A political shockwave in New York City.

Can everyone please take a big, deep breath?

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary is obviously a huge upset, laced with important political narratives. But some of the reactions to his win — that New York City will now collapse, that the mayoral nominee is a “commie jihadi apologist,”that Jews are no longer safe in the city with the largest Jewish population in the country — are politically manic responses that completely miss those dynamics.

So, as someone who lived in New York City for nearly a decade, and as a Jew who thinks Mamdani is wrong about a lot of stuff, let me try to rationally flesh out some dynamics underlying his primary victory...