Where the Left (and Zohran) Goes From Here
After Tuesday's stunning victory, where do we go from here?
No one quite expected the results we got on Tuesday. Yes, we had hope—hope beyond hope, a dare to imagine, but none of us expected outright victory, with Cuomo conceding and likely not even running in the General Election. Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, starting out with bare-single digits in the polls in October of last year, surged in a few months to not only become the frontrunner in a race filled with electoral juggernauts (like Cuomo), but he then went on to win outright on his own merits.
The coming weeks and months will be replete with data and details describing how he was able to pull this off—not just him of course, but his very dedicated and talented team of supporters and volunteers. The answer of course is rather plain: he ran as a barn-storming politician, a very standard sight in the earlier 20th century but one that has become an atrophied and sclercotic sight in today’s Democratic party. To become a Democratic member of Congress or Presidential nominee today, you don’t need to be the best messenger with the best policies and the best story: you just need to be a loyal trooper to whomever is higher on the totem pole than you. With the bar set to minimum, any sycophant could, if they so wished, become entrenched into Democratic politics. Such was Cuomo’s story, and a million others like him.
But the voters, especially after 2008, don’t want to hear copy-pasted speeches filled with lame platitudes and heartless jokes. They don’t want politicians who can copy TikTok trends for simple virality’s sake: they want authenticity. They want someone who can look them in the eyes and agree with them that things are bad, and that a better world is possible. In other words, voters award honesty and truth, and moreover: they want passion.
If you played the Network speech from 1976 to a crowd of likely voters, they’d all want to vote for him to be President.
This may seem like a contradictory belief, considering Trump’s election. After all, the fact-checkers have tallied up thousands of lies he’s told since he was born. But when Trump ran in 2024 as the ‘economic growth pro-peace’ candidate, voters believed him because that’s who he had largely been in his first term. They at least thought he was being honest on this very crucial front. Now, of course, that turns out to all have been another lie but Trump’s ability to win proves that voters do reward honesty.
And Zohran is honest! There is no reason to believe that he won’t freeze rent, that he won’t make bus fare free, that he won’t go down fighting for the lives of average New Yorkers every day. That’s why, when all the ranked choices are counted, he will go on to win as much as a 14% majority over Cuomo.
So, a victory. But the war is not over; our struggle for supreme political power is an ever-evolving sea of changes and differing fronts. What’s next, for both the Left and Zohran? Let’s find out.
Tasks for The Left
The very last thing the Left should do is rest on our laurels. Zohran may have won the Democratic primary but he still has to win the General Election. He is definitely going to be facing Eric Adams and will be also be squaring off against a Republican (the vigilante nut, Curtis Silwa). In a three-way race, the Democratic nominee should come out on top in a city like New York City but the last thing we should do is celebrate this as if it’s inevitable. It isn’t. Zohran CAN lose. If we celebrate today and forget tomorrow to return to the hard work of electing him, he must certainly will.
So rally to New York! Flood the end-zone with as many volunteers as we can. Every New Yorker’s door should be knocked on, every phone rang, every mailbox inundated. This should be a national movement, one where Californians and Texans and people from all over come together and reinforce Mamdani for Mayor with as much manpower and resources as we have. This should be the top priority above everything else, as the loss of the New York mayoralty will deal such a crippling blow to the establishment that our ascendance becomes that much more guaranteed.
We should also, at the same time, run as many other Zohrans as we can find for as many positions as we can, for the 2026 midterms. By many other Zohrans I of course just mean people who are capable of running the Zohran playbook of authenticity and promising substantive economic change. The Zohran roadmap to electoral success is one that can and should be replicated throughout the nation. Just as every post-2008 Democratic sounded like Obama, every post-2025 Leftist should sound like Zohran (in their own unique voice of course!).
Of course, the success of all these insurgent movements will depend entirely on how successful Zohran is as a Mayor. If he is an abject, embarrassing failure, he will drag us all down into his miasma. If he dies, he will be a martyr. But far better a living saint than a dead one. Thus, I have some advice for him as well.
Tasks for Zohran
Get private security. If you already have some, get more, far. You are a prime assassination target, and currently very “soft” (gettable). Those long walks you love going on? Do not do those ever again without having a web of security near and around you. You need more than anything a 24/7 dedicated team who can operate in today’s modern security environment, especially in an urban setting. You need a special advance team to scout out your future events. You need to mix up your itinerary every single day, with decoy cars and motorcades. You should just be able to “show up” to an event, with no one really quite sure how you got there or where you’re going next. And far more, which I needn’t mention here.
Let me speak clearly. People will take shots at you, from both near and afar. Bombs will be planted in your cars and sent to your home. First Person Video ‘suicide’ drones will be sent against you, your cars, your home. If they can poison you, they will. If they can strangle you, they will. There will be casualties. In the hopes of getting you, innocent lives will not be a concern.
As for who could do such a thing: I hope the answer is obvious. I surely do not need to mention all the insane, unhinged things people have said about you, both before your victory and especially after? If someone sees an opportunity to get you, they will take it. And it may even be worse than that. Killing you would both be in Mossad’s repertoire and in their interest, especially if you’re replaced by Adams or Silwa as Mayor (or anyone else who is pro-Zionist).
And you can’t rely on the NYPD for help. Heavens no! Have you forgotten how the NYPD threatened de Blasio’s family? You cannot trust them for one second. In fact, your first action as Mayor should be to do what Ronald Reagan did to the Air Traffic Controllers: fire them all. Every single NYPD officer, from local foot patrol to the Commissioner, out, fired. If they want their jobs back, they need to sign an oath of loyalty: firstly to you (of course), secondly to the People and City of New York, and thirdly an oath to never join a collective bargaining institution again while they are an officer of the law in New York City.
It’s obvious. If you break their union power, you’ve broken their political power. No more police riots! No more wildcat strikes! All New NYPD officers will be loyal to the democratically elected Mayor, period! If they are going to be a militarized force, it is high time we treat them as a military, under strict military discipline (does an army have a union? of course not!). All else will become doable from there. And your private security? If you recruit enough of them, they can even become the core the New NYPD. Imagine: an NYPD that is answerable directly to the people’s elected Mayor, not their own unions or their own corrupt interests. A cadre of loyal cops that will truly make the city less corrupt and function better.
But you can’t hesitate. You need to charge forward boldly and snap police power with a flick of your wrist. Take the Trump precedent. Don’t wait for the Courts, for the Council, you will have the popular mandate. Act! Change the material reality on the ground. Even if the courts order you to reinstate everyone fired, you can slow walk that and basically not follow said order until the end of your two terms, just as Trump is now doing.
That’s it. My final advice, my only advice really, is for Zohran to not be afraid to act. I don’t think he is. But when the time comes, do not hesitate! Plunge! Forward! For retreat or hesitation is death.
For your sake, for our sakes, I hope you succeed.