What Can Downing Street Learn From Zohran’s Zeal?

As Zohran Mamdani seizes New York City, what does this 34-year-old’s feat say about politicians further afield?

On November 4^th, Zohran Kwame Mamdani became the first Muslim to be elected to the New York City mayoralty, and the youngest since 1892. He brings a disconcerting contrast to the front door of his adversaries, which include the President himself, whilst raising the crucial question of how the Democrats will use this new method of politics to restore orthodoxy. Mamdani has laid a blueprint, a scaffolding that shows how talking about the day-to-day plight of Americans gets your voice listened to. Rent freezes, government funded food markets and wealth taxes on the rich are some of the policies he has already outlined. A self-declared socialist, he wants to take on the capitalists, an interesting stance seeing as New York is built off just that! Many big business old heads would now do well to fear the baby-faced Mamdani.

During the campaign, my TikTok was flooded with videos of Mamdani. The 34-year-old and his team have certainly found a way to use social media to win. We all saw the Kamala Harris Brat styled campaigning in the lead up to the Presidential election – but her bright green colours and heartfelt walk-abouts did not win her the White House. Of course, being born abroad, Mamdani can’t set his political sights upon the neoclassical abode that represents the peak of American power. However, his ability to do good in rocking the Trumpian boat cannot be understated and more senior members of the Democratic party must start making notes from not only how Mamdani manufactured his campaign, but indeed the very words he has uttered. There can be no more pivoting and obfuscating into safer territory, the guardrails of American democracy have been pushed to the furthest point that they have ever been. As Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt point out in How Democracies Die, these guard rails never return to their former position, allowing more individuals with sinister agendas to slip through the net.

It is critical to remember that Trump is not an aberration, nor is his way of politics an anomaly to the convention of Western politics post 1945. Kamala Harris has spoken of this and it needs to be repeated until it is widely understood. Donald Trump is the culmination of a bubbling discontent, under the surface, that began decades ago as obstructionist agendas began to take hold. America has leaned into authoritarian tendencies beforehand. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who weaponised the imminent threat of the Cold War and communism to promote censorship and book banning, enjoyed a 40% support in the polls. Then let’s skip a decade later to the Alabama governor George Wallace. He too used the rage of working-class white people, the victims of economic decay, creating a credible threat to blue Democrat strongholds. The politics of yesterday is truly gone, an intimidating thought, and technology has accelerated post Covid with no going back. The Michelle Obama adage ‘When go low, we go high’ surely cannot stand in this current climate, with opponents who are desperate to eviscerate, it cannot hold back the tidal wave that populism and fantasy politics can stir up.

Across the pond, can there be anything learned from this political magnetism? In short, yes, but is it in the style of the technocratic Labour government? In many ways, it feels as though the ground beneath the government’s feet is shrinking ever further. According to the ONS , the unemployment rate for people aged over 16 is steady at 5%, higher than last year’s estimates. The last budget evidently missed the mark, and there seems little hope that the coming one will be dramatically otherwise. Of course, technocracy does work and is feasible in a time without an abundance of polarisation and pressure from populism. This simply is not the world we live in right now. Mamdani has made it clear that to cut through to the youth vote, and indeed in general, you must let go of analogue politics and embrace the avant-garde force that is social media. I’m sure the government would retort that they do cover all major platforms – but there’s firing off some Instagram posts into the ether, and there’s truly using the ‘social’ in social media to reach people.

With net favourability among 18-25 year olds falling to -34%, an implementation of new communication is not desirable – it is essential. Currently, we have two party leaders approaching Starmer from his right and left flank, but what is the commonality that threads Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage together? The answer is zeal, both have become legitimate contenders as they bring personality and passion to their trade, designing their own branch of personal branding that is easy to disseminate. The Prime Minister simply hasn’t achieved this, he likes to deliver and steers away from the freestyling that often comes with identity politics. It may be this rigidity that is the biggest act of self-harm, grasping the nettle before it is too late is of the utmost importance. Without it, the Starmer government’s credibility will evaporate even further as we head towards 2029.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/InformedImages

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