✅ Three Reasons Mamdani’s Politics Won’t Crumble Like Obama’s

This isn't going to be an Obama diss track. But I wanna talk about what went wrong with him and why I believe Zohran Mamdani will avoid those mistakes - in great part, because Obama already made them.

Before we dive in: If you value analysis that doesn’t just parrot talking points from Israel or the Democratic Party —coverage that centers the coalition that won, the governing mechanics behind the promises, and the voices mainstream outlets overlook—then this is your home. I write these pieces to put receipts, context, and conscience on the same page and to keep them free to the world. If that matters to you, become a member. If you’re able, join as a monthly, annual, or founding member so we can keep telling the stories and doing the policy work most media won’t touch.

I started hearing about Barack Obama in the ’90s, when Dreams from My Father landed in 1995 and he was already being hailed as a gifted thinker. Folks forget he lost his first congressional race in 2000, but those of us who were community organizers noticed him because he claimed our lane—organizing. I loved Obama. I volunteered. I went to the rallies. And still, something painful happened that I believe Zohran Mamdani has already avoided—partly because all of us watched it happen to Obama in real time.

The media and political climate were different. Obama spent so much his campaigns telling the country what he wasn’t—not a Muslim, not Kenyan-born, not “radical.” Then, when Rev. Jeremiah Wright—a towering Chicago pastor, bold on Palestine, the very man who baptized the Obamas’ children—came under attack, Obama discarded his own pastor to keep the peace. As a young Christian pastor then, I felt that betrayal in my bones. Over time, the pattern hardened: he abandoned people and positions under pressure. He became an unforgettable cultural icon—and that matters—but a political disappointment on fights that were in his power to wage.

Here’s why I don’t believe Mamdani will follow that path.

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1) He’s told us exactly who he is—and he refused to disavow it under fire

Mamdani ran a campaign about identity as integrity, not as a liability to be hidden. From day one he named himself: Muslim, immigrant, democratic socialist, a 34-year-old New Yorker who intends to change how power works here. He didn’t spend the season reciting denials; he spent it declaring the project—freeze the rent, make buses fast and free, deliver universal child care, and redefine public safety as dignity with lawful policing.

And when the right tried to run the Obama playbook—to force him to disavow his faith and distance himself from respected Muslim leaders the way Obama was pushed to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright—Mamdani didn’t budge. He didn’t shrink from Islam or his community. He stood beside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a legendary Brooklyn imam, and refused the manufactured guilt-by-association game. In a season flooded with Islamophobia—from a super PAC that literally put his face before the collapsing World Trade Center, to smear mailers that darkened his skin and thickened his beard—he did not renounce who he is or who he stands with.

That matters. Because once you start defining yourself by what your enemies require you to renounce, you bleed out the very coalition that put you there. Mamdani did the opposite. He built a broad, joyful, working-class coalition by telling New Yorkers what he is—and what he intends to deliver—and then said it again on victory night:

“I am young… I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.”

That’s not bravado. That’s guardrails. It tells supporters what to hold him to. And it tells bigots and billionaires the price of admission: you will not get a disavowal as tribute.

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2) He’s famous for the vibes—but his top priority is delivery

Yes, he’s the smiling guy with the videos, the cultural fluency, the joy. But underneath the charisma is a politician who is obsessed with getting things done—and, crucially, has city-level levers to do it. Obama hit a U.S. Senate designed for stalemate. A New York City mayor can pilot, publish, and prove.

Here’s what “govern like you campaign” looks like in the first 100 days:

• The Rent Freeze, as mechanics—not a metaphor. Put out a public legal memo on authorities the city can exercise now (RGB posture, emergency powers, anti-warehousing rules tied to city financing). Launch a rent-stabilization pilot on city-funded rehabs. Stand up an eviction early-warning dashboard so people see cases prevented, not just speeches delivered.

• Fast & Free Buses—start with five corridors. Pick the highest-ridership, worst-delayed lines in each borough. Enforce bus lanes, extend signal priority, and pilot zero fares at off-peak hours for essential workers. Publish on-time gains and rider counts weekly so commuters can feel the change in their bones.

• Universal Child Care—buy down the longest waitlists first. Use bridge funds to clear chokepoints, raise provider pay to stabilize supply, and open classrooms inside city facilities that sit empty after school. Report slots added every week; let parents see the queue shrinking in real time.

• Safety as adulthood, not theater. Expand non-police responses where harm is predictable (mental-health crisis teams, youth jobs), demand constitutional policing where officers are necessary, and publish a harm-reduction scorecard by precinct so safety isn’t a press conference, it’s a map.

That’s not vibes. That’s a calendar. It’s also why I think Mamdani won’t crumble: he’s already lived in policy all campaign long. The videos weren’t about celebrity—they were him talking to food vendors about costs, walking Manhattan end-to-end, visiting small donors to ask why they gave, speaking Spanish to voters who rarely get more than a photo-op. Even the “goofy” content was a door into child care and rents. That discipline didn’t disappear on election night.

And there’s one more reason this governance turn will stick: the coalition expects it. When over two million people vote, when you crack one million votes for mayor for the first time since 1969, when you cross 50% in a three-person race after withstanding $40M+ in super-PAC slime and the ugliest Islamophobia of our era—your voters aren’t asking for a mood. They’re asking for results. Mamdani knows this. Everything about his operation—ground game, ranked-choice jiu-jitsu, weekly progress rituals—says he plans to measure himself in public.

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3) The movement knows what it voted for—and it will judge him by change, not charm

From outside New York, it might look like people voted for Zohran because he’s young and different—and that mattered. But this man won—with 90,000 volunteers—because he promised policy change. He knows this. His team knows this. The coalition that formed around him showed up for affordability, for safety with dignity, for material improvements they can feel before the next rent bill is due. That’s why I believe he’ll put most of his eggs in that basket: governing.

He will still be an immigrant, a Muslim, and a democratic socialist—unapologetically. But if you watched him closely, you saw a candidate already behaving like a builder: agenda-first, delivery-first, explain-as-you-go. The same brain trust that turned “freeze the rent” into a citywide call-and-response can turn it into draft memos, pilots, timelines, and dashboards. The same joyful ground game that organized Jackson Heights to Brownsville can organize around bus lanes, child-care slots, eviction prevention, and tenant protections. The same cultural competence that made people feel seen can make city agencies feel reachable.

That is how you avoid the Obama crumple: you make change the story—not just who you are or who hates you. You define yourself by what gets done. And you let the movement that put you there grade your homework in public.

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Facts no one can spin

• Crossed 50% in a three-person race → would’ve won a head-to-head.

• Turnout >2,000,000; first since 1969 to top 1,000,000 mayoral votes.

• $40M+ anti-Mamdani super-PAC spend vs ~$10M on his side—and he won.

• Coalition: young renters + working-class South Asian immigrants + gains in Black/Latino neighborhoods.

• Mandate, said aloud: rent freeze, fast/free buses, universal child care—with day-one city levers.

If this is the kind of receipts-first, people-first analysis you don’t get anywhere else, help me keep it free for the world—and help me track the first 100 days of Mamdani’s time in office with weekly progress checks New Yorkers and the world can actually use. Become a member or, if you’re able, join as a monthly, annual, or founding member so we keep speaking truth to power.

Love and appreciate each of you!

Shaun King

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