There are many ways a progressive politician can fail. They can fail to be elected. They can fail to deliver on their platform once in office. And they can also fail to build up the left’s power in a way that outlasts their administration.

This third possibility has often been overlooked by commentary around Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor. However, this scenario fits the tenure of John Vliet Lindsay perfectly: a New York mayor who, from 1966 to 1973, passed progressive legislation that leftists would dream of winning today, but whose administration nonetheless oversaw an erosion of working-class power.

Because of this failure, Lindsay’s good intentions and accomplishments were largely for naught. By the late 1970s, his legacy was all but undone and the ex-mayor himself became, in The New York Times’ words, an “exile in his own city.”