How did the US become a nation that Is embracing fascism?

Nine months into Trump’s second presidential term fascism is no longer an imagined threat, it is real and it poses a legitimate threat to American democracy. 

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

On November 4, 2025, America delivered a thunderous rebuke to Donald Trump’s second presidency. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani—a 34-year-old Ugandan-born, South Asian, Muslim democratic socialist—shattered a political dynasty by defeating former governor and primary challenger Andrew Cuomo to become the city’s first Muslim mayor. Across the Hudson River, New Jersey voters elected Democratic Congressional Representative Mikie Sherrill governor by a double-digit margin, extending Democratic control of the governor’s mansion for an unprecedented third consecutive term. In Virginia, former Representative Abigail Spanberger became the state’s first female governor, while state Senator Ghazala Hashmi won the lieutenant governor’s race, becoming the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office anywhere in the United States.

These were not routine off-year elections. They were political earthquakes. Turnout in New York City shattered records not seen since 1969, with more than two million ballots cast. The common denominator in every decisive victory was American president Donald Trump—though his name appeared on no ballot. Voters, especially in diverse urban and suburban strongholds, sent an unmistakable message—we reject the cruelty, the racism, and the authoritarian drift that has defined his second term.

Yet the question remains, searing and urgent. How did the United States—a nation that once styled itself as a “beacon of democracy”—become a country that is now embracing fascism, an ideology that more than 400,000 American military personnel died fighting in World War Two? The answer is not a mystery. It is the oldest story that the US has never told with honesty. The most powerful nation in the history of the world was not founded on freedom. It was founded on stolen land, cleared by indigenous genocide, and built by African slaves, who were broken by force. Everything else is decoration.

Let’s start at the beginning. Long before the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America, European settlers embraced the doctrine that the indigenous people of what became the United State were an inferior race. “Our nation was born in genocide,” Martin Luther King Jr. observed in 1963, “when it embraced the doctrine that the Indian . . . was an inferior race.” The Declaration of Independence itself denounces “the merciless Indian Savages,” codifying racial hierarchy in the nation’s founding text. Settlers did not merely conquer Native Americans as they expanded into the interior of the continent, they exterminated them with the help of the US government. By 1900, the pre-Columbian Indigenous population in the contiguous US had plummeted by 96%, from millions to fewer than 250,000. The survivors were herded onto reservations—America’s first concentration camps—with their movements and every aspect of their lives controlled by the government.

Slavery followed the same logic. The US Constitution’s three-fifths clause, its fugitive slave provision, and its extension of the slave trade enshrined white supremacy into the nation’s legal DNA. When the Confederacy lost the Civil War, no one thought that it would win the peace. Reconstruction’s promise of multiracial democracy was drowned in blood with 2,000 Black people lynched in the decade after the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox. Black Codes morphed into Jim Crow laws, and the Supreme Court blessed the concept of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson.

The monuments to the Civil War and Confederate generals told the story. They were not erected in the years immediately after 1865 to mourn the fallen. They rose in the first two decades of the 20th Century and then again, in subsequent decades and between 1954 and 1968, precisely when the white supremacist elites and the racist infrastructure they had built felt threatened. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected more than 400 statues, each one a warning that Black advancement in the US will be met with terror. When Brown v. Board of Education struck down school segregation in 1954, legislatures in the US south answered with massive resistance and a fresh wave of Confederate memorials. The message was the same—this is white man’s country and Black Americans shouldn’t expect to be part of top tiers of society or expect to achieve the “American dream.”

The truth is that the racist foundation of American society never crumbled after the Civil War. They remained intact and those who benefitted from it adapted. The racists became sheriffs, mayors, governors and senators, and the logic of white supremacy changed shape but never lost its grip. Mass incarceration of Blacks replaced slavery on plantations. The war on drugs replaced the Ku Klux Klan’s targeting of Black people. And economic policies and local ordinances that kept Black Americans from achieving their full potential, replaced Jim Crow laws. The result has been that by 2025, the United States imprisons more people than any nation in history, who are disproportionately Black and racialized.

