The torch of American progressive history is being passed to a new generation: Corey Robin on Mamdani’s victory

What is the most striking aspect of Mamdani’s victory?

Most importantly, it was built over more than a decade, dating back to the early 2010s with the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which was a moribund organization but received a new lease of life after Occupy. [Wall Street] And [2008] financial crisis. There has been a tremendous amount of grassroots organizing and Mamdani comes out of that group; A small group of over 1,00,000 volunteers went door to door for him as of the day of the survey. So this is a real victory for democratic action of a kind we haven’t seen in this country for a long time.

You described Mamdani’s victory as a continuation of the Nevada moment, referencing when Bernie Sanders won in the 2020 Democratic primary. Can you elaborate?

People forgot about the Nevada moment because it was obscured by the events that immediately followed: the nomination and election of Joe Biden and then the shutdown of everything. What you saw in Nevada was a coalition of much younger, working-class voters rallying behind this old white, Jewish socialist guy who was originally from New York. This connection established there showed that democratic socialism could speak beyond the boundaries of identity, the boundaries of native-born versus immigrants, and finally, generations. We have seen an extremely similar phenomenon here with young South Asian voters, who make up a large portion of the population. We saw them gather behind Mamdani. This intergenerational, interclass, interimmigrant and intercultural alliance is something the left has been working on for about 10 years, and it is amazing to see how it moves from city to city and how it grows each time.

Although the party twice rejected Sanders’ candidacy, Sanders did not let this be a setback. The movement continued its work, right?

Definitely! Bernie Sanders has been in this fight for a long time. He started out as Mayor of Burlington. Before that, he was an activist. Far from focusing on himself or his campaigns, he always clearly understood his role: to seed something for the future. We saw this in Nevada, the AOC election, and now Mamdani. Sanders is coming out of the 1960s. He was born in Brooklyn, the son of working-class immigrants. Now, with Mamdani, you see the torch of American progressive history being passed on to a new generation. It is impossible not to be touched and excited by the fact that this new generation consists of immigrants.

With the rise of the DSA and the movements around Sanders, AOC, and Mamdani, there seems to be enough logic for the party to move away from centrism and make a conscious shift to the left. So why is the party not willing or able to do this?

This has to do with two reasons. First, for the last 30-40 years the party has been run by a group of elite people who see their first duty as pleasing donors. The other is the rise of right-wing populism from the 1970s; A certain section of the party thought that the way to win the polls was to turn to the centre, and that liberalism and progressivism on the left were obligations. So you’ve got extraordinarily centrist politics.

But many on the left argue that embracing centrism is inevitable in the fight against fascism or authoritarianism.

I’ve never been convinced by that argument, but we tried it with Hillary Clinton, who lost, and then we tried it with Joe Biden. Although Joe Biden’s move to the left was what enabled him to win the election, it was the centrist votes and voices within the party that pulled him back. Far from keeping Trump out of power, [we see that] getting stronger. Mamdani demonstrated this very well on election night. “We’re not just fighting Donald Trump. We’re fighting the next Donald Trump,” he said. And this is really important. It has been made very clear that the struggle against authoritarianism and the struggle for economy are two sides of the same coin.

To fulfill his promises, Mamdani will need to confront structural challenges and institutional limitations, while also contending with a party whose establishment is lukewarm about its victory. How can the movement behind it maintain momentum?

The only way to confront a moderate party establishment, to confront infrastructure, institutional intransigence and the antagonism between money and power, is precisely for people to take action.