Copyright thestar
THE recent election results in America give some hints as to the direction democracy may be headed. Of course, everyone is talking about Zohran Mamdani. We’ll start there, and then briefly examine California’s Proposition 50. Many will understandably be talking about Mamdani’s identity, his youth, and his exciting campaign. I wanted to examine what his victory implies with regards to big money and Zionism in politics, and what the trends are worldwide with regards to political ideology. Mamdani represented himself as a clean break from the establishment – which of course was fun to watch. One of my favourite things about him is how decisively and boldly he broke away from Zionist influence. It is becoming vastly clear that Zionist influence in American politics has reached levels of blatantness that bends reality and any notion of rationality and normal human compassion. This influence has traditionally crushed and silenced any American politician who dares to speak up against the unceasing brutal violence and genocide perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians – exposing a moral rot so thorough it turns the stomach. The Zionist attempt to influence and control every echelon of American politics, both Republican and Democrat has been unrelenting and virulent. In a memorable scene from the very first mayoral debate back in June 2025 as part of the Democratic primary, all nine candidates featured then were asked where they would make their first foreign visit to; four of the five answered Israel. When it came to Mamdani, he answered that instead of going on a foreign visit, he would focus on staying in New York City – a completely neutral answer. In a strange and telling follow up question (which no other candidate received), one of the moderators in that debate then immediately asked him whether he would visit Israel, and kept pressing him on his position on Israel. The way the original question was asked would lead the more conspiracy theory inclined among us to feel like it was planted as some kind of Zionist test. The way that moderator randomly jumped in and pressed Mamdani (and no one else) on whether he would visit Israel, and recognise its right to exist, would I feel be persuasive even to those of us not inclined to conspiracy theories. Watching Mamdani boldly stand up and refuse to be cowed and dance to this Zionist tune, in such stark contrast to the other candidates who were all too happy to suck up to Israel, was deeply refreshing - and now, five months later, also deeply vindicating. In this regard, perhaps one of the sweeter aspects of Mamdani’s victory is to send a clear and strong signal to the rest of America not only that Zionists should be resisted as a matter of principle, but that it is an electorally winning strategy to do so. There have already been other smaller signs that American politicians are finally coming around to the fact that taking Zionist money may be more of an electoral liability than an electoral asset, as politicians here and there start politely declining AIPAC contributions. If those were little drips from the tap, let’s hope that Mamdani’s landslide win in a city with a relatively high Jewish population opens the floodgates. Mamdani also faced down a high number of billionaires who backed his opponents, showing us once again that money alone may not sway an election. On the flip side of that divide, we can even recall how Kamala Harris outraised Donald Trump by a considerable margin in 2024. While that shows encouraging data that there are ways to defeat big money, the last thing it should imply is that it is ok to let down our guard when it comes to the ways in which big money is trying to influence democracy. It’s difficult to be complacent on this front when we still have Zionist billionaires like Larry Ellison working to buy TikTok, a platform that likely contributed to Mamdani’s win, this time around. Without vigilance and activism, such buyovers may eventually lead to complete and total dominance of every media space and platform. There was also recent news that Youtube removed over 700 videos related to Israeli human rights violations. The lust of the rich and powerful to completely control all kinds of media, and attempt to distort reality to an unimaginable degree continues unabated. Should they continue to succeed, victories like Mamdani’s may become a thing of the past. Mamdani also appears to be yet another nail in the coffin of establishment politics. Openly campaigning as a socialist, a word that could have been a political death sentence not so very long ago, Mamdani has proven that bold ideology is far more attractive that feeble centrism. The other living proof of this is of course Donald Trump, and the manner in which he has in barely over a decade completely redefined the Republican party - turning it into a vehicle of extremism that would be unrecognisable to the types of Ronald Reagan or even George Bush. I believe this is a trend that is being seen in much more than just one place. A recent poll in Britain showed that the far left Green Party is now polling higher than the Labour Party; with the Reform Party polling even further ahead of the Tories. At this rate, by the next election, we can expect British politics to be almost unrecognisable from what it was for most of Britain’s existence, with its traditional two-party system being completely upended in favour of parties that insist on going further and harder away from the centre. Labour (especially under shameless and impotent Zionist Keir Starmer), the Tories, and the old school Republicans have all essentially been run out of town by people who are sick and tired of the rot inherent to establishment politics. Such establishment politics have helped a select few grow fat and contented with the old ways, enslaved to personal profiteering and wining and dining in the state room while the rest of the ship sinks below the waves. It is only a matter of time before the Democrats in America suffer the same fate, as suggested by Mamdani’s meteoric rise. Harris refused to come out strongly against Israel, and in sticking closely to establishment politics, failed to inspire and/or instigate the masses the way Trump and Mamdani do. Of course, there is a question of whether Mamdani will eventually upend establishment politics, or whether he will be consumed by it, suffering fates similar to that say of Barack Obama - someone who was good in many ways, but not someone who made as much change as he could have. One good first step is the announcement of Lina Khan, as part of Mamdani’s transition team. The young former chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission has a reputation for being a fearless and ardent crusader, representing the interests of ordinary citizens against mega corporations. At the end of the day, we will have to see whether Mamdani will, like so many others before him, ultimately be pulled into the centres of gravity that are establishment politics and be bent by them; or whether he really can be at the epicentre of a genuinely new way of doing things. Let’s look at another battlefront in democratic systems - how we draw the borders of our electoral districts. California’s Proposition 50, which was just passed, essentially allows California to engage in what is basically gerrymandering to ensure more Democratic seats in the House of Representatives. This move was a seen as a ‘proportional’ response to states like Texas who took similar measures, in favour of Republicans. While some may understandably rejoice, in the bigger picture, the very concept of a neutral democratic system is being eroded more and more, replaced by pure partisanship. In essence, this gerrymandering has become something of an arms race. If your opponent is doing it, and you are not, you face annihilation. But as each party ramps up their own gerrymandering efforts to skew electoral borders in their favour, what used to be a semi-functional democratic system will quickly turn into a chaotic, partisan-obsesssed mess that becomes harder and harder to untangle. In other words, many of us may understandably want to rejoice at what is ‘good’ for Democrats, with the passage of Proposition 50. We should know however that while it is a victory for Democrats, it is not necessarily a victory for democracy. There is a seemingly inexorable tide which is insistent on making functional democratic institutions and the way they were originally envisioned as neutral arbiters, into tools of partisan war. Perhaps more than anything else, what this implies is that we should be paying greater attention to a complete overhaul of those institutions, to make them more resilient and immune to manipulation by the rich and powerful. Nathaniel Tan is communications consultant. He can be reached at nat@engage.my. The views expressed here are solely the writer's own.
