The rise of Zohran Mamdani does not mark a new turn in city policy so much as it reflects a rejection of reality.

Political candidates can be forgiven for making sensational promises in their quest to win office, but the number of people willing to suspend disbelief is a barometer of our politics.

And the current reading is troubling.

For the better part of a century, the city’s political progressives (once called “liberals”) argued about how big a slice government should take from the private sector to serve public purposes, and the extent to which government should regulate private transactions.

Left unsaid is the recognition that private markets, and market actors, were the source of whatever piece they’d take in taxes for schools, police and public uses.