Reports of Socialism’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Centrists have been declaring the socialist movement dead for years in spite of the victories it has racked up. But Zohran Mamdani’s win makes its rise undeniable.
The United States is not a socialist country. But its biggest and wealthiest city did just enthusiastically elect a socialist as its mayor. (Adam Gray / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The truth is there’s a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now,” Andrew Cuomo told Fox News, as he fought for his political life against rival Zohran Mamdani a week out from the New York City mayoral election. “You have an extreme left. Radical left. Bernie Sanders, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] — Mamdani is just the banner carrier for that movement — versus the mainstream moderate Democrats.”
“And that’s what this election is about,” he said. “It is that civil war. . . . I believe it will destroy the Democratic Party nationwide, if that far left becomes dominant. This is not a socialist country.”
The United States is not a socialist country. But its biggest and wealthiest city — the heart of its powerful financial sector, where the second-most billionaires in the country reside, and where one in twenty-four residents are millionaires — did just enthusiastically elect a socialist as its mayor, giving him a majority of the vote in a three-way race and a 9 point winning margin.
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