I’ve been hollowed out by the vacuous opportunism of Obama (credit to Adolph Reed) for decades now. He and his operatives continue to attempt to grind any prospect of progressive policies into the ground. I very much appreciate your time and effort on the compare-and-contrast.
An Indie Journo friend of mine attended a Mamdani watch party for the primary. The attendees were mostly recently graduated (college) Gen Zs.
After the victory announcement, he headed out into the hallway to find a bathroom. A young woman was absolutely sobbing seated with her back to the wall and head pressed into her knees.
He asked if she were okay and if there were anything he could do.
After a bit she responded that she would be fine and that she was expressing relief that Mamdani had won.
The quote I got from him was that she said:
“This was the last fucking thing that I had any hope for and I was sure they were going to take it away from us…!”
He eventually got around to asking who “they” were?
“The Democrats” she responded.
That sentiment is entirely consistent with my Gen Z daughter’s friend group.
Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't emotionally invest that much into Mamdani, but no doubt he's giving many a path forward. He's not our typical "wild card" we know enough about him.
Surely you can understand the emotional beatdown that Gen Z has gotten in terms of disappointments in political leadership. They are not yet fully jaded as are some of us.
Sure, in 2000 I watched Al Gore lose to George W. Bush. Then in 2004 in the middle of a war I watched him get re-elected and beat John Kerry. Both of those Democratic candidates lost and I had no emotional investment in the Democrats at that time. It was absolutely hopeless. Everyone has to be failed by the Democratic establishment thoroughly and exhaustively. It's as American as apple pie.
Thank you for this article and the opportunity to learn more about Mamdami’s background. I’m in Canada 🇨🇦, and am impressed with Mamdami. However, I fear that the wolves are seriously snd unjustly out to get him and (very sadly) destroy him.
We now live in a bizarre world where it’s considered abhorrent to oppose genocide, and it’s mandatory to close our eyes to the atrocities and war crimes being inflicted upon the Palestinians in Israel.
Thank you. A very well researched article and well written too.
Your line "Words come in two flavours; descriptive and prescriptive" stimulates much thought and is a yardstick by which I will test many poli-promises in the future.
As a friend of the Mamdani family, having known Mahmood and Mira in Uganda, I can put my life on the line and say that the family DO NOT make empty promises.
Mira's first feature film was about the street children in Bombay and she worked with them and with prostitutes of Bombay, to tell one of the most realistic stories of that city in Salaam Bombay. She did not go for Bollywood Tinsel & Glory!!
Like Mira, and like Mahmood, Zohran is not in the running for Mayor for the Tinsel & Glory. He too works with Objectives. Being mayor is just a means to reach that objective - a better life for all the people of New York!! I hope this spreads through the USA. People first!
Thanks for the kind words! I got another Mamdani article in the hopper, so stay tuned. It's about 80% done, but I broke off an article on Finkelstein which has to land first, and I got another topic I wrote about regarding PBS (our public broadcasting channel). But it'll be out soon enough. Next one is in defense of Mamdani's answer to "Does Israel have a right to exist." It's required even more research than this one.
If Obama endorses Mamdani and Mamdani accepts it, that would be your best indicator. Establishment democratic endorsements are enormous red signs!
Obama stumped for Mandela Barnes, so Mandela was willing to play ball.
Mamdani should reject any establishment endorsement. Would you want those guys endorsing your campaign? I wouldn’t, if I really want to distance myself from them.
I can only speak for myself, I would take an endorsement from Satan. I would strategically not acknowledge it, but I'm not going to stop people from supporting me. That seems like a bizarre place to draw the line.
As I said, if Obama stumps for you, then you are already on my “very concerned” list of prospective candidates who are willing to sell out to the establishment
I'll respond to both comments here, because they're related. I agree, if Obama stumps for you there is reason to be concerned. But it's not sufficient to warrant distancing. I have concern for my safety every time I get into a car, but it's not sufficient to avoid cars. Moreover, it's not clear how the DNC will react to Mamdani yet: we have to wait and see. The suspicion is that Cuomo will run as an independent. Maybe. Maybe not. But even if so, I can see Mamdani getting some establishment support, simply because "Vote Blue No Matter Who" has so much buy-in from politicians and voters. Some people will stick with him regardless as he won the primary. I just wouldn't penalize him for that.
re: having Satan's endorsement. No, I wouldn't be concerned about that. For example, if David Duke endorsed me, I would say "I would like to thank David Duke for his endorsement. For too long this country has divided by race, I hope to drive a campaign which embodies the brotherhood of men, and tackles the interest that are responsible for holding people down and preventing them from prospering. For too long we've moved toward racial division and away from our common enemy. Today, a group of people have turned and joined us. We have not moved. We will never change course. This is all of our struggle, and we welcome anyone who is convinced of that to join us."
