AI Summary
5 min read“There is a moral imagination, and there is a material as well.” With that sentence, Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute, begins to unpack the phenomenon of Zoran Mamdani’s victory in New York and the broader surge of a young, radical left that has left the Democratic establishment scrambling. In a conversation with Haviv Rettig Gur, Salam argues that what looks like a sudden political earthquake is actually the convergence of demographic shifts, a crisis of meaning among young Americans, and a new ideological framework—third worldism—that is filling a vacuum left by the collapse of older American institutions and identities.
The moral and material roots of the new left
Salam insists that the new left’s power is not primarily tactical, though its media savvy matters. The deeper driver is a moral imagination that has broken with the American story as an inheritance worth defending. For a generation that came of age after 9/11, the Iraq War, the 2008 financial crisis, and the perceived failure of liberal institutions, socialism is no longer stigmatized—it is transgressive and therefore attractive. “The fact that socialism was not a familiar part of the American political tradition actually becomes a plus rather than a minus,” Salam says. This generation feels dispossessed, and the novelty of radical ideas is a source of their power.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:05) **Introduction and framing of the phenomenon** - Haviv introduces the episode, explaining the widespread curiosity about Zoran Mamdani, DSA victories, third worldism, and the sense of Jewish alienation from progressive spaces.
- 2 (04:06) **Why Mamdani won: the moral imagination of a generation** - Reihan argues that the core driver is a moral story, not just organizing tactics, rooted in how younger Americans see themselves and their country.
- 3 (10:07) **The spiritual and philosophical dimension of radicalism** - Reihan explores the appeal of a "cosmic outlook" that feels more ennobling than the meritocratic rat race, especially for those who feel like losers in it.
- 4 (15:26) **The shift from civil rights to the "Gaza cult"** - The moral center of the American left is being displaced from the Black experience to a new focus on Palestinianism and the moral authority of the global South.
- 5 (17:00) **Demographic data: the Muslim American youth bulge in higher education** - Reihan presents startling statistics showing that 26% of Muslim American adults are 18-24, and 47% are current postsecondary students, making universities a critical vector for radicalization.
- 6 (20:55) **Conversion and identity: the path from radical politics to Islam** - Reihan notes that key figures like Mamdani and Daryleiza Chevalier came to radical politics through opposition to Israel, and in Chevalier's case, converted to Islam as part of her political journey.
- 7 (24:20) **Is this the future? The battle of stories** - Haviv presses on whether this movement is inevitable, given the lack of resistance from the Democratic establishment. Reihan argues the future is not determined, but the movement has immense conviction against a demoralized opposition.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
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The rise of Zohran Mamdani and the DSA are about far more than one politician or radical political moment. Manhattan Institute president Reihan Salam joins us to explain why highly educated, upwardly mobile young Americans are embracing radical socialist and "Third Worldist" politics. We decode explain the cultural and psychological shifts powering America’s new left: the search for identity among young Americans, including a rapidly changing Muslim community, how elite universities have become the "madrasas" of a new political identity, the surprising parallels between early 20th-century Jewish radicals and today's Muslim activists, and why a generation disconnected from traditional family structures is finding meaning in political radicalism.
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Join us. Visit http://ats.org/rebuild .
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