Every morning, I ride the Metro-North into Grand Central station, walk through the main concourse, and see the constellations painted on the ceiling. It is the only place in New York City where you can see the stars. You can’t wish on them; you can’t follow them north or augur the future in their twinkling. There is no future in this city. You will own nothing, and you will not be happy. In New York you are on your own, and not even the heavens can help you.

"They’re the most privileged class of workers ever produced by capitalism, and they want to end it. Voting for Mamdani won’t do that, but it at least shows you’re trying."

...the young professional managerial class. When you hear about the laptop class—the people with AirPods, college degrees, and “good” jobs that require them to have three roommates in their thirties—this is them. The transition from a manufacturing economy to a service-based one might have killed blue-collar factory jobs, but it created professional managerial class careers in finance, education, and tech, among other fields.

"...and the news reported that Mamdani had performed worst among the very poor and very rich, but won voters making between $75,000 and $150,000 per year."

Everyone seems to acknowledge, at least nowadays, that the working and blue-collar middle class turned to Donald Trump because of a desire to blow up a political and economic system they felt had left them behind. The great irony of the current political moment is that many of the people Trump’s base holds most responsible for their declining fortunes—not altogether incorrectly—also increasingly feel left behind in the world they built for themselves.