Enter Donald Trump into the political arena in 2015. He did not invent American fascism or racism, but he did use the foundations that had been laid by others to advance his agenda. And he was unapologetic about saying the unspeakable out loud. When he began his presidential campaign he called Mexican immigrants “rapists”. In 2017 he equated neo-Nazis with counter-protesters, saying there were “good people” on both sides during the white supremacist Charlottesville protests. In 2024 he vowed “retribution” against political enemies if he became president, even suggesting he would use the military. His former chief of staff, John Kelly—a former Marine four-star general—called out Trump’s policies as fascist during the 2024 presidential campaign, saying that he would rule like a fascist if re-elected. Thirteen other former Trump officials signed an open letter backing Kelley’s criticism of Trump.

Nine months into Trump’s second presidential term fascism is no longer an imagined threat, it is real and it poses a legitimate threat to American democracy. In his first 100 days, Trump invoked emergency powers to impose tariffs on every nation on earth, citing “fentanyl” and “trade deficits” as pretexts. Average taxes on imports soared to 18 percent—higher than any time since the Great Depression. Car prices jumped $4,700 overnight; grocery staples followed. Economists warned of a “fiscal folly” that would shrink GDP by 1.3 percent and cost the average American household $1,200 annually. Yet the administration celebrates the billions flowing into federal coffers, money that will likely be used to fund suppression of constitutional rights and civil liberties.

Speaking of suppression, it’s already spreading across the US in the form of crackdowns on illegal immigrants and anti-genocide protesters. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have become Trump’s Gestapo, disappearing hundreds of undocumented immigrants and legal protesters, sending some to a jungle jail in El Salvador, while threatening to deport others for their Palestinian activism to nations like Rwanda. Trump has also threatened to strip birthright citizenship by fiat and has declared transgender identities “invalid.” Additionally, billions in federal funding has been withheld from universities that refuse to purge diversity, equity and inclusion programs from their curriculum, and banned-word lists have circulated in government agencies, with threats of firing if they are included in government websites and documents. The Justice Department has also deployed election monitors to Democratic Party strongholds, citing unproven election fraud.

This is textbook fascism. A cult of the leader, a mythology of national humiliation, a promise of rebirth through violence and purity. Trump’s rhetoric—threats to annex Canada, seize Greenland, retake the Panama Canal, suspend the Constitution—echoes Benito Mussolini’s imperial fantasies. Trump’s allies speak openly of a third presidential term in violation of the 22nd amendment, martial law, and the suspension of elections. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump’s favour that presidents enjoy broad criminal immunity for actions taken in office, has emboldened him further.

Yet Tuesday’s elections prove the rot is not total. In city halls and statehouses, the victories show that a multiracial, multi-faith coalition of people from all socio-economic backgrounds can push back against fascist elements in the US. Mamdani quoted American socialist Eugene Debs in his victory speech. Spanberger pledged to shield Virginia from federal overreach. Sherrill vowed to “solve problems, not manage them.” While Hashmi promised leadership that “lifts people up.”

These victories are not the end, they are the beginning of new movement, because fascism advances when good people normalize the unthinkable. Germany did not fall to the Nazis in a single night. It fell in a thousand small surrenders over a period of years, and the US stands at the same precipice now. To prevent what happened to German from taking hold in the US, Americans must follow Germany’s post-World War Two example. It must enshrine in public memory the racist and genocidal history of the US, and implement laws that make it unrepeatable. It must criminalize racist and fascist symbols like the Confederate flag, which must be banned from public spaces. The true history of American history must be taught in every classroom. In addition, the debt owed to Indigenous nations and descendants of the enslaved must be paid, because reparations are key to healing the national soul.

The voters in the 2025 off-year election have shown the path. They looked into the abyss and said, “Not here. Not now. Not ever.” The question is whether a majority of Americans are willing to follow, or whether they will let the euphoria of a decisive victory fade and then go back to business as usual. American must realize that they are running out of time as the fascist menace grows, but Tuesday proved that change is possible.

