WASHINGTON (TNND) — Democratic primaries across New York City delivered a “clean sweep” for candidates endorsed by New York City mayor and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, results that supporters and critics alike described as a sign of a shifting Democratic Party.
“And what we saw yesterday evening were Democrats across the city turning out and voting for a new kind of politics,” Mamdani said.
Even New York Attorney General Letitia James raised concerns about the direction of the party, saying, “Some of the candidates that he has supported are individuals who did not understand the politics of New York City. All of us are frustrated with the Democratic Party, but you don’t blow it up.”
Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told The National News Desk the party’s problems are already severe and argued Democrats should draw a bright line between the party and democratic socialists.
“ It’s already been blown up,” Dershowitz said. “I think the Democratic Party today, with its domination by the Democratic Socialists of America, is coming very close to what socialists were saying in 1932, in Germany and in Stalin’s Russia.”
Dershowitz said democratic socialists should not run as Democrats, calling it misleading to voters.
“I think the Democrats have an obligation to tell the Democratic Socialists of America you’re a different party. Go form a new party, form a third party, and then you can run. But don’t run as Democrats,” Dershowitz said. “You’re defrauding the public. You’re misleading the public.”
Dershowitz also criticized Mamdani’s rhetoric about Israel and political action committees.
“Look, Mamdani called me a monster. Said anybody who supports AIPAC or supports Israel is a monster,” Dershowitz said. “Now you have the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, calling me and other residents of New York who support Israel monsters.”
He also rejected the legitimacy of some progressive Jewish groups that support certain candidates.
“Well, they’re not really Jewish groups,” Dershowitz said. “They’re groups that claim Jewish Voice for Peace is mostly non-Jewish, and it’s not for peace. They’re a fraudulent organization.”
Dershowitz accused Democratic leaders of failing to confront far-left candidates and said the party’s “big tent” approach is wrong.
“They’re being immoral,” he said. “No tent is big enough for them.”
He said the primary results show the Democratic Party moving toward socialism and argued that socialists can win low-turnout primaries by running as Democrats.
“The Democratic Party is moving toward becoming a socialist party, and Americans are not socialists,” Dershowitz said. “But if the socialists are allowed to disguise themselves as Democrats, then they can squeak through with a small number of voters at primaries.”
Dershowitz also said ideological imbalance in academia reflects broader political trends.
“There are no Republicans in academia to speak of,” he said, pointing to Harvard’s faculty and arguing that “this is not meritocracy at work.”