Etc. I just typed that up in one min. You get the idea. There is no reason to shit on anyone who wants to support you. Politics is about power. Money is power. Money can buy votes. People voting for you is money. Throwing that away is literally throwing away money. It's almost never the right thing to do.
I can understand being ambivalent about an endorsement from a liberal politician who doesn’t have the same understanding of politics as the more leftist candidate. I can’t understand accepting an endorsement from someone antithetical to a candidate. I think liberal endorsements may allow someone to say that you hope this means they see the value of your positions and that it’s definitely not vice versa (not the leftist candidate becoming more liberal). But for an antithetical endorsement that’s usually tactically meant to destroy the candidate. And accepting that is not neutral or ambivalent behavior. It either needs to be called out for being a tactic or simply denounced. Because otherwise people who care about these issues, and who have their lives on the line, are going to know not to trust the candidate.
Ok, if you were running for office and prospective voters found out you accepted an endorsement of Satan, wouldn’t you be concerned that people will think you are aligned with Satan?
Most if our young progressive racehorse like AOC and Mamdani have a profound limp when running on a certain race track. That race track is called Immigration. It does not matter how they parse their stand but it all seems to connote to, "come on down all of you". The end result is their voices and power and influence will be restricted to NY, NY. Mamdani should stop talking about immigration period. Indeed he should start echoing Trump on some of the anti immigration themes which has won him the Blue Collar class.
Why would he do that, he just ran -- and won the primary -- talking about immigration and not at all sounding like Trump? It seems underneath your message is the sentiment that you think people are anti-immigration and xenophobic. I'm not sure that is true. This is from a new article just today on immigration...
> Well, his handling of immigration mirrors his overall job approval rating. Only 43 percent say that they approve of the job that the president is doing when it comes to handling immigration; 52 percent disapprove.
I'll go hard on the other side on this one -- immigration is a distant second-rate issue for me after anti-war, but on immigration I am for open-borders and I live in Texas. It's not clear to my _why_ my unskilled grandparents which came from Russia not speaking English should be able to immigrate to the USA after being checked for lice, while unskilled Mexicans have no route to a life here despite being much more aligned with the culture than a peasant in the 1880s emigrating from Russia.
I think you can win on this issue and be for the most diametrically opposed position, sell it: "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Call it a conservative value. We should have never let it go.
Thank you so much.
I’ve been hollowed out by the vacuous opportunism of Obama (credit to Adolph Reed) for decades now. He and his operatives continue to attempt to grind any prospect of progressive policies into the ground. I very much appreciate your time and effort on the compare-and-contrast.
An Indie Journo friend of mine attended a Mamdani watch party for the primary. The attendees were mostly recently graduated (college) Gen Zs.
After the victory announcement, he headed out into the hallway to find a bathroom. A young woman was absolutely sobbing seated with her back to the wall and head pressed into her knees.
He asked if she were okay and if there were anything he could do.
After a bit she responded that she would be fine and that she was expressing relief that Mamdani had won.
The quote I got from him was that she said:
“This was the last fucking thing that I had any hope for and I was sure they were going to take it away from us…!”
He eventually got around to asking who “they” were?
“The Democrats” she responded.
That sentiment is entirely consistent with my Gen Z daughter’s friend group.
So…
Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't emotionally invest that much into Mamdani, but no doubt he's giving many a path forward. He's not our typical "wild card" we know enough about him.
Surely you can understand the emotional beatdown that Gen Z has gotten in terms of disappointments in political leadership. They are not yet fully jaded as are some of us.
Thanks again.
Sure, in 2000 I watched Al Gore lose to George W. Bush. Then in 2004 in the middle of a war I watched him get re-elected and beat John Kerry. Both of those Democratic candidates lost and I had no emotional investment in the Democrats at that time. It was absolutely hopeless. Everyone has to be failed by the Democratic establishment thoroughly and exhaustively. It's as American as apple pie.
Thank you for this article and the opportunity to learn more about Mamdami’s background. I’m in Canada 🇨🇦, and am impressed with Mamdami. However, I fear that the wolves are seriously snd unjustly out to get him and (very sadly) destroy him.
We now live in a bizarre world where it’s considered abhorrent to oppose genocide, and it’s mandatory to close our eyes to the atrocities and war crimes being inflicted upon the Palestinians in Israel.
Dear Evan Carroll,
Thank you. A very well researched article and well written too.
Your line "Words come in two flavours; descriptive and prescriptive" stimulates much thought and is a yardstick by which I will test many poli-promises in the future.
As a friend of the Mamdani family, having known Mahmood and Mira in Uganda, I can put my life on the line and say that the family DO NOT make empty promises.
Mira's first feature film was about the street children in Bombay and she worked with them and with prostitutes of Bombay, to tell one of the most realistic stories of that city in Salaam Bombay. She did not go for Bollywood Tinsel & Glory!!
