Compact Podcast: “A New Day in NYC”

Date: January 3, 2026
Hosts: Matthew Schmitz, Ashley Frawley, Jeff Shullenberger

Episode Overview

In this lively episode of the Compact Podcast, Matthew Schmitz, Ashley Frawley, and Jeff Shullenberger analyze the early moves of New York City’s new mayor, Zoran Mamdani; discuss President Trump’s threats of military intervention in Iran; and debate a radical new thesis about the Frankfurt School's impact on leftist politics. Blending sharp criticism, historical context, and political theory, the hosts explore how current events in New York and the broader American scene reflect longstanding tensions between individualism and collectivism, and grapple with ideological realignments on the left and right.

1. The Zoran Mamdani Mayoral Era: Hopes, Contradictions, and Rhetoric

Segment: [01:56]–[28:23]

The Hosts’ Initial Reactions

• Jeff Shullenberger expresses measured curiosity about the new mayor, avoiding both the fervor and the alarm:

  “I'm not either particularly caught up in the Mamdani mania, nor particularly worried we are headed for some sort of collapse into, you know, sort of Soviet style breadline dystopia...” ([02:53])

• He humorously imagines a synthesis of Soviet and Sharia dystopias—“Soviet Sharia”—underscoring the sometimes hyperbolic nature of critics’ fears.

Speech Analysis: Abundance, Affordability & The “Warmth of Collectivism”

• Speech Highlights:

  • Abundance and affordability: Mamdani cited both as goals. Many leftists criticized this, since “abundance” is associated with centrist Democrats like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson ([03:59]).
  • Olive branch: By using these “centrist” terms, Mamdani appears to be “extending an olive branch to the abundance faction” of the Democratic Party ([04:53]) while staying aligned with broader party messaging.
  • Contradictions: The speech’s central contradiction was balancing these centrist tropes with the more radical language of “collectivism.”

• The Most Criticized Line:

  • “...replacing the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism...” ([05:55])

    • Ashley Frawley: Finds the line both awkward and potentially provocative:

      “He could have said solidarity... community, cooperation... there are all these terms that he could have used that were not collectivism, which... does not have a particularly positive set of valences...” ([06:07])

    • Matthew Schmitz: Observes that “collectivism” is “a National Review term... does not appear in Jacobin.” ([07:09])
  • Contradictory Imagery:
    • Mamdani claims to oppose individualism but then appeals to “8 1/2 million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe.” ([07:16])
    • Schmitz’s Analysis:

      “There’s a pretty venerable argument that... individualism can advance collectivism and collectivism can kind of advance individualism...” ([07:16])

    • Ashley Frawley: Calls the debate between collectivism vs. individualism “very, very annoying black and white thinking”:

      “Capitalism already collectivizes. That’s the point. We are capable of being individuals to the extent that we are now because of the extraordinary collectivist bent of capitalism.” ([16:09])

Policy Prospects and “Rule by NGOs”

• Mamdani’s “city owned grocery stores” are noted with skepticism. Schmitz points out that city ownership does NOT always mean city operation: Kansas City and Chicago have tried similar initiatives, typically partnering with non-profits or co-ops ([08:38]).
• Schmitz’s Critique:

  “...it’s going to be a kind of extension of the rule by NGOs that Darrell Paul described for Compact in his article Why NGOs Run Your World.” ([08:59])

• The fate of Mamdani’s project will hinge on success with “city run grocery stores, free buses, and public safety,” especially the new “social worker” approach to mental health ([10:54]).

Historical & Social Context: From Bloomberg to Now

• Bloomberg Era:
  • Schmitz recalls the “spirited,” optimistic technocratic liberalism of Bloomberg and Cuomo, whose energy often flowed from support for contested social issues (e.g., gay rights) ([11:34]).
• Today’s Left:
  • Social liberalism has lost its energizing edge (transgender rights are “more divisive within the Democratic Party than gay rights were”).
  • Ashley argues that “the left... has displaced the revolutionary subject” to foreign causes, seen now in pro-Palestinian activism ([19:01]).
  • She warns against romanticizing “the vision of the Palestinian that is the revolutionary subject” and cautions against the cyclical tendency to seek the ideal revolutionary abroad ([19:01]).

