Zohran Mamdani’s lessons for a democratic future

Zohran Kwame Mamdani has brilliantly won the mayoral elections in New York. That is a tour de force. And not only because, just a year ago, he was a noble unknown to most New Yorkers. It’s a remarkable victory because, on paper, he did not have the best profile to win in the American capital of capitalism. And that’s an understatement. Not only is he a self-declared democratic socialist, he is also a migrant and a Muslim. All three of them, seen from dominant ideology, position him as an outsider at best, a danger in worst case.