‘Socialists’ Have a Race Problem
Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, May 30, 2025

Credit Image: © Ron Adar/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire
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One of the frustrations of democratic politics is the return of ideas once thought discredited. It seems every generation must rediscover why certain ideas are obviously stupid. Most of these ideas grow out of the mistaken belief that the government can simply provide everyone all their material needs. One of the most stubborn bad ideas to persist is rent control.
In 2010, a black man, Jimmy McMillan, launched a quixotic campaign for governor in New York for the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. Future New York governor Andrew Cuomo agreed with Jimmy McMillan that the rent is too damn high. However, the episode was mostly a joke. It is no longer.
Andrew Cuomo evidently was unable to reduce housing costs even once he became governor. High housing costs are an important issue in the New York City mayoral election. Candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani has made it a centerpiece of his campaign. As fate would have it, he is challenging frontrunner Andrew Cuomo.
@zohran_k_mamdaniNew TV and digital ad just dropped. Freeze the rent.♬ original sound – Zohran Mamdani
Mr. Mamdani, the New York State assemblyman, is a living parody of the left-wing academic establishment. He links Black Lives Matter with the Palestinian resistance and the supposed need to defund the NYPD — the typical grab-bag of progressive causes. He was born in Uganda and named after Kwame Nkrumah. However, such Afrocentrism did not prevent Idi Amin from expelling Mr. Mamdani’s family, an experience his father recounts in the book From Citizen to Refugee.
Though the book is mostly about “Asians” who fled to the United Kingdom, the United States was unfortunate enough to host this family of “anti-colonial” activists instead. The younger Mamdani graduated with a degree in Africana Studies and has been involved in left-wing political activism ever since.

Zohran Mamdani (Credit Image: © Gina M Randazzo/ZUMA Press Wire)
Many older conservatives may think that a Muslim socialist could never become mayor of New York City, but they underestimate the consequences of the demographic and political shift that’s been taking place. The rise of Mr. Mamdani and those like him indicates a change throughout the entire Democratic Party, as white and Jewish incumbents are challenged by non-white socialists who run on a platform of economic redistribution with a nod to Palestine. The most spectacular case is that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ousted one of the Democratic Party’s longtime leaders. Even the biggest donors in the wealthiest city in the country seem unable to halt the shift.
AOC is well-placed to shape the new Democratic Party. According to a recent CNN poll, Democratic voters thought she best represented the core values of the party, even more than Kamala Harris. Political analyst Nate Silver argues that AOC may even be the next Democratic nominee for president. However, she may have more modest ambitions and could seek to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in New York. If she does, polls suggest she will easily win.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Credit Image: © Paul Kitagaki Jr./ZUMA Press Wire)
Candidates like Mr. Mamdani and Miss Ocasio-Cortez benefit from the revolution that has taken place within “mainstream” liberal institutions since 2020. Newspapers such as the New York Times suffered a staff revolt from reporters indignant that it even allowed Senator Tom Cotton to have a say in the paper. Perhaps the biggest change in American culture since the rise of Donald Trump is the loss of free speech as a unifying American value, with journalists and academics increasingly championing the idea that democracies have a responsibility to limit “misinformation” and “hate speech.” It is a view AOC herself holds, famously taunting Tucker Carlson when he lost his Fox News show that “deplatforming works and it is important.”
Far-left socialists can count on the “mainstream” press laundering their ideas and making them sound moderate, while journalists incite hysteria about the likes of Donald Trump. This gives the far-left a critical advantage. While even soft immigration critics must eternally fend off charges of fascism, reporters will frame calls for redistribution of wealth, reparations, or government control of wealth as idealistic or exciting.
Yet we should not kid ourselves that socialist ideas are unpopular. One of the uncomfortable truths Republicans prefer to ignore is that spite and envy are powerful political forces, perhaps the most powerful. Donald Trump has been able to wield scorn against the “liberal elite” to great effect, not least because his opponents played into his hands. The Democratic Party in 2024 made a critical mistake by trying to build a “respectable” coalition against Trumpism by having Kamala Harris tour with Liz Cheney and defend “Bidenomics.”
The way is open for left-wing economic populism as an alternative. For example, a rent freeze in New York City has the support of more than 75 percent of voters. Socialism itself is fairly popular in the United States, with more than a third of American adults viewing it positively. Organizations in the conservative movement that habitually label all liberal policies as “socialist” cannot effectively respond if socialism itself is rehabilitated. Trump-style populism is one way to counter this, but the Republican Party and the conservative movement has learned little from MAGA. Currently, at least some conservatives think the path forward is to shame young men for not working hard enough.
MEN IN DECLINE@TomiLahren: “Gen Z rebrands laziness as ‘stay-at-home sons’—just like they did with ‘quiet quitting.’ But let’s be honest: the real crisis is the feminization of men. Young women want families. Too many young men want DoorDash and mama’s basement.” pic.twitter.com/FvsWTPkRCq
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) May 30, 2025
Mike Johnson on Medicaid: “What we’ve talked about is returning work requirements … you return the dignity of work to young men who need to be out working instead of playing video games all day. We have a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid.” pic.twitter.com/2ZjaLrh2bg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2025
Yet if the Left has an implicit majority ready to rally behind multicultural socialism and economic populism, what has stopped it so far? The answer is black voters. Blacks dominate the Democratic primaries and serve a remarkably conservative role. Black voters stymied Bernie Sanders in his repeated runs for the Democratic presidential nomination. Black voters and political leaders made sure Joe Biden got the presidential nomination in 2020 and remained loyal to him when others began to break. Black officials in the Democratic party also made sure that a Kamala Harris coronation rather than a competitive primary would replace President Biden once Nancy Pelosi and others forced him out. They explicitly justified this on racial grounds, with white Democrats who might have been eager to challenge Kamala Harris unwilling to take on the first black female vice president.
Whatever their liberal views, blacks generally view politics in an old-fashioned, almost feudal sense. The congressional districts specially constructed for black representation by Supreme Court fiat give black politicians a secure base and encourage a small-“c” conservatism that ensures establishment support. Old-fashioned political tactics like distributing jobs, patronage, and federal contracts allow black politicians to pragmatically support establishment candidates rather than riskier progressives.
Progressives are even more wedded to left-wing racial orthodoxy than moderates, so blacks will not pay any price for such conservatism. In fact, progressives will berate themselves for being unable to secure the moral legitimacy that comes with black support. Blacks also already enjoy some of the perceived benefits of socialism that whites may not because of programs that specifically benefit their race. Making entitlements more widely available might even be worse for blacks.
This dynamic is at work in the New York Mayor’s race. A recent poll found Andrew Cuomo leads Zohran Mamdani by 35 percent to 23 percent. However, the racial divide is stark. Almost three-quarters of black voters back Mr. Cuomo, with Mr. Mamdani leading among white voters (57 percent to 43 percent) and college-educated voters (58 percent to 42 percent). Andrew Cuomo also has the lead among women voters and older voters.

