High on democratic socialism

Have you heard? Zohran Mamdani is a democratic socialist, and he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. This fact has become a repeated line of attack for Mamdani’s rivals, who describe the leftist politics of the DSA, as Andrew Cuomo did in the Daily News on Sunday, as “radical” and “extreme.” Under pressure, Mamdani has distanced himself somewhat from the national organization, telling reporters last month that, “My platform is not the same as national DSA.”

But over the weekend, Mamdani touted his political home with fellow democratic socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders at a “Fighting Oligarchy” town hall in Sanders’ native Brooklyn. Mamdani credited Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign with giving him “the language of democratic socialism to describe (his) politics.” When an audience member asked during the Q&A how she could help Mamdani, he namechecked the New York City chapter of DSA.   

“You know (the audience member) said she’s a member of NYC-DSA. … It’s an organization that I’ve been a member of, and it’s an organization that’s also tabling right here at this event. And if you don’t know more about it, you should go talk to them,” he said to cheers. “Join DSA, join any organization that continues to remind you that you will be the ones to deliver this change.” 

And when a heckler stood up and called Mamdani a communist, he said, “Brother, I’m here with another democratic socialist.” Then Mamdani addressed the crowd: “You know that something has changed when it’s not enough to call us democratic socialists anymore.” 

Sanders, who has toured the country holding similar rallies and town halls, tied his crusade against unprecedented income inequality to the New York City mayor’s race. “Money has always played an enormous role in politics. Nothing new about that, but in the old days they kind of kept it secret. Right now you have people like Bill Ackman and others saying openly, front page of the newspapers, ‘We will spend as much as it takes to defeat this guy,’” Sanders said. “What are these people, these oligarchs, afraid of?”

The DSA brand apparently isn’t too far left for some mainstream Democrats. Present in the crowd Saturday were a couple of Brooklyn moderates: Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair and Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and City Council Member Farah Louis. Both endorsed Cuomo in the Democratic Party. Bichotte Hermelyn quickly backed Mamdani after his decisive victory, while Louis said she’s still evaluating. Other elected officials who attended and are not affiliated with DSA included Assembly Members Bobby Carroll and Khaleel Anderson and City Council Members Crystal Hudson, Justin Brannan and Sandy Nurse.

Many of Mamdani’s lefty allies were there too, like WFP co-chairs Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper, Assembly Members Marcela Mitaynes, Phara Souffrant Forrest and Jessica González-Rojas, state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and City Council Members Alexa Avilés, Tiffany Caban and Shahana Hanif.