When Propaganda Masquerades as Analysis: Dismantling Annie Lowrey’s “New York Is Not a Democracy”

The Atlantic has long perfected the art of laundering elite consensus, and Annie Lowrey’s “New York Is Not a Democracy” brings the stench of that putrifying rot. This essay isn’t analysis or reportage. It’s narrative sabotage—slick, smug, and anchored to a worldview where only particular kinds of “assholes” are anointed to rule.

Lowrey takes aim at a campaign daring to imagine a city for all—a livable, walkable, and breathable city. It is no accident that she targets such a vision and wraps her attack in the weary pose of neutrality.

And the irony? Lowrey is no stranger to these ideas. In 2018, she wrote Give People Money, a book that championed universal basic income to end poverty and remake the world. Yet here she is, mocking a candidate trying to do precisely that: reclaim dignity through public investment.

She paints New York’s ranked-choice primary as chaos. Why? Because it might allow someone like Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist beloved by his district and back…