The future of the US is in the hands of those who are willing to do as Mamdani and his followers did, and push back against the establishment. They have already told them their time is over, and it’s time for a new generation of progressives and social democrats to lead the way. If America is to be saved from those who have brought the country to the precipice those who rallied to support progressive and left wing candidates like Mamdani need to organize and launch a national movement led by people like the new mayor of New York City and others who share his vision of what could be achieved if they commit to political change.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Zohran Mamdani’s message to Muslim New Yorkers

“Growing up in the shadow of 9-11, I have known what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion. I will always remember the disdain I faced . . .”  

  

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

It is a little over a week until voting day in the New York City mayoral election, and if polling is accurate Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim to run for mayor, will be the victor when polls close on November 4th.

As a Muslim, Mamdani has faced an unprecedented level of hate, racism, bigotry and character assassination from those aligned with his main opponent—disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo—and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa (incumbent mayor Eric Adams has dropped out of the race).

During the campaign his opponents, their allies, and their billionaire backers, have directed an unprecedented tirade of hate, slurs and character assassination towards Mamdani, in a campaign that will be one for the history books. Cuomo’s billionaire allies have pumped well over $22 million into anti-Mamdani ads filled with lies and slurs centred on his Muslim faith, accusing him of being a terrorist sympathizer.

In a strong video message posted to social media on October 25th, in response to the litany of hate that has been directed at him because of his faith, as well as the hate the New York City’s Muslims have faced for a quarter century, Mamdani said that for more than one million Muslim New Yorkers, dignity remains conditional and acceptance still comes with pressure to mute their identity. Mamdani anchored his appeal in lived experience, including the story of his aunt who stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she feared being targeted for wearing her hijab. He said Muslims were taught to remain quiet and grateful for whatever limited space they were allowed, even as they faced suspicion and humiliation.

The statement was measured, sincere and strong, and talked more about the place of Muslims in New York City rather than himself. It was a dignified response to a very undignified campaign against him, and by extension, all Muslim in the Big Apple.

Polls are saying that Mamdani is poised to become the first Muslim mayor of New York City. Millions in New York City will be watching on election night, as will millions across North America. Mamdani not only represents hope for the people he wants to represent, but also for those who see in Mamdani a political icon and hero who has overcome huge odds to stand on the cusp of victory.

To those who see Mamdani as a hero, his victory will be the start of something amazing if he is allowed to govern without interference, and serve the people of New York City. For those who have used every dirty trick in the book to try and defeat him, his victory will mean an end to decades of the city run by elites for elites and billionaires.

The full text of the statement can be found below and the video can be found here.

*************

Statement by Zohran Mamdani delivered on October 25, 2025

Six years ago, shortly after I announced I was running for assembly, a well-meaning Muslim uncle pulled me aside. He smiled softly and looked at me with care. In a quiet voice he told me I did not have to tell people I was Muslim.

His eyes kind, his beard proud, and his face heavy with the implication of the unsaid. I had not learned the lesson that he had been taught, time and again. It is the lesson that safety could only be found in the shadows of our city.

That it is in those shadows alone where Muslims could embrace the fullness of our own identities. And that if we are to emerge from them, then it is in those shadows where we must leave our faith. These are lessons that so many Muslim New Yorkers have been taught, again and again.

And over these last few days, these are the lessons that have become the closing message of Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and Eric Adams. Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed when a radio show host said that I would cheer another 9-11. Yesterday, Eric Adams said that we can’t let our city become Europe.

He compared me to violent extremists and he lied when he said that our movement seeks to burn churches and destroy communities. The day before that, Curtis Sliwa slandered me from a debate stage when he claimed that I supported global jihad. And every day, Super PAC ads imply that I am a terrorist or mock the way I eat, push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether they support invented proposals to make halal mandatory, or political cartoons that represent my candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center.

But I do not want to use this moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of the city. I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.

I want to speak to the Muslim city worker, whether they teach in our schools or walk the beat for the NYPD. New Yorkers who all make daily sacrifices on behalf of the city only to see their leaders spit in their face. I want to speak to every child who grows up in New York marked as the other, who is randomly selected in a way that rarely feels random, who feels that they carry a stain that can never quite be cleaned.

