Trouble In Lefty Paradise? Recent Mamdani Moves Might Already Be Giving Radical Base Buyer's Remorse

Posted • December 12, 2025: With a little over two weeks to go before New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is sworn into office, Americans all over the country will be watching as the Big Apple begins its experiment in socialism. Mamdani is a textbook socialist. He comes from a well-to-do family and has never had a real job, with the possible exception of State Assemblyman. He has lots of grandiose socialist ideas in mind, but no idea how to pay for them. But as he gets closer to the Mayor's Office, the people who helped get him there are afraid he is going to go squishy on them and their causes after Inauguration Day on January 1. —— "INSANELY STUPID": Zohran Mamdani faces backlash after a leaked list of Democratic Socialists of America "demands" — described by critics as ‘weird, scary, and insanely stupid’ — calls for New York City to cut nearly all ties with Israel. https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1986866971468533760/vid/avc1/1280x720/_-XH6li9muz3N7zj.mp4

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) claim Zohran Mamdani as a member, and they amassed an army of roughly 99,000 people who conducted door-knocking, phone banking, and other campaign operations for him. Mamdani still has ties to the group, so much so that among the hundreds of people on his transition team, 26 of those are members of New York City's DSA chapter. So, what has the DSA convinced that Zohran Mamdani is going to go wobbly on them once he is the mayor? Since his victory in November, Mamdani has announced that Jessica Tisch would remain New York City Police Commissioner, not a popular move with a group that advocates for abolishing police and prisons. Mamdani has also endorsed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is not a DSA candidate, in his run to unseat Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman (NY-10). But perhaps Mamdani's most egregious offense is his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, which appeared to be friendly. Trump also stated that he and Mamdani agreed on many issues, like affordability and crime.

While the DSA is still publicly supportive of Mamdani, Stu Smith, an analyst at City Journal, who is an observer of DSA politics, said this about a possible rift in the group over the incoming mayor, “He isn’t even sworn in yet, and parts of his own base are already seething, from the Trump meeting to keeping Tisch. On the far left, there’s a growing bloc of disaffected activists who see politicians that alarm conservatives, like Mamdani, as not nearly radical enough simply because they operate inside electoral politics. For them, politics itself — and the Democratic Party in particular — looks like counter-insurgency.” —— Mamdani has given them reason to worry. Earlier in his political career, he supported far-left issues like dismantling the police and stated several times that he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes if he came to New York. He has since backtracked and said that he will "work with" the NYPD, and vowed to combat antisemitism.

But the rift among the Mamdani faithful is real. Weeks before the election, members of DSA's "Liberation Caucus," apparently the wing of the group that doesn't think the rest of them are left enough, put out a rambling statement, where members of the caucus laid out their doubts and concerns about Mamdani. Criminal justice and "zionism" are big on their list. One DSA education chair (imagine what he "teaches"), called Mamdani "ZIOhran." But a video supporting him came out the next day. —— Eric Adams @ericadamsfornyc: “There is nothing “progressive” about leaving people to freeze in makeshift encampments. It harms residents and dehumanizes the very people who need help. New Yorkers should call on Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani to reconsider this policy.” —— Zohran Mamdani wants to turn NYC into San Francisco. Wait for the chaos to roll out under Zohran. From the radicals on his transition team to the unqualified outsiders working in his administration New Yorkers is about to pay a steep price. Terrible!

Stu Smith made a prediction, saying: “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up in a Brandon Johnson situation: an aggressively unpopular mayor kept afloat by a loud band of die-hard loyalists and the ‘Commie Corridor. And whatever happens to Mamdani personally, his playbook is not going away; other cities will almost certainly elect DSA candidates running the same plays.” Part of Smith's crystal ball gazing has come true. Katie Wilson is an unabashed Democratic Socialist who became Seattle's Mayor-elect in November as well. Both New York and Seattle are deep blue, but how long until the Democratic Socialist wave moves inland? Mamdani's true believers may not have as much to worry about as they think. Recently, when asked about how he would pay for the free bus rides he campaigned on, Zohran Mamdani said in true Democratic Socialist fashion, "the most important fact is that we fund it, not the question of how we do it, but that we do it." Have no fear, Democratic Socialists. It doesn't sound like he is going soft anytime soon. This should be fun to watch.

Zorhan Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist Party just published its concern that he won’t be able to deliver all those promised freebies and that DSA will suffer from the backlash. DSA admits those promises were made when they thought it was unlikely he would become mayor. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3OhUWqW4AAQtSK?format=jpg&name=large

RedState: Trouble in Lefty Paradise? Recent Mamdani Moves Might Already Be Giving His Radical Base Buyer's Remorse
https://redstate.com/beckynoble/2025/12/12/trouble-in-lefty-paradise-recent-mamdani-moves-might-already-be-giving-his-radical-base-buyers-remorse-n2197064