The plot against Zohran Mamdani

“Why did you have to go on?” Lauren Bacall asks Humphrey Bogart at the end of The Big Sleep, the archetypal study of American sadism, cruelty and sleaze. “Too many people told me to stop,” he answers, with a dash of valiant redemption. If Zohran Mamdani, the surprising winner of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, wins the mayoralty in November, his victory will have much to do with a reflexive New York City response to the ugly hysteria opposing him. Donald Tru