The Myth of Mamdani the Moderate

The people who described the Black Lives Matter riots as “mostly peaceful” and Joe Biden as “sharp” and “focused” are at it again. This time, they’d like you to believe that there’s a brand-new centrist Democrat in town, and that his name is. . . Zohran Mamdani.

That, at least, is the thesis of a long piece by Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic on Monday, celebrating New York’s mayor as a moderate who prioritizes pragmatic policies over the ideological fever dreams of radical progressives.

How so? Chait counts the ways: Mamdani, he writes, didn’t fire New York Police Department police commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Chait, sounding ever like the reasonable moderate, calls a “billionaire Zionist cop.” The mayor also “retreated from some of his progressive ambitions,” like free buses. And, Chait points out, rather than sinking a cool billion dollars into an “Office of Community Safety” that would replace police officers with mental health workers, Mamdani spent a mere $40 million on it.

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Chait’s list goes on, with each item pointing to the same fundamental point: The young former rapper who ran for office extolling “the warmth of collectivism” has become, after nearly a year on the job, a tempered and wise grown-up who skillfully set aside the fiery promises of the campaign trail for the less inflammatory but more essential compromises of effective government.