Mamdani’s Rise Proves that Demographics Are Destiny

As self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani stands on the cusp of becoming the most powerful and influential local elected official in the United States, he is proving that all one needs for a Marxist revolution is to import new voters amenable to a radical rejection of American culture. While foreign-born New Yorkers overwhelmingly back Mamdani, native-born New Yorkers are spurning him in similarly decisive numbers.

In his 2011 classic work of political science, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Dr. Samuel P. Huntington observed the following about multiculturalism and universalism both at home and abroad:

Some Americans have promoted multiculturalism at home, some have promoted universalism abroad, and some have done both. Multiculturalism at home threatens the United States and the West; universalism abroad threatens the West and the World. Both deny the uniqueness of Western culture.

At the heart of multiculturalism and universalism lies mass migration. The unrelenting influx of migrants throughout the West, whether via legal or illegal pathways, has not just deeply influenced American and Western culture. It has also changed the electorate, leading to what could be an irreversible shift in political power toward the left.

Nowhere is this multicultural shift in political power more evident than in the New York City mayoral election, where Mamdani, a newly naturalized citizen, holds a commanding lead in the polls.

According to a recent survey, the Ugandan-born Mamdani (and he has refused to renounce his Ugandan citizenship) maintains a significant lead among foreign-born New Yorkers, garnering an astounding 62 percent of their support. By comparison, former Governor and Queens native Andrew Cuomo only holds 24 percent of foreign-born support, while Brooklyn-born Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa holds a paltry 12 percent.

Among American-born residents, however, the picture reverses dramatically. Cuomo holds the highest level of support of native-born New Yorkers at 40 percent, with Mamdani following at 32 percent and Sliwa at 25 percent.

This means, collectively, that Mamdani’s two American-born challengers account for 65 percent support among native-born respondents, mirroring Mamdani’s dominance within the foreign-born population.

Many political pundits on the left are attributing Mamdani’s ascendancy to the rise in popularity of his overtly socialist platform, such as free public buses, city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, and criminal justice reform (he previously advocated for cutting hundreds of cops from the already understaffed NYPD).

Others, such as writer and social justice activist Shaun King, believe that it is Mamdani’s talents as a politician that have him in a position to win. As King recently posted, “To be a Muslim and win as Mayor of New York City, you basically have to be the single most gifted politician of this generation.”

While there is some truth to both explanations, something deeper and more consequential is at work: The deliberate changing of America’s demographics by way of mass migration.

As populations change through immigration, so too does the local electorate. As the electorate changes due to the influx of foreigners, so do the politicians who inevitably rise to represent their constituents. And when those politicians begin to reflect foreign values, cities, states, and eventually the nation itself change to reflect those values – many of which are at odds with traditional American values.

In short, demographics are destiny, and this demographic shift in New York City can be seen spreading across the United States.

Take, for example, the city of Hamtramck, Michigan, with a population of around 28,000.

In 1970, 90 percent of Hamtramck residents were of Polish ancestry, but the vast majority were born in the United States. Today, that number has dwindled to around 10 percent. According to Census data, more than 40 percent of the city is foreign-born, and almost 70 percent of its residents are Muslim.

Unsurprisingly, the elected representatives of Hamtramck now reflect this demographic shift to a majority Muslim immigrant population.

The mayor of Hamtramck is Muslim and was born in Yemen. The police chief, as well as the six members of the Hamtramck city council, are all Muslim.

Landmarks have also changed. Main Street in Hamtramck, once called Holbrook Avenue, was recently renamed to Palestine Avenue, while signs at City Hall are now presented in three languages: English, Arabic, and Bengali.

In nearby Dearborn, Michigan, a street was recently renamed after Osama Siblani, a prominent Muslim who vocally opposed the U.S. designating Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. When a Christian man spoke out about the renaming at a city council meeting, Dearborn’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, told him that he is “not welcome” in the city.

