For a long time in recent memory, political discourse online between leftists and liberals (two groups still indistinguishable in American common understanding, though I do recognize the difference) has been about who to blame. In 2016 and for years to follow, it was about who to blame for Trump winning the general. In 2020 and for years to follow, it was about who was to blame for Biden winning the primary and for the tepid results of his administration. In 2024, it was about who to blame for Trump winning again. I found this very tedious and annoying, because it did not contain the possibility of any kind of real victory - just a bad thing happening with blame assigned to a nearby but not fully aligned faction. At its extreme, you simply could not acknowledge the “wrong” gap to people in one camp or another. Acknowledge any deficiency in the flawed Democratic party, and you were aiding Republicans. Acknowledge a difference between this flawed party and Trump Republicans, and you were aiding the Democratic establishment. Try and see both and you were riding the fence.
Now something good has happened and there is cause for celebration.
I no longer live in NYC – we have our own problematic mayor where I live, and hopefully something better arises soon – and I generally think you have to be locally invested in a place to make strong recommendations about its politics, though I think I know enough between past experience and the news to say at the very least that ranking Zohran, Zellnor, and Brad Lander was a good idea, and ranking Cuomo was a bad one. I was in fact just in NYC this weekend (although very briefly) and it’s still an amazing city. I miss it, though I do love my life where I am.
But even from outside NYC, and even beyond my experience and connection there, I felt something significant and inspiring with Zohran Mamdani – someone who was completely steadfast about left and socialist values, but interested in coalition-building in a way that was broadly legible. He was willing to talk to everyone in plain terms, and stick to his guns. He also articulated a deeply human, lively version of the city, not talking about theoretical abstractions - this is similar to what Obama did on a communication level, but Obama had a more centrist politics that didn’t have as bold an imagination of what could be done for people. Zohran, from what I saw, had a lot of what Sanders had in political imagination and energy (none of this would possible without him) and a lot of what Obama had in campaign energy (on that level, one of the greatest talents in this century) but was also his own guy with his own dynamics - a guy for this place and time. He was internet savvy, understanding the form in a sharp way. He didn’t reduce to memes, but deepened the conversation and captured some real energy in each segment. I liked it a lot.
And he beat Andrew Cuomo, a noxious force that many of the worst and most cowardly people in politics were attempting to rehabilitate, more decisively than many had thought possible.
It’s a hard road ahead. It’s tough for cities to do big things when so much depends on state and federal money and laws and when outside interests and competing political powers are willing to pour in a lot of money to the opposition to “set an example.” In the next few months, he still needs to win in the general against a potential Cuomo second attempt. Then if he does, he still needs to govern, which means staffing well to compensate for less administrative experience (I think that’s possible and have seen it before), dealing with people who would rather ratfuck him than see a general betterment of the city (seen that on many levels up to the federal), and competently managing everyday business and emerging crises, which is never easy for anyone. And again, city budgets and laws only go so far. So it won’t be easy, and I’m always very nervous, because when there’s progress on any front, there’s a lot of attempts to not just thwart it, but write the whole thing off as a mistake and prompt a return to a prior status quo - it’s happened time and time again in our history.
But something really inspiring did happen, and some really great things may happen, and just opening the possibility is big. I hope it spreads.
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Love this. This is the exact take! Exactly how I’m feeling. Iscoe I love when you write about politics especially!