The American Dream is now transformed Being an outsider is an asset in American politics

• Mamdani’s victory at 34 marks him as the most uncompromisingly leftist mayor in New York’s history, promising radical reforms including free buses, child care, and rent freezes
• The new mayor’s ethnic and political chemistry, a child of Indian-origin Ugandan immigrants who worked as a housing counsellor, excited voters in a city marked by the skeletons of ambitious mayoral failures
• Gender no longer matters in American politics, and being an outsider, whether Obama’s African-American heritage or Mamdani’s immigrant background, decidedly looks like an asset, not a drawback

The victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York brings to mind the election of Barack Obama as US president in 2008. Whether voters will one day look back on Mamdani with the same misgivings they have for Obama today remains to be seen. But this is Mamdani’s moment, and a watershed for the beleaguered US Democrats. 

In the liberal world outside the United States, any Democratic victory warrants a sigh of relief. But people forget the chequered history of US Democrats. It’s Abraham Lincoln, a Republican and not a Democrat, who abolished slavery. Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the Vietnam War. 
In our own times, Democratic President Joe Biden pulled US troops out of Afghanistan, plunging that country into the dark ages. Jimmy Carter, a very popular Democratic president at the start, ended their White House career being vilified. History has somewhat vindicated Carter, but that didn’t help him in re-election. Obama, too, follows them closely in the ex-presidents’ popularity charts.

At 34, Mamdani has become the most uncompromisingly leftist mayor in New York’s history, promising free buses, child care and rent freezes

But Obama was an ‘outsider’ to American mainstream politics just like Mamdani, who has now been elected as mayor of New York. Obama is African-American with Kenyan ancestry. Mamdani is of Indian origin and an immigrant from Uganda. Obama is a liberal, while Mamdani is left-wing, and neither of them fits into the well-worn image of potential presidential candidates even to the left of the Democratic Party.
But why do American voters think so negatively of Obama now? Rather, who are those people who think so? Talking to several Sri Lankan-Americans who settled down in the US long ago, I was surprised when they unanimously said that Obama did a lot of damage to the US economy by letting in a flood of immigrants! They are all very pro-Donald Trump and anti-Obama.
There we have the crux of the problem. Donald Trump (another outsider who rode to the top of the Republican Party) got re-elected and is back with a vengeance, having vowed to fix the same problem, and from Day One in the White House, he has been doing that – targeting minorities and deporting immigrants from Latin America, India and Africa. 
And they are not being nice about it. Those awaiting deportation are seen with handcuffs and leg chains in public places, undergoing great distress and humiliation. These are educated men and women doing decent jobs, not criminals and drug pushers. If anyone awaiting deportation was treated that way in our part of the world, we’d be termed uncivilised with scant regard to human rights. But in the very civilised United States, this can happen openly without any outcry locally or internationally.
But here’s the thing. Obama and Mamdani may be outsiders to the system (just as, for better or worse, Donald Trump is), but they are not working class or poor. Obama, of mixed Kenyan and white ancestry, had a net worth estimated at over $3.6 million in 2014 before leaving office. That doesn’t mean he’s very rich by American standards, but certainly not poor.
Zohran Mamdani’s net worth in 2025 is estimated to be between $200,000 and $300,000; whether that means well-off depends on where in the United States you live. But most middle or working-class Americans are struggling and don’t have that kind of net worth. Many don’t even have medical insurance. Mamdani has pledged to address some of these grievances and imbalances. 
The above figures are cited simply to give the idea that Mamdani isn’t another Lula da Silva, the trade unionist from a very poor background who won a second term as the president of Brazil. Mamdani isn’t rich, but he comes from a privileged background. The difference is that he understands the problems of the working class. If Lula represents a new ‘Brazilian dream’ for the poor, Mamdani is a new kind of American dream for those struggling to make ends meet.
Can Mamdani do a ‘Lula Act’ as the mayor of New York? Donald Trump vows to block Mamdani’s ambitious and spectacular social welfare plans for  New Yorkers. Mamdani is described as ‘the most uncompromisingly leftist mayor in the history of the city, at the age of thirty-four. His victory was not in isolation. Democrats won big in New Jersey and Virginia, a southern state. But Mamdani’s biggest battles lie ahead if he tries to keep even half his election pledges.
Mamdani worked as a housing counsellor before entering politics, helping low-income tenants threatened with eviction. His mayoral campaign focused on making New York, America’s biggest city, safer and more affordable.
Mamdani, speaking after his victory, said he was speaking as a ‘child of immigrants’ to other immigrants – Yemenis, Mexicans, Uzbeks, Trinidadians and Ethiopians. He has also played a lot for New York Muslims, visiting mosques. It’s the chemistry of his ethnic and political make-up, and the sheer audacity of his vision — free buses, child care and rent freezes — which excited voters. Now they are waiting to see if he can deliver in a city marked by the skeletons of ambitious mayoral failures.
Whatever happens, Mamdani is the latest manifestation of a radical transformation of American politics. All the faces of Mt. Rushmore are those of white presidents. Since 1789, there have been forty-five presidents (with 47 presidencies) in the US. There has been only one non-white president – Barack Obama. It was only in the 1980s that the US saw its first major black American presidential candidate - Democrat Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Since Obama, two women, one white and one of mixed African-American-Indian origin – Hilary Clinton and Kamala Harris – have become presidential candidates. Nikki Haley was in the race for the Republican presidential nominee at the 2024 elections before she quit due to Trump’s rising ratings. Now, there is a dark-skinned mayor set to run New York, and he’s left-wing and Muslim to boot. This is a remarkable achievement given the country’s dark history of racism. But the nature of the much-ballyhooed American Dream has changed, and that change is starkly reflected in American politics. Gender no longer matters, and being an outsider decidedly looks like an asset, not a drawback.