It has been many years since a political party was cast as far into the wilderness as the Democrats of 2025. Fresh off their second defeat at the hands of their mortal enemy, Donald Trump, it was reasonable to assume that the party would realize the need to abandon the progressive policies that repelled the broad center of the electorate. Instead, it appears that the opposite has occurred, as proven in both the response to President Trump’s strike on Iran and Tuesday’s (June 24) Democratic mayoral primary in New York City.
Democrats Doubling Down
Democratic Party leaders must understand by now that they need to offer the public more than virulent opposition to Trump and every move he makes. They must realize that being branded a socialist party is a formula for electoral disaster. That’s why they put their thumbs on the scale to ensure that Bernie Sanders would not be their presidential standard bearer in 2016 and 2020 and why they ruled out a Kamala Harris candidacy until Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the race left them no other choice. But how must their brand look to ordinary Americans now that avowed anti-Israel socialist Muslim Zohran Mamdani has been nominated to represent the party in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Tel Aviv?
As a New York state assemblyman, Mamdani introduced legislation to crack down on non-profits sending money to Israel. According to Fox News and the antisemitic watchdog group Canary Mission, he became prominent in anti-Israeli protests in the city shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre. A native of Uganda, Mamdani is the son of parents who have long been outspoken anti-Israel activists. His father is a "Marxist" professor at Columbia University, ground zero for post-Oct. 7 protests in the United States, and is "known for his anti-Israel views and obsession with ‘colonialism.’"
The election of Mamdani would undoubtedly empower pro-Palestinian activists and throw gasoline on the fire of rancorous disputes raging between New York’s pro- and anti-Israel advocates. His vow to offer universal health care, free childcare, free public transit, rent controls, and a $30-per-hour minimum wage, all paid for by increasing taxes on the usual suspects – corporations and the rich – would certainly drive many people out of such a high-tax environment. His pledge to create a Department of Community Safety that would replace the police in responding to many 911 calls seems sure to negatively impact public safety.
In short, a Mayor Mamdani would mean New York would never be the same.
They Can’t Help Themselves
Meanwhile, though a few Democrats have applauded Trump’s strike on Iranian nuclear sites, the party as a whole has done everything it can to demean the president. Instead of at least praising those who carried out the audacious and successful mission or remaining silent, the response has mostly been to claim either that Trump is lying when he says he has obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, that his attack was unconstitutional, and/or that he should be impeached. Democrats may be acting in response to polls showing a majority of the American people were opposed to Trump’s action, but that will surely change if peace breaks out in the Middle East or, at a minimum, hostilities between Israel and Iran cease and no further US involvement is forthcoming.
There are times, such as after 9/11, when the country should be expected to come together regardless of everyone’s political differences. Doing everything in the president’s power to eliminate the ongoing and increasing nuclear threat posed by the world’s leading purveyor of terrorism would seem to be one of those times. And yet, the left simply cannot get over its obsession with attacking all things Trump. Progressives continue to dominate the discussion about the evil orange man as if the November election never took place. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and now Zohran Mamdani have been dominating the headlines about the Democratic party. What this says to everyday Americans is that the party, far from tacking to the center, has actually become even more progressive than it was in 2024.
Is the current dilapidated state of this ever more radical party ultimately a threat to the stability of the country? Is it healthy for one party to be so unpopular that it cannot mount a credible opposition to those in power? And above all, how can Democrats expect the 2026 and 2028 elections to end differently than 2024 if they double down on the very ideology that cost them control of the White House and Congress?
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