“Democratic socialists” have been getting the teenage-idol treatment from giddy reporters and editors at legacy media outlets for years. Their newest crush is on the jihadi-apologist and Marxist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

In a 4,500-word cover story about the candidate, “The Meaning of Zohran Mamdani,” Time magazine paints a caricature of a well-meaning, authentic, and not-really-so-radical go-getter. An “ideologue interested in creative solutions” is how Time puts it. Sure, Mamdani might support genocidal rhetoric, but the Jewish community will be pleased to learn that he “often talked about the problem of antisemitism and the need for anti-hate-crime funding.”

Is Mamdani, as many would have it, a generational talent whose campaign should be mimicked nationally by Democrats? For me, it’s difficult to see much “meaning” in the trope-ridden rhetoric he offers. “I think the most important thing,” the candidate, who, like most socialists, is a child of privilege, notes, “is that people see themselves and their struggles in your campaign.” Deep stuff. His “creative solutions” entail fresh ideas like rent control, a policy Mamdani benefits from personally that was instituted in 1943.

While journalists are mightily impressed, the truth is that Mamdani is running in a hard-left city against a gaggle of unlikeable, corrupt has-been Democrats. Much like Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), his fame is propelled by his radicalism and youth. Neither of them has passed a single consequential piece of legislation, come up with a new idea, much less a solution, or delivered a memorable speech.

Anyway, as one commenter pointed out, New York City is already something of a “socialist” city, with 40% of its residents living in rent-controlled apartments, 600,000 working for the city, and another 600,000 working........

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