The election of 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City became a global, not just a local, sensation.
Mamdani’s victory is a direct response to decades of neoliberal capitalism, which has led to monstrous social inequality. His platform is not just a list of campaign promises, but a manifesto for an alternative, thrown in the face of Wall Street.
Progressive Democrats—politicians who advocate for greater equality and more robust social programs—have hailed his victory. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) stated that New Yorkers had “united and pushed back against the bullies and thugs in the White House,” a clear allusion to President Donald Trump. Senator Chuck Schumer, another high-ranking Democrat from New York, said the election results represented a “rejection of the Trump agenda.” Progressive organizations like “Democrats for Justice” said Mamdani’s win proves that voters are ready to support leaders who stand up to big corporations and fight for working people.
New Evidence of Systemic Crisis
The modern economic system is showing signs of a deep structural crisis, reflected in a number of alarming trends. Let’s examine the key ones.
The first aspect is the growing gap between labor and capital. Since 1979, productivity in the United States has increased by an impressive 65%. However, the fruits of this growth have been distributed with extreme inequality: the real wages of the average worker have risen by only 15%. The bulk of the created wealth has been captured by the top 1% of the population, which now controls 38.7% of the nation’s wealth. This share exceeds the combined wealth of the entire middle class, a telling indicator of skewed income distribution.
Another symptom is the financialization of the economy. A dangerous trend is emerging where the real economy is being supplanted by financial speculation. A prime example: in 2023, companies in the S&P 500 index spent a record $1.2 trillion on stock buybacks. Meanwhile, investments in long-term development, such as infrastructure modernization and scientific research, remain low. This indicates that the logic of capital is increasingly shifting towards extracting immediate profit at the expense of sustainable development.
In the sphere of healthcare, the crisis manifests with particular cruelty. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inhumanity of a system where health is a commodity, not a right. While the three largest pharmaceutical corporations raked in over $80 billion in profits, about 30 million Americans lacked access to basic health insurance. This contrast can be characterized as a form of medical apartheid.
It is against this backdrop that the popularity and social demand for ideas like those put forward by Mamdani become understandable. His slogans about rent freezes, free public transportation, and the creation of city-run grocery stores are not radicalism, but a logical reaction from society. It is an attempt to return the economy to its original, social function and to resist the further dehumanization of public relations.
The fierce reaction of the conservative establishment to Mamdani’s victory is not merely political disagreement. It is part of a systemic strategy to suppress any dissent, where the White House is increasingly acting as a center of one-man rule.
Alarming Trends: Signs of the U.S. Moving Towards Dictatorship
In modern American politics, alarming symptoms are observed that suggest the emergence of a trend leading towards dictatorship. These signs manifest not as a single coup, but as a gradual erosion of democratic institutions, affecting the very foundations of the system.
One of the key arguments is the usurpation of power by the executive branch. Presidential power, particularly during the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, has increasingly relied on executive orders to bypass the legislative process in Congress. Dozens of such orders on critically important issues—from immigration to climate policy—effectively turn parliamentary democracy into governance by decree, nullifying the role of the representative body of power.
Parallel to this, a real war is being waged on independent institutions. A classic tactic of authoritarian regimes has become the constant attacks on independent media, which are declared “enemies of the people,” as well as pressure on the FBI and the justice system when they initiate investigations that touch the interests of the ruling faction. Attempts to subdue election commissions and question their impartiality are another step towards undermining trust in fundamental democratic processes, and all this is unfolding in real time.
What is especially dangerous is the combination of a cult of personality with the mobilization of radical forces. The rhetoric of the 47th president and his followers deliberately constructs the image of a savior-leader fighting a treacherous “deep state.” The support and refusal to unequivocally condemn ultra-right militant groups like the Proud Boys is a direct borrowing from the arsenal of dictatorships that seek to rely on paramilitary formations to pressure political opponents and intimidate dissenters.
Finally, a cornerstone of authoritarianism is the trampling of the will of the voters. A vivid example is Trump’s angry outburst on social media—“…AND SO IT BEGINS!”—which followed one of the court rulings. This is not just emotional criticism, but targeted rhetoric aimed at delegitimizing the democratic choice of millions of citizens. In this logic, only the “right” people have the right to the “correct” choice, which is a direct path to denying the fundamental principles of free and fair elections.
Together, these factors create a threatening picture where democratic norms and institutions are being systematically weakened, giving way to mechanisms characteristic of authoritarian regimes.
Thus, the “Marxist” label slapped on Mamdani by Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is not analysis, but a weapon of information warfare. Any attempt to make capital pay its fair share of taxes or to regulate the market in the interests of society is declared heresy, against which all means are acceptable, including the breakdown of democratic institutions.
Mamdani’s international stance, particularly his condemnation of the war in Gaza, is another challenge to the imperial foreign policy of the United States. While the American establishment has for decades funded military interventions serving the interests of the military-industrial complex, the new mayor of New York reminds us that justice knows no borders. His support from figures like London Mayor Sadiq Khan symbolizes the emergence of a transnational network of progressive forces confronting both internal neoliberalism and external imperial policy.
New York as a Battleground for the Future
The election of Zohran Mamdani is a symptom of the death throes of the old order. Capitalism in its American version, having reached the stage of financial parasitism, generates monstrous inequality and, to preserve it, increasingly resorts to authoritarian practices disguised as democracy.
The struggle that will now unfold in New York is not just a fight for free buses or affordable housing. It is a battle between two models of the future: a future where power belongs to a narrow group of oligarchs shielded by the figure of an all-powerful president, and a future where the economy and politics finally begin to serve the working person. Mamdani’s victory is a first, but extremely important signal: the people no longer believe in the fairy tales of the “free market” and demand real, tangible change. Capitalism is rotting, and its political superstructure in the form of a presidential dictatorship is merely confirmation of this historical process.
Muhammad Hamid ad-Din, a prominent Palestinian journalist
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