you get to his actual record. To be sure he has some accomplishments of note, securing money for child care funding and restitution and tenant wins. But the overwhelming number of his projects have stalled. He campaigned on the idea of establishing free public transit in his first 100 days. He's now acknowledged that isn't going to happen. He made a plan for city-owned grocery stores across the five boroughs, that's now been shelved. He promised a 1.1 billion dollar Department of Community safety that has since been scaled back. Indeed the overwhelming majority of his campaign pledges had to be stalled when he ran up against the reality of a multi-billion dollar shortfall.

Other ideas that he's been arguing for are likely dead on arrival with the City Council. His proposal for a tax on billionaires drew praise from his followers but looks dead in the City Council. His battle for available housing in New York has attracted more controversy over the fact that the key leader has made comments that home ownership is the equivalent of white supremacy. And he faces all of this conflict of the unforgiving New York media where even papers inclined to be positive towards him have had issues with him. His behavior during multiple snowstorm was badly graded (though this is par for the course in New York) due to the number of homeless people who froze to death. Mamdani was accused, perhaps more harshly then previous Democratic mayors, for his failure to move the indigent into shelters against their will.

It's here I have to tell you that Mamdani's approval rating remains remarkably high for NYC mayors at this point in their terms. Yet even this has a clear breakdown. In Manhattan and Brooklyn he polls the highest around 54 percent. In the Bronx and Queens, which are more suburban and less ethnic he polls at 45 percent where in Staten island (which he lost to Republican Curtis Siwa) he's at 35 percent.) This is hardly surprising in one of the bluest regions in the country. But almost all of his approval comes from NYC itself, upstate and particularly in the Suburbs he has a disapproval rating of 60 percent.

And when you compare him at the 100 days mark he had a 48 percent overall approval rating with Eric Adams at that same point, who was at 61 percent. It says a lot about just the limits of New York's tolerance for progressive politics that he's trailing a man who would later be indicted by the Justice department by thirteen points at the same point in their tenure.

Here for the record are the last five mayors in my lifetime in New York during their respective first one hundred days:

Zohran Mamdani: 48 percent

Eric Adams: 61 percent

Bill De Blasio: 49 percent

Michael Bloomberg: 62 percent

Rudy Giuliani: 49 percent.

Just so you know Giuliani and Bloomberg's approval numbers went up in their first term as they helped do impressive things. Giuliani was famous for cleaning up New York and being tough on crime, the reverse of the policies of Mamdani. Bloomberg was just as popular for his steady hand during the financial crisis and Superstorm Sandy. Though his reputation as America's Mayor ranked on his behavior after the attacks on New York, Giuliani served the majority of his term in the relatively peaceful Clinton Presidency.

Both men were Republicans in a Democratic city and state (Bloomberg shifted to Independent in his third term) and managed to be popular despite it. Mamdani by contrast is arguably the most left-wing mayor we've ever had – and he's still basically running dead even and well behind the last two Republicans elected mayor in New York at a similar time in their tenure.

And so much of the time I keep getting a sense of that weirdness about him, only this time its read through the lens the left sees the world. In a recent interview with the New York Times, with a reporter who was inclined to be favorable to him he was asked what he considered a working class income was and he said: "Someone who makes less then a million dollars a year." The writer tried to be open saying: "Hard to imagine a janitor thinking that way." I thought to myself: "When Mitt Romney was running for President he sounded more aware of the working class."

Indeed for all intents and purposes Mamdani has more in common with Romney, W and Jeb Bush and so many other posh Republicans born 'with a silver foot in their mouths' (as Ann Richards put it so eloquently) then the working class that he and the left claim to be on the side of. As has been recently reported in numerous publications this is true of almost every single prominent member of the DSA of which Mamdani and so many of his associates belong too. Mamdani is very much a member of the one percent his followers have spent so much time wanting to destroy and that they revile the President for being – but he's always had more in common with Trump then the majority of the people who rave about him being the anthesis of.

