On Our "Virtual Route 99" In America As 2026 is Before US: Zohran Mamdani's inauguration ceremony

A new year is at hand here at the Daily Outsider.

We are hitting the ground running as we present this courtesy Eyewitness News ABC7NY, as a new era has begun in New York City, as Zohran Mamdani has been sworn in as Mayor of New York City.   We present this perspective courtesy Corey Rubin:

Mamdani’s inauguration speech: three more observations

By Corey Robin on 01.01.26 In addition to what I wrote earlier today, I want to make three other observations about Mamdani's inauguration speech. First, Trump was almost completely absent from the speech. He came up, by name, only once, when Mamdani referenced the voters who cast their ballots for Trump in 2024 and then for Mamdani in 2025. He came up, by act, only once, when Mamdani made a reference to ICE raids. I don't think anyone believes Mamdani is not aware of Trump or what Trump can do to New York. So we have to ask why he refused to make Trump a feature of his speech. It's not because Mamdani was only interested in going positive and being hopeful; he referenced all sorts of political ne'er-do-wells, problems, and challenges. But his sense of what he's up against is a combination of the left despair, popular apathy and skepticism, and ruling class power, which far exceeds the problem of Trump. So those were the issues he spoke to. That is the kind of language we expect from someone who is interested in realigning our politics, not in simply playing within the confines of those politics. Second, I've mentioned this in passing before, but it was put on astonishing display today: Mamdani's frame of reference is entirely local or global; he bypasses, almost completely, the nation-state. Mamdani invoked the South African Freedom Charter, local restaurants, Kampala, Brighton Beach, the N train, Amazon warehouses, Palestine, the Van Wyck Expressway, Delhi, but nothing, and I mean nothing, about the United States. In fact, his only reference to a national political project, the New Deal, was to remind us that it was born in New York! When Mamdani says, "There is only New York, and there are only New Yorkers," and that "we will set an example for the world," the coordinates he doesn't mention are as important as the ones he does. Last, as always, Mamdani has a sense of history that no one in the Democratic Party—or the Republican Party—can possibly match. He sees himself as the heir of a family extending from David Dinkins back to Fiorello LaGuardia. Could you say anything remotely comparable about Chuck Schumer or Kirsten Gillibrand? Who are Pete Buttigieg or Gavin Newsom the heirs of? Andrew Cuomo really is the heir of a political dynasty, and the only historical claim he could probably make is that the bridge over the Hudson River that is now named after his father was at one time named after someone else. It was a great speech.