Growing up in the shadow of 9-11, I have known what it means to live with an undercurrent of suspicion. I will always remember the disdain I faced, the way my name could immediately become Mohammed, and how I could return to my city only to be asked in a double mirrored room at the airport if I had any plan of attacking it. And since I was very young, I have known that I was spared the worst of it.

I was never pressured to be an informant like a classmate of mine. I’ve never had the word terrorist spray-painted on my garage as one of my staff had to endure. My mosque has never been set on fire.

To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity, but indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.

Since I announced my candidacy for mayor one year ago yesterday, I’ve sought to be the candidate fighting for everyday New Yorkers, not simply the Muslim candidate. I’ve carried these indignities with me each moment of this race, doing so all the while as the first major Muslim candidate for mayor in New York City history. I thought that if I could build a campaign of universality, I could define myself as the leader I aspire to be, one representing every New Yorker no matter their skin color or religion.

I thought if I worked hard enough, it would allow me to be that leader. And I thought that if I behaved well enough or bit my tongue enough in the face of racist baseless attacks while returning back to my central message, it would allow me to be more than just my faith. I was wrong.

No amount of redirection is ever enough. In doing this, I have told the wide-eyed young boy in Jackson Heights or the first-time voter in Parkchester that they too should remain in the shadows. I am becoming that same uncle who took me aside.

No more. The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as any other New Yorker. And yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive.

No more. For as long as we have lived, we have known that no matter what anyone says, there are still certain forms of hate acceptable in this city today. Islamophobia is not seen as inexcusable.

One can incite violence against our mosques and know that condemnation will never come. Elected officials in this city can sell t-shirts calling for my deportation without fear of any accountability. The consequences are stark.

More than one million Muslim New Yorkers exist in this city only to be made to feel as if guests in our own home. No more. We stand on the precipice of an election, but that is not what today is about.

We know that in less than two weeks we will say goodbye to a disgraced former governor and our current indicted mayor. The bigger question is whether we are willing to say goodbye to something much larger. It is whether we are willing to say goodbye to anti-Muslim sentiment that has grown so endemic in our city that when we hear it, we know not whether the words were said by a Republican or by a Democrat.

We know only that it was spoken in the language of the politics of this city. In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement. And while I appreciate all who have rushed to my defense over the past two days, I think of those Muslims in this city who do not have the luxury of being the Democratic nominee. Who do not have the luxury of being deemed worthy of solidarity.

While my opponents in this race have brought this hatred to the forefront, this is just a glimpse into what so many Muslims have had to endure every day across the five boroughs that we call home. And while it would be easy to say that this is not who we are as a city, we know the truth.

This is who we have allowed ourselves to become. A question lies before each of us. Will we continue to accept a narrow definition of what it means to be a New Yorker that makes smaller the number of those guaranteed a life of dignity? Will we remain in the shadows? Or will we together step into the light? There are 11 days remaining until election day.

I will be a Muslim man in New York City each of those 11 days and every day that follows after that. I will not change who I am. I will not change how I eat.

I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to. But there is one thing I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows.

I will find myself in the light. Thank you.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Who is Zohran Mamdani? A primer on the man creating a political earthquake in New York and beyond

What Mamdani has created isn't just a campaign team but a movement unseen in the city in generations.  He is charismatic, straightforward, funny, sincere, and can connect with voters on the issues. 

By Fareed Khan

A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As a Canadian, you may not have heard of Zohran Mamdani. If not here is a little primer on the man who could be New York City's first Muslim mayor on November 20th, and the political star of his generation.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the Democratic Party candidate for mayor of New York City, at just 33 years old, represents the fresh, unapologetic energy that New York City desperately needs—a city buckling under skyrocketing costs, growing inequality, and a political establishment that has long favoured the interests of billionaires over those of everyday people.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, to an Indian family with deep roots in scholarship and filmmaking, Mamdani embodies the immigrant dream that has always defined New York. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a noted academic of Gujarati Muslim descent, born in Mumbai, India and raised in Uganda. While his mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker of movies such as Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding, and hails from a Punjabi Hindu background in Odisha, India. This interfaith heritage, blending Muslim, Hindu, and African influences, has instilled in Mamdani a profound ability to bridge divides and connect with diverse communities.

