The Silver Lining of Zohran Becoming NYC Mayor
There is no way or reason to sugarcoat this: Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City Mayoral election marks a dark moment in American history. Sure, he's a Democrat, but that was to be expected in a place like New York. What cannot be understated is this: a socialist, Marxist-sympathizing racist, who happens to be Muslim, whose father claims America is "the root of all evil" and that suicide bombings should be "understood as a feature of modern political violence," is the Mayor of America's most iconic city.
NYC is not just another American city. It is the front porch of America. When foreigners envision America, they think of the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Trump Tower, the Yankees, the Knicks, and a land busting with opportunity. "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere," as Frank Sinatra once said. New York City has become the home of Americana.
Now, NYC is increasingly becoming the home to something more nefarious: unchecked political ambition. Mamdani's victory speech foreshadows this. He started by quoting Eugene Debs, a socialist who ran for President of the United States from prison and received over one million votes. "Thank you, my friends! The sun may have set over our city this evening. But as Eugene Debs once said, 'I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.'" He thanked a laundry list of nationalities, without thanking Americans.
Zohran Mamdani thanks “Yemenis, Uzbeks, Mexicans, Senegaleses, Trinidadians, and Ethiopians” but fails to mention “Americans”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 5, 2025
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"Thank you to those so often forgotten by the politics of our city, who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses, Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. Yes, aunties."
In fact, he never mentions the words America or American in his victory speech. Not once. He thanked "those so often forgotten by the politics of our city," yet never mentions the country that the city is in.
I'm not an apocalyptic doomsday prophesier rooting for the total collapse of New York City, but I do read the tea leaves. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Because that's how politics and life work—it swings like a pendulum. From one extreme to the other. Sometimes it swings right, sometimes it swings left. When people have tolerated failure for long enough, they long for something different. When they sense that something is wrong, they long for change. It's that longing for change that gets candidates elected.
We saw it in 2017. Donald John Trump entered the White House as an older, conservative populist who broke contemporary norms. He was a bull in a China shop. His predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama, was a younger, elitist progressive—a slick, polished talker with a globalist worldview. He spoke to the world as if he were giving a lecture to a class. His predecessor, George W. Bush, spoke like a rust-belt pastor. Bush routinely referenced his faith, something Obama did only when it was politically beneficial.
Bill Clinton, who popularized the phrase "Make America Great Again" during his 1993 campaign, focused more on domestic policy than on foreign policy, unlike his predecessor, Republican war hawk George H. W. Bush. Ronald Reagan brought the polish of a television star into the White House, in contrast to the disheveled malaise of Jimmy Carter.
In Chicago, Mayors Harold Washington (1983-1987) and Eugene Sawyer (1987-1989) were grassroots candidates who were often soft-spoken and did not want to make a spectacle of public office. They were followed by machine-backed bureaucrats Richard M. Daley (1989-2011) and Rahm Emanuel (2011-2019).
Globally, the pattern repeats. The British electorate switched from a center-right technocrat, Rishi Sunak, to a center-left reformist, Keir Starmer. France, weary of technocrats like François Hollande, became enamored with the outsider appeal of Emmanuel Macron.
Back to New York. Zohran Mamdani is a progressive communist. Should the New York City citizens demand it, though, the next Mayor could very well be the most conservative Christian east of the Mississippi River. Perhaps the city's next Mayor is someone whose politics are as far from Mamdani's as Mamdani's is from current centrist Mayor Eric Adams. But that depends on the voters.
Unfortunately, modern politics has become less about results and more about appearances. The politician who "feels different" wins—not because he understands the problems, but because he isn't the last man who failed to solve them.
Here is the silver lining: when bad leaders win, people wake up. More citizens start to pay attention. They start voting again. More communities begin to ask, What do we stand for? What kind of city and country do we want to live in?
When the pendulum swings too far in one direction, the back-swing is often something vicious. Zohran Mamdani's victory is a dark moment, but dark moments are often the prelude to brighter days. Hopefully, the same happens in my hometown, Chicago. Maybe our next Mayor will be someone who answers to the Word of God, not political ambition.
Until then, brace for impact.