Like Mira, and like Mahmood, Zohran is not in the running for Mayor for the Tinsel & Glory. He too works with Objectives. Being mayor is just a means to reach that objective - a better life for all the people of New York!! I hope this spreads through the USA. People first!
Thanks again and all the best
Rossini
Thanks for the kind words! I got another Mamdani article in the hopper, so stay tuned. It's about 80% done, but I broke off an article on Finkelstein which has to land first, and I got another topic I wrote about regarding PBS (our public broadcasting channel). But it'll be out soon enough. Next one is in defense of Mamdani's answer to "Does Israel have a right to exist." It's required even more research than this one.
If you want to proof the article, send me a pvmsg. =)
If Obama endorses Mamdani and Mamdani accepts it, that would be your best indicator. Establishment democratic endorsements are enormous red signs!
Obama stumped for Mandela Barnes, so Mandela was willing to play ball.
Mamdani should reject any establishment endorsement. Would you want those guys endorsing your campaign? I wouldn’t, if I really want to distance myself from them.
I can only speak for myself, I would take an endorsement from Satan. I would strategically not acknowledge it, but I'm not going to stop people from supporting me. That seems like a bizarre place to draw the line.
As I said, if Obama stumps for you, then you are already on my “very concerned” list of prospective candidates who are willing to sell out to the establishment
I'll respond to both comments here, because they're related. I agree, if Obama stumps for you there is reason to be concerned. But it's not sufficient to warrant distancing. I have concern for my safety every time I get into a car, but it's not sufficient to avoid cars. Moreover, it's not clear how the DNC will react to Mamdani yet: we have to wait and see. The suspicion is that Cuomo will run as an independent. Maybe. Maybe not. But even if so, I can see Mamdani getting some establishment support, simply because "Vote Blue No Matter Who" has so much buy-in from politicians and voters. Some people will stick with him regardless as he won the primary. I just wouldn't penalize him for that.
re: having Satan's endorsement. No, I wouldn't be concerned about that. For example, if David Duke endorsed me, I would say "I would like to thank David Duke for his endorsement. For too long this country has divided by race, I hope to drive a campaign which embodies the brotherhood of men, and tackles the interest that are responsible for holding people down and preventing them from prospering. For too long we've moved toward racial division and away from our common enemy. Today, a group of people have turned and joined us. We have not moved. We will never change course. This is all of our struggle, and we welcome anyone who is convinced of that to join us."
Etc. I just typed that up in one min. You get the idea. There is no reason to shit on anyone who wants to support you. Politics is about power. Money is power. Money can buy votes. People voting for you is money. Throwing that away is literally throwing away money. It's almost never the right thing to do.
I can understand being ambivalent about an endorsement from a liberal politician who doesn’t have the same understanding of politics as the more leftist candidate. I can’t understand accepting an endorsement from someone antithetical to a candidate. I think liberal endorsements may allow someone to say that you hope this means they see the value of your positions and that it’s definitely not vice versa (not the leftist candidate becoming more liberal). But for an antithetical endorsement that’s usually tactically meant to destroy the candidate. And accepting that is not neutral or ambivalent behavior. It either needs to be called out for being a tactic or simply denounced. Because otherwise people who care about these issues, and who have their lives on the line, are going to know not to trust the candidate.
Ok, if you were running for office and prospective voters found out you accepted an endorsement of Satan, wouldn’t you be concerned that people will think you are aligned with Satan?
Is your criticism of AOC based on her accomplishments or her gender?
Interesting read! I have my own take on it here:
https://tatsuikeda.substack.com/p/the-mamdani-test-how-a-nobody-flashmobbed?r=az7fq
Most if our young progressive racehorse like AOC and Mamdani have a profound limp when running on a certain race track. That race track is called Immigration. It does not matter how they parse their stand but it all seems to connote to, "come on down all of you". The end result is their voices and power and influence will be restricted to NY, NY. Mamdani should stop talking about immigration period. Indeed he should start echoing Trump on some of the anti immigration themes which has won him the Blue Collar class.
Why would he do that, he just ran -- and won the primary -- talking about immigration and not at all sounding like Trump? It seems underneath your message is the sentiment that you think people are anti-immigration and xenophobic. I'm not sure that is true. This is from a new article just today on immigration...
> Well, his handling of immigration mirrors his overall job approval rating. Only 43 percent say that they approve of the job that the president is doing when it comes to handling immigration; 52 percent disapprove.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-poll-reveals-americans-views-on-key-trump-policies
I'll go hard on the other side on this one -- immigration is a distant second-rate issue for me after anti-war, but on immigration I am for open-borders and I live in Texas. It's not clear to my _why_ my unskilled grandparents which came from Russia not speaking English should be able to immigrate to the USA after being checked for lice, while unskilled Mexicans have no route to a life here despite being much more aligned with the culture than a peasant in the 1880s emigrating from Russia.
I think you can win on this issue and be for the most diametrically opposed position, sell it: "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Call it a conservative value. We should have never let it go.