Looking at the Democratic primary results, it would be easy to assume that Zohran Mamdani supporters are the sort of rich liberals who claim to advocate for the less fortunate \u2026 when the less fortunate actually want something totally different.<\/p>\n
After all, Mamdani had a 13-point margin<\/a> over Andrew Cuomo in high-income neighborhoods, while Cuomo had a 13-point margin in low-income areas.<\/p>\n I also initially assumed this was like the self-flagellating people who denounced their white privilege<\/a> and championed defunding the police in the summer of 2020 \u2014 all ostensibly for the benefit of black people.<\/p>\n Supporters of Zohran Mamdani are attracted to proposals like free buses and government run grocery stores. Derek French\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n But I\u2019m realizing now that this is not the case for many Zohran supporters. <\/p>\n Mamdani is the champion of the faux-working class: those who are actually quite well off but feel otherwise.<\/p>\n In the minds of his voters, the free-free-freebies Mamdani is promising \u2014 frozen rent, free buses, cheap groceries \u2014 are not for New York\u2019s least fortunate. It\u2019s also for\u2026 themselves.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s base are disproportionately young, educated and white, and live in trendy areas<\/a> of Brooklyn. A great number are well-compensated Zoomers and Millennials who truly believe they are New York\u2019s downtrodden.<\/p>\n They live in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. They\u2019ve never been to Brownsville or Mott Haven. <\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s voters in the Democratic primary were disproportionately white and college-educated. Derek French\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Theirs is a world of fusion tapas bars and indie coffee shops. Hey, $20 lychee martinis and $7 lattes with cashew milk can, indeed, make a dent in a starting salary.<\/p>\n With their visual arts or sociology degrees, they don\u2019t make as much as classmates who majored in engineering or economics or went to law school. <\/p>\n That is partly the result of their own choices, yet they see the economic outcome as a travesty.<\/p>\n They may be transplants who decided to call the most expensive city in the nation home. But if an immigrant landlord who nearly lost his property during the pandemic tries to raise the rent because of rising utilities \u2014 well, he\u2019s guilty of extorting them<\/a>.<\/p>\n Andrew Cuomo had a 13-point margin in the primary election in lower-income neighborhoods. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n In their free time, these victimized voters scroll through TikTok, which confirms the world is hopeless. AI is coming for their jobs. The economy has gone to hell. There\u2019s an actual king in the White House. The world is literally on fire. There\u2019s microplastic in their bloodstream, and mercury in their sushi.<\/p>\n They text each other sore thought pieces on how their nasty Boomer parents hoarded all the wealth and absconded with it. <\/p>\n In their minds, they\u2019re losing at life before they\u2019ve even begun.<\/p>\n When it all becomes too much to handle, they flick through Instagram and jealously stew over other people\u2019s glamorous vacations and superior apartments.<\/p>\n Their existence is tinged with envy and dread \u2014\u00a0and lived in a bubble where everyone else\u2019s life looks better, shinier, wealthier. Why, then, shouldn\u2019t they be entitled to free things to make them feel better?<\/p>\n Mamdani has promised to increase taxes on the richest New Yorkers to fund his plans. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n It\u2019s befitting that the ones jumping for joy over a charismatic young politician inventing new entitlements are the most entitled young people of all.<\/p>\n