Mamdani’s triumph is only one of many recent warning signs

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fter waking up pre-dawn last Sunday to learn that the United States had bombed Iran’s deeply embedded nuclear facility, and again two days later to find out that Iran had sued for a ceasefire, I had hoped to return to a normal sleep schedule, with no more middle-of-the-night sirens or early-morning visits to the computer. But then came the news early Wednesday morning that Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist and Israel hater, had captured the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, usually thought to be tantamount to winning the general election.

Admittedly, New York City will not soon be threatening Israel with nuclear weapons, even if Mamdani wins, so the greatest threat to my loved ones has been largely removed. But I have many friends living and working in the Big Apple, and I fear for their safety in a city run by a 33-year-old former rapper who has advocated defunding the police and who has made no secret of his antipathy to the only majority Jewish country in the world.

On a deeper level, I worry that Mamdani’s victory is a harbinger of a dark future for the United States, and that rabid anti-Israel beliefs have become de rigueur among a certain class of overeducated, young progressives. Historically, at least going back to the Roman Empire, great empires have met their downfall not primarily at the hands of stronger enemies but because of the internal rot of their decadent upper classes.

On that score, Mamdani’s triumph is only one of many recent warning signs. The first was the widespread campus support for Hamas in the immediate aftermath of the Simchas Torah massacre. Support for the most savage and sadistic murders of over 1,000 Israeli civilians — murders that put the Manson family to shame — and the widespread brutalization of women is a form of mental derangement, and a reminder of why Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the Russian anarchists of his time is better translated as The Demons than by the more familiar title The Possessed.

The same mental derangement is found among groups loudly proclaiming their support for Hamas, but whose members would be hung from the nearest lamppost or cast from the top of a tall building within five minutes of arriving in Gaza.

In the same vein, one wonders how many of those large crowds waving flags of the Islamic Revolution in Times Square last week and shouting their support for Iran would be eager to wear hijabs in public. They are apparently down, however, with Iran’s explicitly genocidal goal of wiping out Israel, which Iran’s leaders have repeatedly referred to as a “one [nuclear] bomb” country. One of the crowd’s chants was, “Iran make us proud, bomb Tel Aviv to the ground.”

In addition to their hatred of Israel, hatred of America — the Great Satan, in the mullahs’ terminology — has propelled those crowds into the pro-Islamic Revolution camp. America suffers from what Peter Turchin has termed “elite overproduction” — i.e., an excess of elite wannabees over the number of truly elite jobs (see Rehan Salam, “Making Sense of Mamdani,” the Free Press, June 26). Those saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in college debts, while unable to find productive jobs commensurate with their ambitions, constituted the heart of Mamdani’s winning coalition. He did much better in higher-income white neighborhoods, while ex-governor Andrew Cuomo easily outstripped him in poorer black neighborhoods.

The chief emotion of this class is resentment and bitterness toward the society that has failed to recognize or sufficiently compensate their great abilities. And that leads to an impulse to tear it all down. The members of this class may never have taken economics, but one suspects they know that Mamdani’s policy proposals — free public transportation, rent freezes, city-run grocery stores — would quickly bankrupt the city. And if his program did not bankrupt the city, it would surely wreak havoc — e.g., defunding the police and replacing officers with social workers to deal with those threatening public safety on the subways. Their impulse is to tear it all down.

There is virtually no progressive shibboleth with which Mamdani was not associated, with the possible exception of allowing men to compete in women’s sports. Rob Henderson, in Troubled, his memoir of being raised in a series of foster homes, describes his shock upon arriving at Yale at 27 to find himself lectured by classmates from the upper one percent on his failure to recognize his “white privilege.” (He is of mixed Hispanic and Korean parentage.)

Henderson coined the term “luxury beliefs” for a wide variety of beliefs and policy ideas devoutly proclaimed by rich classmates as means of signaling their virtue, but which would have a negative impact upon those for whom they profess concern, while costing them nothing. Mamdani’s policy proposals, Henderson argues, consisted primarily of the same type of luxury beliefs. Freezing rents, for instance, would lead to landlords failing to maintain their buildings, and those buildings becoming rundown or empty. That is why cities with rent control consistently have the lowest levels of affordable housing. Similarly, municipal transportation systems that have implemented free fares were quickly overwhelmed with disruptive and threatening passengers. And if the police are defunded, those earning less than $25,000 a year, who are three times more likely to be victims of robbery or aggravated assault, will be those most adversely affected.

In a pre-election editorial, the Chicago Tribune editorial board counseled New Yorkers not to follow in its own hometown’s path. Chicago’s current mayor, Brandon Johnson, is cut from the same cloth as Mamdani, albeit without the latter’s charm and energy. After two years in office, he enjoys a ten percent favorability rating.

CHIEF AMONG the luxury beliefs of the elites is that Israel has somehow forfeited its right to exist — a view that Mamdani proudly broadcasts. He has been justly dubbed the “encampment” candidate. In college, he founded the Bowdoin chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which group has been at the center of every pro-Hamas encampment on American campuses. And to his “credit,” I suppose, he refused to disassociate himself from any of his previous anti-Israel statements, including support for Hamas, in the immediate wake of October 7. He defended the slogan “Globalize the intifada,” universally understood as a call for violence against Israel. Indeed, he is an adherent of the apocalyptic branch of Shiite Islam, for which a nuclear confrontation might well herald the coming of the so-called Twelfth or Hidden Imam.

In New York City, which has the largest Jewish population of any city outside of Israel, his anti-Israel bona fides proved a feature, not a bug, in his campaign. As John Podhoretz sums up, “He did not moderate his views or positions as he ran for office here. That’s because they were good for him financially and electorally.” Long before he had any name recognition, he had already raised millions of dollars from out-of-state donors.

And what does that portend for the future? Nothing good for America or Israel. At some point, there will be another Democratic president. In all likelihood, he or she will be chosen from the younger, progressive — and it must be noted rabidly anti-Israel — branch of the party, where all the energy lies. Peter Orszag, director of OMB under President Obama, warned last week, “I’m saddened to say the Democratic Party is becoming increasingly anti-Semitic and anti-capitalism.... Turning away from your principles and towards anti-Semitism never works.” How would Israel fare with an overtly hostile president in the White House?

Even if the Democrats were to select a more conventional liberal, he or she will have to placate the progressive branch, just as Senator Chuck Schumer, the self-proclaimed “Shomer Yisrael,” did last week in endorsing Mamdani, likely in the hope of fending off a primary challenge from AOC.

Just in case you thought there was nothing left to worry about after the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1068. Yonoson Rosenblum may be contacted directly at rosenblum@mishpacha.com)