Mainstream WeeklyOnly a capitalist haven like the United States can quibble over what kind of a socialist you are.
No wonder Zohran Mamdani is suddenly finding critics even among known admirers after the democratic socialist quoted the late dyed-in-the-wool socialist Eugene V. Debs after winning the high-octane New York mayoral election.
Debs (1855-1926), a socialist, trade unionist and activist, was one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World and a five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America in the presidential elections. An orator par excellence, he ended up becoming one of the best-known socialists in the US.
Standing away from Debs is Bernie Sanders, one of the most easily recognised progressive faces in US politics. The senior Senator from Vermont, who tried to become the Democratic presidential nominee despite being an independent, is credited with influencing a leftward shift in the Democratic Party.
At 83, Sanders is a political mentor of Mamdani, 50 years his junior. Sanders, a trenchant critic of President Donald Trump