Jonathan P. Baird

We have been living through a frightening and depressing time. It is like the realization of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here. In his novel, a charismatic and demagogic politician becomes President, hordes power by promising to restore American greatness and systematically dismantles democratic institutions. The resemblances to our time are uncanny.

Trump 2.0 is the American version of fascism. With Congress neutered and reduced to a nonentity and with the Supreme Court almost a rubber stamp, power has been flowing to our wannabe monarch. All the Trump promises to help working people deal with the cost of living have evaporated as he shows himself to be a benefactor to the billionaire class, only.

Trump has shown it can happen here which is why the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City is so momentous. Mamdani has provided a roadmap not just for winning elections but for defeating fascism. He did this at a time that the popularity of the Democratic Party has been at all all-time low.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this summer showed nearly two-thirds of Democratic Party voters believed “the leadership of the Democratic Party should be replaced with new people”. The overall favorability of the Democrats in September was 37%, not a better number than Republicans’ favorability.

Many Democrats have been disgusted by the weak fightback elected Democrats have displayed to MAGA fascism. It doesn’t matter how awful and extreme Trump is. The Democratic leaders like Schumer and Jeffries say almost nothing memorable in response. They play dead and exhibit de facto capitulation.

Building a mass movement to oppose fascism is essential but the Democrats have been tangential to the massive No Kings demonstrations, including the October 18 protest. They roll over when bullied as exemplified by the cave-in of the moderate Democratic senators who folded on the government shutdown. They let down over 20 million people who will now face skyrocketing premiums making health care unaffordable.

About the Democrats, I am reminded of the line from the Bob Dylan song: “Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, Do you, Mr. Jones”.

Mamdani bucked the unfavorability trend by running with an unshakable focus on the issues of affordability. He ran on stabilizing out-of-control rents, free public buses, lowering child care costs, creating city-owned grocery stores, raising the corporate tax rate and imposing a millionaire’s tax. Mamdani’s message was pure economic populism, directed at helping working people and he delivered the message brilliantly and creatively, especially on social media.

Mamdani won because he excited people and he gave simple, clear and persuasive reasons to vote for his candidacy. Young people who normally ignore elections came out to vote for him in droves. He appealed by taking a bold anti-establishment stance as a democratic socialist.

This message, also championed by Bernie Sanders and AOC, flies in the face of the Democratic Party leaders who offer no message besides opposing Trump. It is hard to inspire voting when your message is mush.

To oppose fascism requires a vision of an alternative society that puts people before profit. Working people are getting slammed now by the cost of living whether it is housing, health care or food. Democrats can win back many working class voters they have lost by addressing basic economic needs. There is no magic to this but Democrats must be unafraid to criticize the billionaire class that is hogging wealth.

In 1936, about the business and financial monopolies, Franklin D. Roosevelt said,” They are unanimous in their hate of me – and I welcome their hatred”. Democrats need that spirit.

Elections now are not just about winning. They are about how we can fight burgeoning fascism and gross income inequality. I think Mamdani’s vision of democracy and socialism provide such an alternative.

Billionaires spent millions slandering and misrepresenting Mamdani in attack ads but it didn’t work. The race was the highest turnout in a mayoral election in over 60 years. The Mamdani campaign had a network of 100,000 grassroots organizers, canvassing for him to turn out the vote.

The Mamdani example could be replicated. There are many moderate Democrats saying this could only happen in New York City and they could not be more wrong. The issues around affordability are universal. Democrats can win elsewhere by translating the message in ways that speak to specific localities.

Centrist Democrats argue that they can win moderate Republican voters in the suburbs by moving to the center. Invariably that means watering down any strong message. The centrist Democrats want candidates who will avoid confrontation with wealthy donors who bankroll them. They minimize the threat of fascism and act like we are in a normal election cycle. Many of us wonder if there will be any elections or any fair elections in 2026 and 2028 because of the fascism.

Trump can say we are living in a golden age but prices don’t lie. I am surprised people are not having heart attacks at check out counters.

The great secret of our world is that it is working people, not billionaires, who make history. Working people usually get screwed by the nobles, blue-bloods and Elon Musks of this world but as the Mamdani campaign illustrates that is not an inevitability. 45 years ago, the labor organizer John McDermott wrote this about the American working class:

“Our class is a very young class, going back only 200 years or so. As every conservative knows, it is the rowdiest, least governable, most idealistic, ornery, noisy, inventive, and disputatious class of people who’ve ever come over the horizon of history.”

The Mamdani win shows American workers want no part of fascist authoritarianism or an economy that serves only the 1%. The challenge for Democrats is to learn from this example.