Moving to New York at age seven after a brief stint in South Africa, Mamdani grew up in the city's public school system, graduating from the Bronx High School of Science and earned a degree in African Studies from Bowdoin College. His Iranian origins through his father's Muslim heritage—tied to the broader South Asian diaspora that includes Persian influences—further enriches his perspective, allowing his campaign style to resonate with immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond who are part of New York's vibrant cultural mosaic. As the first Muslim candidate to win a major party's nomination for mayor in the city's history, Mamdani's rise is not just personal triumph but a beacon for Muslims, immigrants, visible minorities, and all marginalized groups who see in him a leader who understands their struggles intimately.

What sets Mamdani apart from other politicians is his focussed vision to make New York City affordable again, particularly for the working class that has been crushed by decades of neglect. Running under the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) banner while securing the Democratic primary nomination, he has pledged to raise the city's minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. This is a bold move to ensure working New Yorkers can live with dignity rather than scraping by. He wants to freeze rents on all rent stabilized units in the city, preventing the displacement of families in a city where nearly a quarter of residents in his assembly district spend half their income on housing. In addition, he is proposing free city buses to ease the commute for millions reliant on public transit, provide universal childcare allowing parents to work without fear of bankruptcy, and even city-run grocery stores in each borough to combat "halalflation" and food deserts that prey on low-income neighborhoods.

These aren't pie-in-the-sky ideas but ones that are rooted in Mamdani's legislative record as a member of the New York state assembly, where he secured over $100 million for increased subway service, a fare-free bus pilot program, and participated in a hunger-strike alongside taxi drivers to win $450 million in debt relief for taxi owners. He plans to fund his programs through progressive taxation—hiking corporate taxes to 11.5% to match New Jersey's, adding a 2% income tax on millionaires to generate $20 billion for tuition-free attendance at the City University of New York and State University of New York, and shifting property taxes from overtaxed outer-borough homeowners to luxury homes in wealthier areas.

For the working class, this will mean real relief—200,000 new affordable, union-built homes over 10 years, fully funded public schools with green retrofits to combat climate change, and a Department of Community Safety that invests in violence prevention without gutting the NYPD. Despite what his detractors claim, Mamdani's platform isn't about handouts, it's about reclaiming a city for its people, echoing the legacy of the city's public housing pioneers while addressing modern crises like the housing shortage that has left 400,000 New York Cith Housing Authority tenants in disrepair.

In a broader sense, Mamdani's policies speak directly to the bread-and-butter issues that working and middle-class families face every day—childcare, and rents that drain pocketbooks and force people to make tough choices between essentials. As a Canadian, we might recognize these struggles all too well—the squeeze on affordability in cities like Toronto or Vancouver, where housing prices have soared beyond the reach of many and investment in public transit has failed to keep up with population growth.

Whether it's in the US or Canada, politicians hoping to lead cities, provinces/states, or the country should look to Mamdani as an example of how politics should be done. When one compares Canadian leaders to Mamdani the vast majority of our leaders fall short. We deserve politicians like Mamdani, who has prioritized these pocketbook concerns over corporate interests in his campaign, and promises to deliver tangible relief through a bold, people-first agenda.

For the last two generations Canada has been devoid of mayors, premiers, or prime ministers who can connect with average voters in the way Mamdani can, and who seem sincere about addressing their issues. The only exception might be Calgary’s former mayor Naheed Nenshi, who came out of nowhere to defeat a sitting councillor and held the post for a decade. However, what we see in the approach of Canadian politicians generally is not surprising given how many of them prioritize trade deals over affordable housing, or elite tax cuts over programs that benefit the vast majority. Mamdani shows that sincerity in action, proving that a leader can galvanize change by focusing on what truly matters to the working class, the people who make society function.

