Zack Polanski, Zohran Mamdani and the end of ‘doom-loop politics’

“​​It might seem bizarre to speak of hope in these dark times,” said Neil Howard on Al Jazeera. But, as left-wing politicians Zack Polanski and Zohran Mamdani surge in popularity, “the green shoots of possibility are poking through”.

For progressives stumped by the dominance of the far right, the rise of Polanski in the UK and Mamdani in the US offers an alternative to “doom-loop politics” and “a paradigm shift that places people before profit”.

‘Radical message’

Polanski has taken the UK's Green Party “to another level” since he became leader at the beginning of September, said Peter Walker in The Guardian. Party membership has doubled from 70,000 to 140,000, overtaking both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives.

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His “pace has barely slackened”: in the two days after his election, he claimed to have done 61 interviews. His “Bold Politics” podcast is “regularly in the UK top 10 for political podcasts”, and his “low-budget” social-media videos, with titles like “Let’s Make Hope Normal Again”, get millions of views. Polanski’s active media presence is important “not just in getting airtime” but in pushing his party’s message “beyond environmental issues” and towards, in particular, a populist left-wing “emphasis on a wealth tax”.

Across the pond, Mamdani is making his own headway in people-first politics. Predicted to win the New York City mayoral election next week, he’s choosing to highlight the “difficulties faced by the poor and middle class” and promise “free, foundational basics, like public transport and childcare”, said Al Jazeera’s Howard. And he’s proposing to pay for these services by “raising taxes on corporations and the rich”.

For Mamdani and Polanski, their cut-through with voters rests on a “clear, confident” assertion that “abundant wealth exists in our world” and the equal distribution of that wealth should be “back at the centre of politics”. Their talk of the “guaranteed provision” of “basics for all” threatens the conventional narratives of “scarcity” and “deservingness”, and “in this radical message, hope abounds”.

‘Hollowness of policy priorities’

As European and US parties “scramble to react to right-wing populism’s successes”, these leftists with a “gift for storytelling”, a “common touch” and a “rhetorical thrust” can seem like strong alternatives to a Nigel Farage or Donald Trump, said Rosa Prince on Bloomberg. And yet, in the UK, the Greens are pulling from the same voting base as the new Your Party; without any formal alliance, they may split the electorate in a way that ends up being helpful to the far right.

Polanski’s digs at the ultra-rich are actually “a snapshot” of “the hollowness of his policy priorities”. He pays “scant attention to how policies might be funded without inflating the country’s already heavy borrowing costs”.

Mamdani, likewise, has “made lofty, utopian promises”, said Tom Suozzi in The Wall Street Journal, but they “are all paid for by huge tax increases” at a time when “people are already fleeing cities and states with sky-high taxes”. Democrats “can embrace the need to address the people’s angst about the economy and affordability, without embracing the socialism”.