Democracy Challenged: Who Governs Gaza? Who Runs Venezuela? “Who Does New York Belong To?”

2025 was an annus horribilis for democracy. Within the United States, Donald Trump, his administration, Congress, complicit state legislatures, and the Supreme Court systematically attacked civil liberties and weakened core democratic institutions. Internationally, there were at least two examples of undemocratic impositions. U.N. Security Council (SC) Resolution 2803 created a so-called “Board of Peace,” chaired by Donald Trump, and a temporary International Stabilization Force to govern Gaza without the consent of the those who live there. Recently, Trump announced that Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would “run” Venezuela, an extraordinary assertion of external control over another state’s political future.

Did 2026 start better?

Yes. Zohran Mamdani’s taking office as Mayor of New York City offers several reasons for democratic optimism. As the first-ever mayor to be sworn in on a Quran, the 34 year-old surprise winner has shown a progressive, democratic sensitivity and agenda that offers promises for New York City and beyond. Mamdani’s election could signal a revival of true democratic politics in the United States, and an eventual model for democratic governance elsewhere.

At his January 1 inauguration, Mamdani gave a moving presentation of new possibilities for democracy after being sworn in as mayor by Bernie Sanders and following an opening speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“I stand alongside countless more New Yorkers watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing and barbershops in East New York, from cellphones propped against the dashboards of parked taxi cabs at LaGuardia, from hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio that have too long known only neglect. I stand alongside construction workers in steel-toed boots and halal cart vendors whose knees ache from working all day.”

The new mayor asked, “Who does New York belong to?”

“For much of our history, the response from City Hall has been simple: It belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected,” he answered.

He then offered a very different answer about whom New York could belong to: “New York could belong to more than just a privileged few. It could belong to those who operate our subways and rake our parks, those who feed us biryani and beef patties, picanha and pastrami on rye. And they knew that this belief could be made true if only government dared to work hardest for those who work hardest.”

“[I]f only government dared to work hardest for those who work hardest,” Mamdani declared at the very moment of Trump’s new Gilded Age where the richest 1 percent of Americans own roughly 30% of national wealth and the top 10% control nearly two-thirds. The chief executive of JP Morgan Chase made $770 million in 2025. A recent economic study shows that in recent decades the Supreme Court has favored the rich.

Mamdani’s inaugural speech presented what many consider a radical position. President Trump has derided Mamdani as a “communist fanatic.” Yet when Trump met Mamdani in the Oval Office in November, the New York Times reported that “they were just two iconoclastic New Yorkers who were all smiles.” “The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said. “Because he has a chance to really do something great for New York,” the president added. “It was a great meeting.”

There is no question that Mamdani will face staunch opposition as mayor. Several very wealthy individuals have threatened to leave New York if he raises city income tax on million-dollar earners or increases corporate taxes. John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the grocery chain Gristedes, told the Free Press in June he may “consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business” in the event of a Mamdani victory.

There were also obvious religious criticisms of the city’s first Muslim mayor. “On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the Israel Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on the social platform X.

But the essential criticisms of Mamdani lie in the class position he has taken. Bill Reilly claimed in The Wrap that “He’s a communist…Seizing the means of production.” Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis argued in The Times of India, that his ideas were “straight out of Karl Marx’s Communist playbook,” and Bishop Robert Barron, writing in the New York Post, cited Mamdani’s embrace of “the warmth of collectivism,” that collectivism has historically led to oppression.

Is Mamdani merely a New York phenomenon? Will his victory and positions have influence outside the five boroughs? He seems not afraid to stand up for his beliefs beyond New York-specific issues. He challenged President Trump after the Venezuela strikes and kidnapping of Maduro. “I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,” he said. The New York Times reported on the call in which Mamdani recounted that “he told Mr. Trump that he was ‘opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal and international law.’”

It is uncertain that Mamdani will succeed in implementing some of his ambitious policy proposals, such as free childcare, free bus service, and a rent freeze for those living in rent-stabilized apartments. Nevertheless, he declared, “Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never we will be accused of lacking the courage to try.”

The essence of Mamdani’s “courage to try” is his commitment to re-establish democracy in New York City. His inaugural speech was a clarion call for the city to belong to all New Yorkers, regardless of wealth, class, or religion. Internationally, based on his call to the White House, the same principles apply; respecting international law as a just system should give equal rights to all peoples and states – the Preamble of the United Nations Charter does begin with “We the Peoples.”

Amid the undemocratic Trump 2.0, U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803 and the arrogant gunboat diplomacy of the so-called “Donroe Doctrine,” there is a potential shining light coming from New York City, at least based on Mamdani’s inaugural speech. Given the current gloomy global situation, a little light is more than welcome as we begin the new year, still hoping, like Abraham Lincoln, that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

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