Thought that may be the point. I've spent so much time in the last several years thinking that the left's hatred of Trump is based far more in envy then his actions. They never cared for political norms, checks and balances or our reputation at home or abroad any more than the once and future President has. Their coalition with those (and I have been one of them) who genuinely were upset about his actions seemed to be based on the idea of an alliance where eventually America would be ready for a left-wing equivalent of Trump who would do the exact same things he did to America – but you know, for the greater good.

Ever since the arrival of AOC they seem to believe their model is someone young, photogenic and who can rally a crowd. We've seen increased numbers of them throughout the Justice Democrats who have become media figures but who only have the same power over the voters that the left always does: young, wealthy, college educated and mostly white. (That so many of the candidates are people of color make me cynically wonder if the DSA and Justice Democrats have the same relationship with minorities that the GOP has as a whole.)

The simple truth it doesn't matter if the candidate takes the form of Angie Nixon, Abdul El-Sayid or Ed Markey in Massachusetts: as long as a candidate gives a progressive stump speech, left leaning voters will flock to them regardless of the candidate's age, race, or nationality.  But it doesn't change the fact that none of these candidates have been able to widen their base beyond the conventional left-wing primary voter who favors them in the first place.  For all the electoral success of Mamdani in the past year in New York at his core he is no different in appearance or approach then the Squad when it comes to their qualifications or any of the many left-leaning candidates that have won nominations for the House and Senate this cycle. This isn't the formula for a competent elected official; it's the formula for an influencer on Instagram, only there are real consequences when candidates like Mamdani win office.

To Gen Z and the younger generations in the polarized halls of DC, policy accomplishment and coalition building are always going to be less significant then the number of followers you have on social media. That's the other reason that I say Mamdani is a variation on Trump: because his listeners hang on every tweet he makes the left assumes that these same social media posts from Mamdani have the same force. None of them seem to be willing to consider the possibility that most Americans (and I am among them) count them as improving their lives no matter which politician does so. And Mamdani can make all the posts he wants of outreach to me on social media, he has not done one thing to make my life or indeed the lives of many of those he claimed he could help  in New York easier during his first nine months office.

Across the country hundreds of thousands of college students as well as other members of the usual progressive coalition hail Mamdani as part of a new generation of leader. The truth is all he is doing is recycling the same standards of far left diatribes that so often fall short in primaries (as we saw with Francesca Hong is Wisconsin) or on the rare occasion they achieve elected office almost always failed when put into action, either due to lack of money or their general unpopularity. None of this has done anything to effect the popularity of either the policies or the candidates who espouse them among their circle. They always work in theory and when they fail in practice, there are countless excuses as to why it wasn't 'fairly tried'.

As a New Yorker I view him neither as a political icon or the existential threat that seems to be the only two opinions that are allowed of him. I think he's a 33 year old nepo baby who rose to prominence due to a perfect storm of events that could only happen in this city. I think that he will within in a matter of months begin get pilloried by his own among the DSA for not having achieved everything he promised he could. The left takes all stump speeches as guarantees written in stone from any Democratic candidate; I'd be stunned if they didn't start passing out recall petitions when he told them he could arrest Netanyahu.

Perhaps he will be primaried when he runs for reelection in 2029. By that time we will be living in an America when Trump is no longer part of the daily political dialogue and the questions that are increasingly being asked for Justice Democrats and DSA nominees alike by the mainstream media will now become something that Mamdani and his acolytes will no longer be able to avoid. America will not return to normalcy after 2028 – I have no illusions of that – but the relatively free ride so many far-left representatives have been getting from the liberal press is going to be over and done with.

In either case I suspect Mamdani has risen as high as he possibly can in this city. No New York Mayor has managed to get anywhere near higher office in my lifetime: Mamdani has no chance of succeeding where Lindsay and Giuliani have failed. I suspect he'll be a joke in New York circles by the end of this year and a national punch line by the end of the decade.

And what will his place in history be? Another in a longline of 21^st century weirdos who served as Mayor of New York. Politically our iconic song is a lie. Even if you make it here, you can't make it anywhere.