Zohran Mamdani’s election as Mayor of New York City deserves warm congratulations; to him, and to his wife Rama Duwaji, now the city’s First Lady. Their victory is a moment of genuine historical resonance: a young, immigrant, Muslim couple rising to lead one of the world’s most complex and diverse metropolises. In their story, many will see courage, conviction, and the hope of a new generation of Americans.
But their triumph is also a mirror held up to the American Dream itself. It reminds us that such a journey, from immigrant background to the pinnacle of civic life, is not an accident of destiny, but a product of a society built, however imperfectly, on liberty, pluralism, and the belief in human potential. It is the U.S. Constitution, the democratic culture it inspired, and the sacrifices of generations before them that made this ascent possible.
The sad irony, however, is that Mr Mamdani’s campaign sometimes rested on rhetoric that dismissed or demeaned the very idea of the American Dream, while at times romanticising the social and economic systems of socialist or even communist states. Yet his success itself, his ability to speak freely, organise, and ultimately win, is the ultimate proof that such freedom and mobility can exist only in a society like the United States …