Letters from an American - November 5, 2025

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

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November 5th, 2025, New York City mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani, a member of both the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, began his victory speech last night with a nod to Eugene V. Debs, labor organizer and socialist candidate for president at the turn of the last century. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity. The 34-year-old mayor-elect speech went on to deliver something that was more than a victory speech. It marked a new era, much like the one that had given rise to Debs himself. After more than 40 years in which ordinary Americans had seen the political system, being stacked against them, and over time forgotten they had agency to change it, they had woken up.

Mamdani began by lifting up New York City's working people, noting that, for as long as we can remember, they have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands. And yet, he said, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater. Tonight, he said, against all odds, we have grasped it. The future is in our hands. New York, he said, had delivered a mandate for change, a mandate for a new kind of politics, a mandate for a city we can afford, and a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that. Mamdani thanked the next generation of New Yorkers who refused to

accept that the promise of a better future was a relic of the past. And that was the heart of his message that democracy belongs to ordinary people. We will fight for you, he said, because we are you. He thanked Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas, Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses, Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. He assured every New Yorker in Kensington and Midwood and Hunts Point, that this city is your city and this democracy is yours too. Mamdani celebrated the hard work of democracy in his win. It was a victory not just for all those who make up New York City, he said, but also for the more than 100,000 volunteers who built this campaign into an unstoppable force. With every door knocked, every petition signature earned,

and every hard-earned conversation, you eroded the cynicism that has come to define our politics. With that base of Americans engaged in the work of democracy, Mamdani welcomed a new era. There are many who thought this day would never come, and who feared that we would be condemned only to a future of less, with every election consigning us simply to more of the same, he said. And there are others who,

he politics today as too cruel for the flame of hope to still burn. But in New York City last night, he said, we have answered those fears. Hope is alive. Hope is a decision that tens of thousands of New Yorkers made day after day, volunteer shift after volunteer shift, despite attack ad after attack ad. More than a million of us stood in our churches, in gymnasiums, in community centers, as we filled in the ledger of democracy. And while we cast our ballots alone,

we chose hope together. Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair. We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible. And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be said

politics be something that is done to us? Now it is something that we do. Mamdani promised a government that would answer to the demands of the people. It would address the city's cost of living crisis, invest in education, improve infrastructure, and cut bureaucratic waste. It would, he said, work with police officers to reduce crime while also defending community safety and demanding excellence in government. Mamdani pushed back not just against the smears thrown his way during the campaign, but also against the deliberate division of the country that has been a staple of Republican rhetoric since 1972, when President Richard Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew

embraced his role as the key purveyor of positive polarization. In its place, He called for community and solidarity. In this new age we make for ourselves, Mamdani said. We will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another. Here we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you're an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job,

a single mom still waiting for the cost of work, groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too. Mamdani, who is Muslim, promised to build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism, where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power. He called for a government of both competence and compassion. For years, he said, those in City Hall have only helped those who can help them.

But on January 1st, we will usher in a city government that helps everyone. Mamdani took on the problem of disinformation in modern politics, noting that many have heard our message only through the prism of misinformation. information. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent to redefine reality and to convince our neighbors that this new age is something that should frighten them. He laid that disinformation at the feet of the very wealthy in their quest to divide working Americans to make sure they retain power. As so often occurred, he said, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour, that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour. They want the people to fight

amongst ourselves so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long broken system. Mamdani urged New Yorkers to embrace a brave new course rather than fleeing from it. If they do, he said, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears. not the appeasement it craves. Mamdani identified the popular momentum to defeat President Donald J. Trump, but made the point that the goal is not simply to stop Trump, but also to stop the next Trump who comes along. While Mamdani's prescription focused on the avenues of resistance open to New York City government,

he emphasized that for the president to get to any of us, he will have to get through all of us. Mamdani called for New Yorkers to leave mediocrity in our past, and for Democrats to dare to be great. When Mamdani said, New York, this power, it's yours, and told New Yorkers, this city belongs to you, millions of Americans heard a reminder that they too are powerful, and that the government of the United States,

United States of America belongs to them. Momdani won election yesterday backed by just over half the city's voters, in an election characterized by extraordinarily high turnout. Andy Newman of the New York Times noted yesterday that in the last four New York City mayoral elections, fewer than a third of registered voters turned out. Yesterday, more than two million voters voted. The highest turn turnout for a mayoral election since 1969. And that turnout is a key part of the story of yesterday's democratic wave. As Momdani said, American voters appear once again to be aware of their agency in our democracy. Letters from an American was written and read by

Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Mawes.