Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race on affordability has shaken Republicans and Democrats alike. All now scramble to make sense of it. President Donald Trump pronounces “affordability” and “groceries” as if they are esoteric words with some special meaning. Democrats, late to endorsing Mamdani, have now rediscovered the working class. Wonders never cease.

Trump has been hit particularly hard. Not only did he give a half-hearted endorsement of Andrew Cuomo, but he also denounced Mamdani as a “communist.” However, during his meeting with the Mayor-elect, he was the very picture of graciousness. Indeed, he did something he rarely does: he tried to find common ground. Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who belatedly gave his support to Mamdani, now saw him as a herald for change.

Despite all of this, one suspects that Trump and Jeffries secretly wanted Cuomo. Both seem unable to fully grasp why Mamdani won. During the campaign, both regular Democrats and Republicans were as flummoxed as George H.W. Bush in 1992 when he gazed at a supermarket scanner with wonderment. It actually calculated the prices of milk, butter, and eggs. So that’s what they cost?

Ever since Tony Coelho brought corporate elites into the Democratic tent in the nineties, the party has catered to the Bill Gateses and yes, even the Elon Musks of this world. Bill Clinton sacrificed the Family Assistance Program to win passage of a budget and to please Dick Morris, his conservative Republican advisor, who presently loves Trump. This is what Clinton meant by “it’s the economy, stupid”, a better way to implement the trickle-down theory.

Particularly, this is due to Democrats becoming strong among suburban, college-educated voters who are more libertarian than liberal. With Republicans, as they became more MAGA, they were increasingly more suspicious, as their voters were working class. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation from Congress is evidence of this. The “middle class” is often defined so broadly that the rich or near-rich are included. But their sympathies lay with professionals rather than middle managers and shop stewards. Trump is traveling down the same road with his “great big beautiful bill,” led by first, Elon Musk’s now defunct DOGE, and the Scrooge-like Russell Vought.

In each case, both sets of party elites, Democrats and Republicans, fail to grasp the emerging America. For the mega-rich, this all must seem quaint. They live without worry or thought, able to visit islands, which many of them own. At the other scale, even professionals and labor union members are less likely to sing “solidarity forever” than to say “I’ve got mine, Jack.”

But each party should be careful. The German Social Democratic Party left its constituencies in the lurch. Attempting to please their coalition partners in the 1930s, they endorsed economic austerity to preserve “democracy.” They failed to understand that ‘democracy’ without results only strengthens the darker forces. Mamdani should be heeded for he has articulated the true danger to the republic.