It's the Brian Laira show on WNYC.

Good morning, everyone.

So how many of you know who Eugene V. Debs was?

Many of you do, and I'll guess that many of you don't.

And if you don't, maybe you were

scratching your heads for just a second when Mayor-elect Zeranamam Dani began his victory speech

Tuesday night with this. The sun may have set over our city this evening. But as Eugene Debs once said,

I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.

So in brief, for those of you don't know,

Eugene V. Debs is described this way on the AFL-CIO website. It says,

The best-known apostle of industrial unionism in the early years of the 20th century,

Debs ran for president of the United States on the Socialist Party ticket five times

between 1900 and 1920, winning millions of votes.

So right out of the gate, the mayor elect was leaning into not shrinking from his political identity as a socialist who runs for high office, right?

And later in the speech, he added this.

I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older.

I am Muslim despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist.

And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.

So no apologies for being a socialist. And why should he apologize?

After garnering more votes than hyper-capitalist Michael Bloomberg in any of Bloomberg's

three elections as mayor, and having seen a volunteer army of about 100,000 people

canvas on his behalf, many organized by the New York City chapter of the DSA, the Democratic

...