I’m delighted to see NYC Mayor Zohram Mamdani is delivering on his campaign promises to make life better for New Yorkers. Filling potholes. Free child care for city workers (eventually everyone). High-tech port-a-potties to compensate for the city’s toilet shortage. A rent freeze for hundreds of apartments.
It’s unsurprising Republicans such as President Toddler or the new DHS head Markwayne Mullin hate his guts. It pisses me off that some Dems are also unhappy with him — because by not being centrist, by showing you can win without steering to the center, Mamdani suggests alternative politics they’re uncomfortable with. He ran a successful campaign, generated massive enthusiasm, he’s proving government can help people in concrete ways — they could learn from him. Sure, his politics might not be a good seller in other parts of the country but helping people in practical ways is always good. What can other Dems in other areas do?
Instead, many of Dem officie holders showed they were more comfortable with Andrew Cuomo, a sexual harasser who got endorsements from the Toddler and Stephen Miller.
This past week it got worse. Mamdani endorsed several candidates in NYC’s recent primaries. The voters backed them over the incumbents. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (a New York representative himself) thinks Mamdani needs to apologize to Congress. This from a politician who refused to criticize corrupt former mayor Eric Adams. New York AG Letitia James has sided with Jeffries: Mamdani is blowing up the Democratic Party and that’s wrong! James Carville, veteran political consultant (which is not to say his opinions are particularly good) says these results convince him he’s done with the Democratic Party
This is ridiculous. While Mamdani’s support may have been influential, it’s the voters who ultimately made the call. Does Jeffries think they should apologize? If he does, he has the sense not to say so. I think his reaction is a mix of discomfort with Mamdani’s left-wing politics and a sense among incumbent politicians that the seat is theirs — sure, they may lose to a member of the opposite party but for someone to challenge them in a primary? What about their rights? The late, unctuous Senator Joe Lieberman once whined that having another Democrat challenge him, a sitting senator, in the primary, was virtually terrorism.
No More Mr. Nice Blog points out one of the winners is indeed far to the left of most Dems but pointing to her and saying her win is unacceptable only draws more attention to her. However she’s only one candidate for one congressional district. The idea she’ll define the party’s politics is daft. Sure, Republicans might make a thing out of her politics (abolish prisons, abolish cops, intermarriage bad) but they’d treat a centrist winner to the same smear tactics (as I’ve mentioned before) so what’s the diff? By contrast Republicans have extreme and idiotic candidates (and extremist idiots) but those candidates never define the entire party. Perhaps, as NMMNB says, because they don’t denounce their own. Plus there’s nothing on the left equivalent to the right wing propaganda organization for spreading lies and assassinating character.
As John Rogers says, a lot of people don’t want the status quo. Lots of establishment Dems want to offer them, at best, a slightly improved status quo, one where things work a little smoother. NYC voters have made it clear that’s no longer sufficient. “Nobody wants all the fucking crazy, be it armed thugs in the streets, insane gaslighting president, mass shootings or wealth inequality or inflation or wars … They do not want this, no matter how ill-defined, or possibly undefinable, this is. And they certainly do not want people who are super into crypto or AI or funding ICE but training them better, basically, they do not want the Dem waiter to KEEP BRINGING THEM THE SOUP, SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT.”
That doesn’t mean everyone wants Mamdani. It does mean they’re ready for change. Courtney Milan makes the same point on Bluesky: ‘We are tired of doing all the work and then being told that our vote is a lock, we have no choice, and so you have to go run around chasing MAGA votes.”
I’ll close with this screen shot from a Hunter Biden post about the lessons politicians anywhere can learn from the primaries.