Mamdani's ability to galvanize broad support across the boroughs of New York City is historic, drawing crowds and volunteers in numbers unseen in many election cycles. His primary election victory on June 24, 2025, saw him defeat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo 56% to 44% in ranked-choice voting, despite Cuomo's $35 million war chest and backing from moneyed elites and New York City billionaires. It was a stunning upset fuelled by over 50,000 volunteers knocking on a million doors and 20,000 small donors, the most since 2001. Polls now show him leading the general election field with 43%-46% support against Cuomo (24%-28%), Republican Curtis Sliwa (10-15%), and scandal-plagued incumbent Eric Adams (6-9%), a margin that widens among young voters and those prioritizing affordability.

What Mamdani has created isn't just a campaign team but a movement unseen in the city in generations.  His charisma, straightforwardness, humour, sincere personality, and ability to communicate clearly on the issues important to the city’s voters, has mobilized millennials, Gen Z, and working families, from viral social media videos on "halalflation" to town halls with Senator Bernie Sanders railing against the oligarchy that has controlled New York City for decades. Endorsements from unions like the New York City Central Labor Council, representing over a million workers, underscore his appeal to organized labour, promising a "100% union city" where economic growth benefits everyone. In a city weary of recycled and bought politicians, Mamdani's grassroots surge—flipping even Trump-voting neighbourhoods—signals a rejection of the status quo, much like Fiorello La Guardia's progressive era but updated for today's crises.

Charismatic politicians like Mamdani who can connect with voters only come along once in a generation. His ability to inspire, to turn frustration into action, and to connect on a human level hasn't been seen in New York for decades. He's not just running on policy, he's building a coalition that has drawn in young people, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBTQ2 community, working families and others who feel ignored by the establishment that has run New York City for decades. In an era of deep political cynicism this generational appeal is what makes his candidacy so electric.  His campaign has reminded voters that leadership can be both visionary and relatable, a rare blend that could redefine urban governance, as others look at his campaign as a case study on how to connect with disaffected voters who feel they have no real voice in a political system that is broken.

Yet, this historic candidacy hasn't come without fierce opposition. Mamdani's detractors—led by Cuomo, Adams, and billionaire-backed super PACs—have unleashed a barrage of smear campaigns, designed to tarnish his reputation and stoke fear. President Trump labeled him a "100% communist lunatic," while right-wing figures called for his deportation and denaturalization, falsely claiming he's not a true citizen despite being naturalized in 2018. Islamophobic attacks against him have flooded social media, with doctored images exaggerating his beard and skin tone to portray him as a "terrorist," and mailers accusing him of participating in "global jihad" or ties to Hamas—claims debunked as baseless yet amplified by outlets like the New York Post and even some Democrats like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Critics dredge up his past DSA affiliations to paint him as anti-police, citing 2020 calls to "defund the NYPD" (which he now clarifies as reallocating funds for community safety, not cuts) and support for decriminalizing sex work.

Pro-Israel groups like the Anti-Defamation League have twisted his criticism of Israel's criminal actions in Gaza—calling it apartheid and genocide—into accusations of antisemitism, despite his endorsements from Jewish leaders like Comptroller Brad Lander and rabbis from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), who praise his commitment to fighting hate crimes against all communities. These attacks, often laced with racist tropes about the "cheerful brown man" threatening the establishment, reveal more about the fear of change than any real threat from Mamdani, who has consistently affirmed Israel's right to exist as a secular state with equal rights for all. Even within his party, figures like New York governor Kathy Hochul withheld endorsements until recently, pressured by billionaire donors panicking over his tax plans. But New Yorkers have seen through the noise. Polls show 37% believe a socialist mayor would be good for the city, rejecting the fear mongering.

Mamdani's Iranian-influenced roots and multicultural upbringing give him unparalleled ability to connect with minority communities, including immigrants, Blacks, Jews and LGBTQ2 individuals, fostering unity in a divided city. As a Muslim, he has galvanized immigrant and Muslim voters by pledging legal representation for all in detention and enforcing sanctuary city laws, drawing massive turnout from South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African neighbourhoods. His cross-endorsement with Jewish Comptroller Brad Lander—urging voters to rank each other second—built a powerful Jewish-Muslim alliance, with Mamdani winning significant Jewish support (polling second among Jewish voters) through commitments to combat antisemitism and fund hate crime prevention. An endorsement by 38 Rabbis and JFREJ members, hailing him as a "Jewish act" of justice, embraced his plans to protect synagogues and promote interfaith dialogue.