Key Quotes & Moments

• Ashley Frawley:

  “In some ways, like being strangled is like a really tight hug. That’s probably warm, but that’s not something that we should ever aspire to.” ([18:17])

• Matthew Schmitz (on Mamdani’s individual/collective rhetoric):

  “So though he’s saying, I’m for collectivism and I’m against individualism... within Mamdani’s own rhetoric, a very strong sense that the individual is the standard by which things are measured.” ([07:16])

• On “It’s a Wonderful Life”:
  Shullenberger likens the movie’s ending to the “warmth of collectivism,” contrasting communal care with the “frigidity of individualism” ([24:54]).

2. Trump’s Threat to Attack Iran: Foreign Policy, Post-9/11 Continuity, and the Deep State

Segment: [28:23]–[42:16]

Trump’s Foreign Policy “Interventionism”

• Schmitz introduces Trump’s declaration:

  “‘The US is locked and loaded and ready to intervene if Iran kills protesters’... are you telling me that the neocons were once again wrong when they said that Trump would be a disaster for their project?” ([28:23])

• Ashley Frawley: Expresses skepticism about the US’s shifting allegiances and humanitarian rationalizations for intervention:

  “…the admirable thing about Trump in the past had been to kind of unabashedly tell the truth about foreign intervention and its purpose…” ([29:56])

The Deep State and Military Bureaucracy

• Shullenberger analyzes how the post-9/11 “national security state” persists—regardless of presidents’ rhetoric or ideology ([34:01]):

  “He is still overseeing the American national security state that was built up in the wake of 9/11, and therefore that itself functions as a source of direction for policy...”

• Historical Context:
  • References to Dick Cheney and the shift in US foreign policy post-9/11 ([32:17]).
  • “Smart war” branding under Obama—a rebranding of the War on Terror with Silicon Valley-infused language ([39:23]).
• On Continuity Despite Political Change:

  “What’s left to the... civilian elected officials is to just kind of put their own spin on it.” ([40:43]) “...the Trumpian as well as originally left critique of the deep state... that the deep state is this kind of unaccountable monstrosity that’s been built up over the past 75 years...” ([40:01])

Key Quotes

• Jeff Shullenberger:

  “What’s notable about this is that they are bragging, they’re openly bragging about doing this as opposed to kind of trying to keep it relatively secret, which is what the previous administrations did.” ([37:34])

• On policy style:

  “In this case, it’s... Trump’s own personality, which is supposed to kind of reassure us. It’s, in a sense, the opposite of the smart war idea…” ([41:19])

3. The Frankfurt School, Leftist Schisms, and Conspiracy Theories

Segment: [42:16]–[62:34]

Frankfurt School’s “Function” Reconsidered

• Background:
  • The right has long accused the Frankfurt School of undermining Western values ([43:16]).
  • New book by Marxist Gabriel Rockhill claims Western Marxists (the Frankfurt School) were fostered by Western powers to prevent true communism—creating a domesticated “compatible” Marxism ([44:11]).

Rockhill & The Online Neo–Third Worldist Left

• Rockhill’s Thesis:

  • The Frankfurt School, rather than undermining capitalism, corralled the left into non-threatening, essentially bourgeois forms of activism ([44:47]).
  • The real revolutionary subjects, he says, are in the Global South; the Western left is a lost cause duped by consumerism.

• Ashley Frawley:
  Cites Neal Davenport’s “Dialectic of Anti Enlightenment” (2010), describing how the Frankfurt School’s blame of “mass politics” for fascism led to suspicion toward working-class movements—a suspicion that lingers today ([52:02]).