These demographic shifts inevitably lead to cultural shifts and eventually electoral shifts within cities that can swing entire states from red to purple to blue.

In his book The Stakes, author Michael Anton details how “California was the greatest middle-class paradise in the history of mankind. Yet, in barely one generation, that California was swept away and transformed into a left-liberal one-party state.”

How did this happen? The answer lies once again in demographics.

Today, nearly one in three Californians is foreign-born, marking one of the most dramatic demographic shifts in modern American history.

In Los Angeles, one of the epicenters of today’s unrest over immigration enforcement, more than 35 percent of residents are foreign-born, and nearly half identify as Hispanic or Latino.

Within a single generation, California went from a state Ronald Reagan won twice in landslides to one that Republicans now struggle to reach 40 percent in.

The irony is inescapable: the very amnesty bill Reagan signed in 1986, granting legal status to nearly three million illegal aliens, helped set in motion the demographic changes that would ultimately turn his home state permanently blue.

But while amnesty policies were devastating, America’s dramatic demographic shift was primarily driven by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Hart-Celler Act. That law abolished immigration quotas based on nation of origin, paving the way for chain migration and an enormous influx of arrivals from nations that, in many cases, were openly hostile toward the United States and American culture.

In 1970, soon after the passage of Hart-Celler, the foreign-born population of New York City stood at around 1.4 million, which represented 18 percent of the city’s population. However, nationally, the total foreign-born population of the United States stood at just 4.7 percent.

Today, the Big Apple is home to about 3.1 million immigrants, only half of whom are naturalized citizens, which comprises an astounding 38 percent of the city’s total population.

Meanwhile, the total foreign-born population of the United States surged to nearly 16 percent prior to Trump’s efforts at stemming and reversing the damage of unchecked mass migration under Biden.

Incredibly, this dramatic demographic change has taken place all in a span of a little under 55 years – less than one lifetime.

Now, the entirety of today’s political left, but also on the “open borders” economic libertarian right, view this as a good thing. After all, they claim, multiculturalism and diversity are “our strength,” while the free flow of cheap labor across borders is necessary because immigrants “do the jobs Americans won’t do.”

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Replacing a nation’s population effectively ends the nation as it exists. It may retain the same name, but that name now represents a completely new identity and set of values.

Of course, noticing the negative effects of demographic change will result in one being branded as “xenophobic” at best and “racist” at worst.

But acknowledging demographic reality isn’t racist. In fact, this “conspiracy theory” has been regularly discussed and celebrated among liberal elites for decades. In fact, replacement is at the center of Democrats’ electoral strategy.

Anton laid this out in his essay titled “Unprecedented”:

The ‘Great Replacement’ is happening, not just in America but throughout the West. Elites both deny and affirm it… They get to say it; you’re required not merely to pretend that you didn’t hear it but also to insist that they never said it. No majority stock in any nation has ever deliberately sought its own replacement, much less insisted that those who might have misgivings lie to themselves that it’s not happening.

When relatively small numbers of new arrivals come to the United States, it encourages assimilation and the folding of cultures into the dominant American culture. But when large numbers of people arrive all at once, it encourages Balkanization and the creation of ethnic enclaves that erode and ultimately replace American culture.

Every nation faces a moment when it must decide whether to continue as itself or dissolve into something new. America’s moment is now. The transformation of its cities, from Hamtramck to Los Angeles to New York, shows how easily and quickly a people can be replaced not only demographically, but also culturally and spiritually.

A nation is more than an abstract “idea” or a measure of economic output; it is a people with a shared inheritance, bound by collective memory and meaning. To preserve that inheritance for our posterity, we must reject the lie that we can replace the American people with people from elsewhere and still remain the same country. A nation that forgets who it is cannot endure.

Adam Johnston is a writer whose work has been featured in The Federalist, The Blaze, and the Daily Caller. He is also the creator of the Substack publication “Conquest Theory,” where he regularly writes about politics, history, philosophy, and technology. You can find him on X @ConquestTheory.