In the aftermath of Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s shellacking of Governor Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, the first question that springs to mind is: Where are the Republicans? In short, where is the party, and candidate, pushing an agenda of lower taxes, stronger growth, limited government, educational excellence, and rule of law? That is to say, a program like that of Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg.

The absence of such a vision on the hustings would seem, so far, to be the salient feature of the mayoral race. Seen through that lens, Mr. Mamdani’s strong showing in the primary is a symptom of the larger failure of the Republicans — or centrists in either party — to articulate a compelling strategy for civic renewal. Into that void has leapt Mr. Mamdani, with his socialist siren song of rent freezes, tax hikes on the rich, and government giveaways. 

Mr. Mamdani centers his program around a crisis of affordability, but the irony is that his plans rely on expanding government’s role — when the heavy hand of City Hall is one of the principal drivers of New York’s exorbitant cost of living. Mr. Mamdani’s scheme to freeze rents on many price-regulated apartments would stifle private investment and distort a market already damaged by government meddling. 

Feature, too, his plan to fund a vast expansion of city spending by taxing the rich. This overlooks how easy it is for the city’s wealthiest residents to decamp for lower-tax pastures. In the past few years, some 125,000 New Yorkers have moved to Florida, the Citizens Budget Commission reports, removing some $14 billion in income off the state’s tax rolls. With city schools, public safety, and services deteriorating, residents are voting with their feet.

The proposal by Mr. Mamdani to make public buses free is another head-scratcher, costing some $750 million a year when the city is already suffering a plague of fare evasion on its transit network, undermining the rule of law and depriving the system of fare revenue. Plus, too, how will Mr. Mamdani get the money for his plans, when the state legislature would need to approve any income tax hikes, an idea that Governor Hochul has indicated she would oppose?

How is it that New York’s Republicans have been unable to rebut ideas like Mr. Mamdani’s? We don’t discount the place of the GOP candidate in the race, Curtis Sliwa, a dedicated advocate for public safety. Yet Mr. Sliwa earned less than 28 percent of votes in the 2021 race, and it’s not clear that he is poised for a stronger showing this year. That said, the role of independent candidates in this year’s general election could provide an opening for the Republican.

If the GOP is missing in action in this year’s race, though, one could just as well ask: Where are the Democrats? How did the luminaries of the left fail to find a better opponent to Mr. Mamdani than, say, the charisma-lacking, baggage-carrying Mr. Cuomo? Instead of presenting a centrist alternative, Mr. Mamdani’s rivals in the race appeared to be competing to see who could pander the most to the left. That, though, reflects the electorate’s liberal tilt.

Columnist Michael Barone — who spotted this trend at play in Chicago’s recent mayoral race — describes this shift by noting the rise of what he calls the “barista proletariat.” By that he means “academics and public employees, plus affluent professionals and indigent grad school dropouts,” a demographic characterized by an affinity for “college town ambiance” and “unpopular leftist policies” — not to mention a strong dose of class resentment. 

At Chicago, Mr. Barone reports, doctrinaire liberal mayors induced “high crime, departure of corporate headquarters, Black as well as white flight from the city and state, and vandalism of once-vibrant shopping districts.” He reckons that “Chicago is one of the great artifacts of Western civilization, and the barista proletariat is on the way to destroying it.” That example, and the threat posed by Mr. Mamdani, suggest an opportunity for the GOP, if the party can seize it.