Mamdani and the DSA bask in NY midterm wins — but there’s a catch

Here’s a contrary opinion: Tuesday’s elections were good for New Yorkers, Republicans and Democrats alike — maybe even great.

No, really.

Surveying the results, many of us feel nothing but doom and gloom.

We now have a congresswoman, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who believes we should abolish not only the police but also all prisons and, for that matter, borders.

We have a congressman, Brad Lander, who campaigned not on the Lower East Side but on the upper West Bank, standing with Palestinians rather than with his American constituents.

We have a returning governor, Kathy Hochul, who did little but grin as prices got higher and the streets less safe.

What reason is there to feel cheerful?

We can answer the question by listening to none other than Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Reacting to Hochul’s win Tuesday night, he cheered her for having “embraced new ideas,” including opposing ICE and taxing the rich.

In other words, the story triumphant leftists are telling themselves right now goes as follows: Americans voted blue because they’re passionate about socialism, support open borders, and are ready to entrust the country to a new cadre of politicos trained almost exclusively on college campuses.

The reality, hallelujah, is radically different: The top issue voters actually cared about, according to CNBC’s exit poll, was government corruption.

And Americans held two ideas in their minds as they cast their ballots.

They rejected a presidential administration they saw as being riddled with incompetence and graft.

And they also rejected the left’s radical vision of high taxes, unfettered immigration and other progressive staples.

Don’t take my word for it — just look at the way voters approached 146 ballot measures in 39 states.

As one social-media wag quipped Thursday, Americans “passed more GOP legislation through ballot measures” on Election Day “than the entirety of the GOP passed” themselves over two solid years.

In North Carolina, voters enthusiastically supported a cap on personal income tax.

In Tennessee, they approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting a state-level property tax.

In Arizona, they passed an ordinance banning biological males from entering women’s locker rooms in schools and athletic associations.

The list goes on.

These aren’t Mamdani’s “new ideas” — they’re basic, commonsense, bipartisan measures.

Which brings us back to New York and its bright future.

Listen to Mamdani, and you’ll understand that hubris is in no short supply in the Empire State these days.

The mayor fancies himself a Democratic Party kingmaker, with his allies, like Chevalier and Lander, now members of Congress and his energy key to keeping the governor from losing her job.

The mayor and his radical cronies, in other words, believe they’ve amassed great political capital.

And in the weeks and months ahead, they’re going to try and spend it.

When they do, they’ll very likely learn that New Yorkers aren’t that different from Americans elsewhere.

Most of us aren’t rabid commies eager to usher in the revolution.

Most of us want what other Americans, irrespective of political affiliation or geographic location, voted for in those ballot measures — a sane, sensible approach to governing that leaves some cash in our pockets and takes inflamed ideologies out of our social lives and our kids’ schools.

So what we’ll likely soon see here in New York is the rapid humbling of overly confident, relatively inexperienced political newcomers.

The Democratic Socialists of America, feeling themselves invincible, have already begun squeezing Hochul to adhere to their tax-the-rich agenda.

If they get their way they’ll learn, as all politicians eventually do, that in dreams begin responsibilities: Tax too much and people leave, taking their wealth with them and leaving city and state alike without the money for ambitious social programs.

In other words, the boisterous lefties will soon discover what most of us already understand — that what we saw on Tuesday wasn’t a sudden and miraculous change of heart.

The same voters who handed Republicans the House and the Senate two years ago haven’t suddenly torn down the stars and stripes and replaced it with the hammer and sickle.

They wanted President Donald Trump to curb some of the worst excesses of peak woke, and when he failed to do very much of real substance they gave his allies the boot.

A similar destiny awaits any politician who focuses more avidly on propaganda than on policy.

But while the left is almost certain to overplay its hand, smart Republicans and Democrats alike will see Tuesday’s election as what it is: an opportunity for a fresh start.

Woke has been discredited; so has the MAGA movement.

The ground is clear for great new ideas and brave new coalitions.

And New York has a rich history of elevating competent leaders regardless of ideological affiliation.

Now we finally have a chance to start building something new — and show the nation how it’s done. 

Liel Leibovitz is editor at large for Tablet and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.