For LGBTQ2 communities, Mamdani proposes making NYC a full sanctuary city with an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, funding gender-affirming care, and addressing homelessness tied to identity—policies that align with his universal affordability agenda, ensuring no one is left behind. Even conservative mosques have warmed to him for his economic focus, overlooking differences on issues like marijuana legalization because his vision unites working people across socio-economic lines. This broad coalition—from Black voters in Harlem to Asian communities in Chinatown—has propelled his campaign, proving that Mamdani's empathy transcends labels. His support among Jewish voters, for instance, stands at a 17-point lead over his opponents in recent polls, a testament to his genuine outreach and rejection of divisive smears.

If Mamdani wins in November, as current polling indicates, his victory won't just be a win for New Yorkers, it will be a seismic shift for immigrants, Muslims, and all who identify with his story of resilience and inclusion across the US and beyond. In a city where one in three residents is foreign-born, his pledge to fight Trump's deportation machine and expand immigrant services will aim to provide hope to millions facing ICE raids and family separations. For Muslims, long sidelined by post-9/11 suspicion, a Mamdani mayoralty would signal that their voices matter, countering rampant Islamophobia with policies that protect mosques and promote cultural equity. New York’s Jews—the largest Jewish diaspora community outside Israel—are realizing that he is an ally against rising hate, as evidenced by his alliances and plans to boost funding for all faith-based security initiatives. Members of New York’s LGBTQ2 community, from Pride marchers to Trans youth, will benefit from his sanctuary city expansions and anti-discrimination blueprint, making the city a true haven for diverse communities. And for working-class minorities across the board—Black, Latino, Asian, etc.—his affordability initiatives will mean homes they can afford, jobs with living wages, and a government that finally prioritizes people over the interests of the city's rich. A Mamdani win would echo globally, the way Sadiq Khan's victory in London did, inspiring marginalized communities from Toronto to Kuala Lumpur. It would signal that bold, inclusive leadership can triumph over entrenched power.

For Canadians, who are watching the race in New York closely, it's a reminder that the fight for equity transcends borders.  Mamdani's model of addressing pocketbook issues with sincerity could inspire some Canadian politicians to reinvigorate our own politics, where leaders have too often failed to connect with the average voter on the things that matter most.

Mamdani's candidacy is historic because it challenges the very foundations of American urban politics.  A socialist, Muslim, immigrant son rising against billionaire-backed political machines in the world's financial capital. Despite attacks and smears from Trump, Cuomo, and their allies—accusations of communism, antisemitism, and extremism that have only backfired, as New Yorkers rally to his side—he has proven that authenticity and vision win out. With endorsements pouring in, from Gov. Kathy Hochul to unions and progressives, his path to victory is slowly being cleared of hurdles.

Come election night in November, Mamdani could usher in a new political era in New York and be a shining example of how to overcome cynicism in politics, and do things in a way that brings those who haven't seen their interests represented in politics into an expanding tent.  A Mamdani victory would open the doors on a city where the working class, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ2 folks, and all minorities stand taller, because they would have a vested interest in his success as mayor. In all of this observers outside New York should understand that Mamdani’s campaign is not just a race to be mayor, it's a revolution for inclusion and dignity for the vast majority whose interests are too often overlooked by political elites. 

Canadian politicians should watch closely should Mamdani make history, and adopt his strategies on creating winning campaigns that make voters want to vote for someone rather than against candidates who are seen as the greater "evil".  His political star is just beginning to rise, and as a possible future mayor he would be a prime example and object lesson on what a good politician should be. In an age where we see very few candidates like Zohran Mamdani, his example urges us all to demand more of our political leaders, and demand that they follow the example of someone who seems to truly care about the bottom 95% of voters who comprise the working and middle class.  It’s time for all of us to demand that people who run for public office exude sincerity and follow through on their promises, something we've been missing for far too long, but something we all deserve.

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.