Andrew Cuomo and Al Sharpton at the 2025 annual National Action Network Convention. (Credit Image: © Lev Radin/Pacific Press via ZUMA Press Wire)
While Mr. Mamdani has the support of the energized, progressive base, Mr. Cuomo has the support of those who sustain the Democratic political machines. Mayor Eric Adams, who was put into office by black voters, is also a political wildcard. He is pragmatic enough (even politically flirting with the Trump Administration) that one could easily imagine him throwing his support behind Mr. Cuomo. However, though Mr. Cuomo retains the advantage, it is clear Mr. Mamdani has the political momentum and is closing the gap.
The battle over the narrative that explains a political defeat is often just as important as the election itself. After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, Republican consultants settled on the explanation that the GOP was too hard on immigrants. Their infamous “autopsy” concluded in 2013 that the GOP should become a pro-immigration party that was soft on racial issues. Instead, Donald Trump took over the party and built a movement that successfully won more minority votes — especially Hispanics — than Mitt Romney could have dreamed of. It’s hard to imagine how dire the GOP’s plight would have been had they followed the path urged by the “political experts.”
A similar battle within the Democratic Party is taking place now. Some argue that the Democrats have become too “woke,” especially in its messaging to young men. Democrats are mobilizing at least $20 million (more money than the pro-white movement in America has ever seen) for an effort to lure young men back to the Left, especially by promoting key influencers.
Economic populism may be part of this effort. Joe Rogan, for example, was once a Bernie Bro. Yet black voters are a major obstacle to any systematic effort to reorient the Democratic Party in a more socialist direction. The last thing black officials ensconced in the party bureaucracy want is to give power to a new class of media-friendly socialist influencers who are not dependent on the party structure. There is also a major split between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel forces in the party, exemplified by the divide between figures like Chuck Schumer and AOC.
The New York mayoral race will provide a valuable insight into the Democratic primary in 2028. The Democratic establishment accepts capitalism and Zionism and is thus an easy target for younger progressives. However, the hated Establishment is also the clear choice of black voters, whom no white progressive can afford to attack directly. Leftist influencers, journalists, and podcasters have been raging against the Democratic establishment since 2016, furious that they have been unable to accomplish what Trump Republicans have within the GOP. Unfortunately for them, black voters stand in the way of their would-be socialist revolution.
If Mr. Cuomo defeats Mr. Mamdani in New York, more progressives may pursue a more radical course as they grapple with continued political failure at the hands of their supposed black allies. If Mr. Mamdani triumphs, Republicans should prepare for a more overtly socialist challenge in 2028. That may be what Republicans should truly fear. Though they’re more “radical,” economic populism and even socialism may have more appeal to economically struggling swing voters than the likes of Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris. If Republicans want to win, they should not want someone like AOC to be the face of the Democrats. They should want Jasmine Crockett instead.