Never Zohran is looking a lot like Never Trump

Why New York City is probably screwed

An insurgent outsider surges to the front of the pack to defeat, among others, the scion of a political dynasty. In doing so, he takes positions considered unthinkable to many in the party’s traditional voting base. He is considered so anathema that many in his own party vow never to support him, organizing desperate bid after desperate bid to organize a viable third party challenge in November.

The situation might describe the current predicament facing New York City with the nomination of Zohran Mamdani (of “globalize the intifada,” “seize the means of production”, defund the police, abolish prison fame), but readers will recognize it as a not-too-thinly veiled reference to Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party in 2016 and the failed efforts to stop him after the primaries.

The anti-Zohran forces of today bear a lot of resemblance to the Never Trump movement of 2016, and without a decisive attempt to unify behind a single candidate, are likely to suffer the same fa…