Recently, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the mayoral election in the global financial capital. Apart from right-wing hysteria over sharia law in New York City (NYC), there was also concern in Democratic circles over Mamdani’s popularity: He calls himself a socialist, has promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes should he come to NYC, and refused to visit Israel — all big no-nos in America. To top it all, he played “Dhoom machale” before his victory speech. So how could he win?

Ever since US President Donald Trump’s rise in 2015, there has been growing concern over polarisation and the loss of civility and consensus/bipartisanship in politics. However, even as the media ridiculed Trump, large sections of society found his politics authentic compared to his consultant-trained opponents. On the other side was Bernie Sanders who emphasised the working class as opposed to the conventional focus on the middle class. Sanders’s campaign was also termed polarising and threatening to the unity of the Democratic party, as opposed to........

© Indian Express