One of the most influential figures in today’s political update never appeared on the ballot.

He’s a professor.

Mahmood Mamdani has taught courses on colonialism and post-colonial political theory at Columbia University for decades.

On the website Rate My Professors, he has only four reviews — far too few to judge an academic career. But in case you’re curious, his overall rating is 2.0 out of 5. Just 34% of reviewers say they’d take another class with him.

One anonymous student, for instance, criticized Professor Mamdani for assigning Mamdani’s own book:

“Major Debates featured a non-debatable topic presented by a socialist who is truly a capitalist feeding on the naivetés of college students. Prof. Mamdani practiced selective capitalism at its finest making students buy a useless book Define and Rule that he never referenced throughout the entire course! I would not attend his courses again.”

What makes Mahmood Mamdani noteworthy isn’t an anonymous internet review. It’s the influence he’s had far beyond the classroom.

His more famous son, Zohran Mamdani, now serves as New York City’s mayor after campaigning on rent freezes, city-owned grocery stores, fare-free buses, universal child care and higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers.

Many of those proposals overlap with priorities championed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), including expanded government spending and wealth redistribution.

Last week, that movement gained more ground.

Your Rundown for Monday, June 29, 2026...

The Democratic Party’s Far-Left Turn

Three DSA-backed candidates defeated establishment Democrats in New York’s congressional primaries on Tuesday. Because those districts overwhelmingly favor Democrats, the winners are expected to head to Congress next January.

Paradigm's D.C. authority Jim Rickards believes those races are the latest result of a political strategy that has unfolded over decades.

“The idea is that you don’t have to destroy institutions,” he writes. “With patience, you can take them over from the inside.”

Jim argues that strategy has played out gradually as activists gained influence in universities, foundations, media and government bureaucracy before translating those ideas into electoral victories.

That brings us back to where this story started.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is the son of a Columbia professor whose academic career has focused on leftist theory. Jim believes that connection reflects a broader trend.

“Today’s radicals are in their 20s and 30s, but many were taught by professors and activists whose political roots trace back to the radical movements of the 1960s,” he says.

“While many Baby Boomers and Gen Xers went into law, finance or technology, others remained in academia, where they taught Marxist ideas to younger generations.

“Now we see the results.”

Jim says those results are changing the Democratic Party itself.

“This is not a case of Democrat versus Republican or progressive versus conservative,” he notes. “This is Democrat-on-Democrat political warfare. It’s the far left attacking the merely left.

“Many younger Millennials and Gen Zers who embrace Marxist ideas are running for office and are coming for your wealth,” Jim warns.

“Ignore them at your peril.”

Market Rundown for Monday, June 29, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.85% to 7,465.

Oil’s up 1.25% to $70.10 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is down almost 1% to $4,057.80 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 0.75%, just under $60K.