• Schullenberger:
  Notes a convergence and mutual suspicion between the “multipolarist” right and certain anti-hegemonic, pro-China “Third Worldists” in online circles ([45:43]).

  “I do think it has a kind of echo of the groyper wars that have been happening on the right...” ([50:00])

  • These “angry, mobilized” factions lack institutional power but wield significant online influence.

The Problem of Revolutionary Subjects & Working-Class Alienation

• Ashley Frawley:
  Argues that both the left and elites now avoid mobilizing the domestic working class, preferring to outsource “revolutionary potential” abroad—often at the expense of domestic social stability, as seen in immigration debates ([58:19]):

  “Our good progressive politicians prefer to fight... even the Islamic contingents that they import than their own working class... Anything is preferable to that because [the working class] had a real and for them terrifying ability to destabilize the capitalist order...”

• Rockhill’s and the “Tankie” Left’s Pessimism:
  See Western masses as “hopelessly duped by consumerism and... inherently racist” ([57:13]).

Anti-Modernity and Political Reaction

• The episode closes with a reflection on anti-modernity as a unifying undercurrent in left- and right-wing reactionary politics:

  “I think various forms of anti modernity are again maybe what would unite the kind of duganite multipolarists with the sort of third worldists on the left...” ([61:57]) “...a kind of slow shrinking away from the promises of modernity...” ([62:12])

Most Notable Quotes & Moments

• Ashley Frawley on Collectivism vs. Individualism:

  “Capitalism already collectivizes. That’s the point. We are capable of being individuals to the extent that we are now because of the extraordinary collectivist bent of capitalism.” ([16:09])

• Matthew Schmitz on Political Rhetoric:

  “Collectivism is a National Review term... it does not appear in Jacobin.” ([07:09])

• Jeff Shullenberger on “It’s a Wonderful Life”:

  “You could describe the atmosphere of the final scene of that film as invoking the warmth of collectivism...” ([24:54])

• Ashley Frawley on Outsourcing Revolution:

  “…there’s this hunt for the perfect revolutionary subject somewhere else. And they found this... in the vision of the Palestinian... not the. Whatever real Palestinians are, don’t really matter.” ([19:01])

Important Timestamps

• 01:56 — Start of substantive discussion; Mamdani’s mayoral transition
• 03:59 — Mamdani’s “abundance”/“affordability” rhetoric
• 05:55 — The “warmth of collectivism” line
• 07:16 — Contradictions in Mamdani’s individual/collective imagery
• 16:09 — Ashley Frawley's systemic critique of left-right clichés
• 24:54 — “It’s a Wonderful Life” as collectivist parable
• 28:23 — Shift to Trump and Iran policy
• 34:01 — Enduring structures of post-9/11 US foreign policy
• 40:01 — The deep state and continuity across administrations
• 42:16 — Segment: Frankfurt School, leftist fracture, and Rockhill’s book
• 44:11 — Rockhill’s thesis: Western Marxism as controlled opposition
• 50:00 — Online “tankie”/multipolarist/third-worldist phenomenon
• 52:02 — Critique of Frankfurt School’s legacy on left politics
• 57:13 — Western masses as seen by the new “tankie” left
• 61:57 — Anti-modernity as cross-ideological impulse

Tone & Style

• The hosts blend academic debate and sharp polemic with cultural references (e.g., “Soviet Sharia,” “It’s a Wonderful Life”).
• Frequent sardonic humor—especially when critiquing both left and right ideological clichés.
• High level of theoretical and historical references, but interspersed with colloquial language.

Summary

This episode offers a robust and wide-ranging discussion connecting local New York politics to global ideological struggles, warning of simplistic binaries (individualism vs. collectivism), and tracing patterns of realignment and reaction on both sides of the political spectrum. Whether analyzing Mamdani’s inaugural rhetoric, America’s persistent military posture, or the left’s theoretical squabbles, the Compact hosts dissect not just the facts but the deeper currents shaping political debate in 2026.