Corey Robin's Blog, page 6

A Tale of Two Controversies: Mamdani’s college application and “globalize the intifada”

Two weeks ago, the New York Times ginned up a controversy over Zohran Mamdani’s college application. In his senior year of high school, Mamdani applied to Columbia University. Asked to identify his race, he checked off the boxes for Asian American and African American. He made a point of specifying that by African American he meant that he was from Uganda. Mamdani’s opponents, most notably Eric Adams, and other commentators immediately used the story against him, claiming that Mamdani was trying to game the affirmative action system of higher ed for his personal advantage by falsely claiming he was Black and Asian American. Peter Beinart has an excellent video out this morning, which puts the story in Mamdani’s family context—and […]

Moving Mountains in New York City

The two best analyses of Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory are this one, by Michael Thomas Carter, and this conversation that Daniel Denvir, the Terry Gross of the left, hosted with two organizers in New York City. Both analyses focus on the elephant in the room. Virtually all of the commentariat have emphasized Mamdani’s videos, his undeniable charisma and political fluency, and Cuomo’s weaknesses. The latter were oddly invisible to most commentators up until the very night that Cuomo conceded; then it became obvious that he was a weak candidate and was always going to lose; there’s a lesson there about power, which people always treat as static, when it’s not). But easily the most important factor in Zohran’s victory is […]

Lisbon in Reverse

I’m seldom one to ride the “we’ve never seen anything like this before” bandwagon. But after reading enough headlines like this one below— —I start to reconsider. The amount of unnecessary death that we tolerate in this country—not just within one group but across many groups, states, and regions, from school shootings to heat waves to floods to fires to covid and now to measles and assassinations—is astounding. “Tolerate” isn’t quite the right word because that sounds like some sort of longstanding practice or habit we’ve accepted for years and decades. But this kind of toleration is new. It’s not the product of ancient holdovers or superstitions or lack of knowledge. It’s an attitude to new forms of destruction that […]

What do we talk about when we talk about “globalize the intifada?”

I wasn’t going to address the controversy over what Zohran Mamdani did or didn’t say about the phrase “globalize the intifada.” But now that Hakeem Jeffries, the Minority Leader of the Democrats in the House, has decided to weigh in on it, on the Sunday morning talk shows no less—specifically, by invoking the fear that Jewish New Yorkers like me are supposed to be feeling when we hear the phrase being used—I think it’s worth a comment or two. Jeffries claims that Mamdani needs to “clarify his position” on the phrase, which is silly, because the only reason Jeffries is even talking about Mamdani’s position is that he has clarified it. On June 17, Tim Miller, an interviewer for The […]

To Make Life Easier: Socialism and the Mamdani Campaign

One of the principles of the Zohran Mamdani campaign that is not getting sufficient attention is the second sentence of his platform: The goal is to “make life easier” for New Yorkers. I come at this from two angles. Let me start with the personal. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older—I’m now 57—and became a parent at 40, when I had less energy than I had when I was in my 20s, which wasn’t a lot to begin with. But I’ve become increasingly cognizant over the lifetime of my child and my time as a parent, just how difficult everyday life is, what a struggle it is to deal with daily needs and demands, and how much of […]

Mamdani v. Bill Ackman

Gazillionaire Bill Ackman says that he is “gravely concerned” by the possibility of Mamdani getting elected mayor because rich people are going to flee New York and the city will become “economically unviable.” Paul Krugman says this kind of talk is nothing more than “hysteria” from “the moguls of madness.” I know Krugman only won the Nobel Prize in Economics while Ackman is a rich Trump supporter whose major achievement is getting the first Black woman president of Harvard fired, but who are you going to believe? But here’s the really creepy thing about Ackman’s position. According to Forbes: Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman said he and his wealthy associates are ready to pour “hundreds of millions of dollars” into the […]

What is a democratic socialist?

Now that Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral primary, the New York Times is asking the question, “Zohran Mamdani Says He’s a Democratic Socialist. What Does That Mean?” The article doesn’t provide much of an answer. Instead, it trots out my old bête noire, Sheri Berman, who offers up crisp nuggets of wisdom like this: “These labels are fuzzy.” If only the Times editors read their own paper. In the wake of the Bernie campaign and AOC’s election, the Times asked me to write a piece explaining the meaning of democratic socialism for a new generation. Since I think the piece holds up, and helps us understand some of the particular appeal of the Mamdani campaign—his focus […]

Rip Van Winkle, 2025

People, particularly political scientists, don’t often read Rip Van Winkle anymore, which is a shame because it’s a story about change in America and how it’s perceived. A man falls asleep before the American Revolution, wakes up after it, and discovers the world has been completely transformed, down to the tiniest details of society. Now imagine a man who fell asleep in 2005. A Republican president has been bombing the shit out of a Middle Eastern country that begins with an I. He’s been cutting taxes for rich people. The New York Times has been warning that Social Security cuts are necessary to preserve its solvency. The man wakes up in 2025. And everyone is saying the world has changed.

Some writings on capitalism and politics

I’m in the New Left Review today, elaborating on some thoughts about the misleading nature of the term “late capitalism.” Despite its popularity in recent years, especially since the 2008 financial crisis and the left-populist insurgencies that followed, late capitalism is not an idea that lends itself to revolution or a vision of progress. It may express a wish to be rid of capitalism. But mostly it works as a theory of turning points that never turn – or worse. And in case you missed these other recent pieces of mine on questions of capitalism and politics, here they are again. Also, in the New Left Review, on Trump and tariffs and the Republican coalition. And in ARC, on the relevance of Adam Smith […]

Zohran Mamdani and Transnational America

I want to talk about Zohran Mamdani’s being Muslim and South Asian/Ugandan, but before I do, I want to say that I support him simply because’s a democratic socialist with a once-in-a-generation political talent. Ghouls like Andrew Cuomo and his supporters seem to think political talent is making social media clips rather than the oratorical and forensic skills Mamdani has and that we traditionally associate with democratic leadership. I’ve been delighted to see Mamdani explain his positions and platform in language that is clear and complex. I’ve been delighted to see what a happy warrior he is, in the style of FDR, taking genuine pleasure in the give and take of adult argument and debate, speaking like a grownup, giving […]