You Don’t Mess with the Zohran

I am young despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.

– Zohran Mamdani

As a rule, I don’t like politicians. I have a higher opinion of cockroaches. Zohran Mamdani, who has just won the mayoral election for New York, however, may be an exception… for the time being.

In the satirical comedy, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Adam Sandler serves in the Israeli Defence Force but dreams of becoming a simple hairdresser in New York. Conversely, Mamdani is a Muslim who might as well be a Palestinian, given the amount of stick he’s received from the American right for expressing his disdain for the IDF and their genocidal activities in Gaza. Mamdani, however, dreams of becoming a saviour to the long-suffering residents of New York, which is kinda nice, if not overly ambitious, compared to Sandler.

Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist, and he’s not afraid to say it out loud. Few words scare American conservatives more than “socialist,” yet Zohan campaigned on several socialist policies – rent freezes, free buses and universal childcare, among others. He took on big money – I mean, really big money – including the notorious vindictiveness of President Donald Trump, and won hands down. Trump wasn’t even his direct electoral opponent, but in typical narcissistic style, he just had to insinuate himself into the fray by making despicable threats to the electorate.

The obscene amounts of money donated to the election campaign against Mamdani from several billionaires, like Bill Ackman, Ronald Lauder, and Joe Gebbia, didn’t work. Neither did the disturbing threats from Donald Trump to stop federal funding to the state. That is both heartwarming and cause for celebration.

It means there is hope for future elections in the U.S., where the electorate may not be so receptive to political advertisements which are nothing more than entertaining lies. It may actually mean that the electorate is evolving into responsible participants, rather than voting zombies transfixed by deceitful adverts that pander to their biases.

Already, Mandani’s victory is being greeted with the expected fatalism from those opposed to an ignorant understanding of socialism. His victory speech, however, must have sent shockwaves from the White House to the Republican Ale House.

In his victory speech, he offered this audacious challenge to the current authoritarian establishment, including a direct rebuke to Donald Trump:

Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves.

After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.

And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump, it’s how we stop the next one.

So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

He’s made it clear that you don’t mess with him. However, given how nauseatingly vindictive Trump is, I don’t know if this is very brave or very foolhardy. I do know, however, that the establishment will be doing everything in its power to sabotage the Zohran.