In the Shadow of the Long 2020

Mamdani, the end of centrism, and what Covid did to our understanding of power

How Murdoch tabloid the New York Post reacted to Mamdani’s candidacy

Zohran Mamdani is currently the darling of the more savvy media commentators and the international left, having just won the Democratic nomination to run for the mayor of New York on a promise to enact a Democratic Socialist - inspired programme of radical change.

Rather than the quality of his proposals or the novel nature of his public relations style, I wanted to take some time to point out something about him that I think others have missed, which is the role that Covid and the memory that era played in his victory. His success is emblematic of the way the reaction to that crisis has permanently - but secretly - deformed the public understanding of what politics is and can do. He may be what we will come to see as the archetypal post-Covid politician.