California may have some of the worst politicians in the country, but is New York City Ground Zero for the coming epidemic of socialist political leaders?
Don't get me wrong: there are leftist politicians scattered around the country, and California's political culture is a better breeding ground for leftist policies than New York. But if you look at California, the politicians who carry the banner for leftists are of the slimy "give them what they want" variety. They are accomplished liars who dance around looking for political advantage more than true believers who will jump onto the ramparts and lead the revolutionaries into battle.
.@TishJames @ZohranKMamdani are the progressive “Brother and Sister” no one but the far left asked for. He dreams up the crazy, she sues to make it reality.https://t.co/NO7eJgdRhd
— Michael Henry (@michaelhenry4ag) August 4, 2025
New York City's leftists are something else entirely. California has gifted America Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris and Adam Schiff--both oily, immoral, disgusting liars who would sell their grandmothers in the Libyan slave markets for a nickel--but AOC and Zohran Mamdani are true believers who are on-the-ground leaders of a movement.
Letitia James, who, before she became Attorney General, was the New York City Public Advocate, has devoted most of her attention to destroying Donald Trump and the Republicans. She has wrapped herself in the Mamdani love, seeing him, as Elizabeth Warren does, as the ideological future of the Party.
"Letitia James has embraced Zohran Mamdani while other New York Democratic leaders are proceeding with caution...James had championed City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for most of the race, but saw the writing on the wall and stood proudly with Mamdani." https://t.co/jYQZF6yEAr
— Madina Touré (@madinatoure) August 4, 2025
She has her feet in both camps--both a true believer and a canny striver for political power. If Newsom, Harris, and Schiff are the equivalent of the early Jacobins, professionals who used revolutionary rhetoric to get ahead, AOC and Mamdani are leading the charge of the sans-culottes--the rabble who are baying for blood.
During the French Revolution, the Jacobins were mostly swept away by the mob baying for blood. Newsom, Harris, and Schiff utilize their performative leftism to gain favor and power, but are most comfortable associating with the elites with whom they feel most at ease — the French Laundry crowd.
San Francisco may be the home of the crazy extremists who love social experiments and Queer everything, but the New York socialists are likely the more dangerous crowd in the long run. California is more visible as a failure in leftist experimentation, as you can see by the dancing and weaving that Gavin Newsom is forced to do in order to make himself a viable presidential candidate, in which he is almost certain to fail.
New York City is much harder to destroy than California, both because it is the world's financial center and because the state as a whole is far less socially liberal than California--another way of saying that it is less whacky in its leftism. This makes New York City Democrats a bit less dangerous to their fellow citizens, ironically, and even more able to cater to the resentments of those who feel left out.
AOC and Mamdani proudly wear their socialism on their sleeves. Mamdani is not just a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but also the poster boy for The Working Families Party, which is, if anything, more openly radical. He is loud and proud in his radicalism, as is AOC. This means that their fans are far more dedicated than those of Newsom, who at base is a politician and not a true believer.
Newsom, Harris, and Schiff are not enemies of the Establishment. In fact, they have proven to be favorites because they have successfully appealed to the left while being Establishment-friendly. But as the true believers rise, they oppose the Establishment-types on their "own side" as much as they hate the centrists and right.
Mamdani can never be president, thank God, and AOC is much more likely to make it to the Senate than the White House. America is not going to become socialist anytime soon.
But the true believers are driving the Democratic Party left. Biden ran as a moderate but governed as a radical, and the operative class that runs the party day-to-day is lurching left. You saw that with the passage of the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act," which was basically the Green New Deal with added benefits for the leeches in the Establishment.
The Democrats are forced to cater to the radicals as they lose their grip on the vital left-leaning vote. They are forced to cater to them in order to get the all-important votes for the primaries.
This is a danger for the Democrats in national elections, obviously, but Congressional races are local and driven by political winds more than ideology.
Socialist ideology is on the rise. The Establishment is ultimately responsible for that, as they enabled the left to take over education and catered to leftists, thinking them fringe.
They no longer are, and it seems like New York City is ground zero.
Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist and has a real chance to become the next mayor of New York City.
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