Last week, I contended that my generation of baby boomers is a disappointing lot.
This week, a generation of younger New Yorkers agreed.
That’s what I make of Zohran Mamdani’s surprising win in the Democratic primary of mayor of New York. Actually, Mamdani hasn’t won yet, but he’s well first in the first tabulation of ballots in the city’s ranked-choice voting, and runner-up Andrew Cuomo already conceded.
If he wins the general election in November – he’ll be favored but is not a lock – the 33-year-old Mamdani would be one of the youngest mayors in the city’s 400-year history. Jeez, he’s younger than my daughter.
And that – more than any other reason – might be why Mamdani shocked the city’s political establishment.
At age 71, there’s nothing I can drink or eat that gives me the boost of energy from walking the streets of New York. Like so many other great cities, it’s where young people flock to eat, to listen, to play, to watch, to have fun. It moves fast. Its active residents want nothing more than to be able to move at their own pace without encumbrance.
Most of all, it’s a city tired of being encumbered by a generation that believes tall buildings and luxury define greatness.
New York is about waiting in line 40 minutes for a $5 roast pork takeout dinner in Chinatown. New York is about sitting by the Central Park Reservoir while a four-person jazz combo performs a stunning rendition of “Embraceable You.” New York is about art around you, strange outfits, unisex bathrooms and the quest for the perfect pizza slice.
Mamdani seems to understand that.
The people in the Democratic establishment don’t. They think they’re living in a city that requires the approval of the monied class to fund development. They fall back on people with well-known names and older celebrities as if they – and not the young people in pubs and bodegas – are the city’s future.
I don’t live in New York City – I live north and west, in a place that’s trying its damnedest to be nothing like New York City. But because the people who live in the ‘burbs often depend on the city, they resent it.
That’s all crystallized in the congestion pricing debate. Nobody around here wants to pay $15 to drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan, and they see a toll for doing that as a violation of their privilege to use their car wherever the hell they want.
People who live in the congestion pricing zone love it. There’s less traffic, making the streets safer to cross. There’s less noise and pollution. Less horn honking. Buses run faster. Ambulances have fewer obstacles.
Mamdani seems to stand for ideas like that. He wants to find a way to make bus service free and faster.
He supports the idea of collective city-run supermarkets – not, as residents of Park Slope in Brooklyn know, a completely novel idea. This way, those who are less affluent don’t have to pay the gouged prices you can find at a Morton Williams or Gristedes – supermarket chains you and your wallet should be grateful aren’t in your area.
Mamdani’s win has shaken up New York politics and has the TV talking heads chattering. It has Republicans laser focused on demonizing him in order to get one of its longshots to squeak through. And it has the national Democrats in a quandary – do we embrace or ignore this guy?
So here are four thoughts:
— TRUMP: If you don’t think Mamdani’s win has something to do with Trump, you aren’t paying attention.
This is absolutely New York Democrats wanting not to feel powerless in the fight against a dictatorship. This is absolutely an entire segment of the populace saying that we’re giving up on trying to triangulate against Trump, let’s take the stupid bastard on.
Trump knows it. He went after Mamdani in one of those whatever-he-calls-a-Truth-Social posts.
Good. Let’s take the freakin’ gloves off.
— THE MIDDLE EAST: When I was young, there was a beer commercial highlighting New York’s diversity. Each had a tagline – for instance, for Italians, it would be “In New York City, where there are more than Italians than in the whole of Naples, more people drink Rheingold…”
For Jewish New Yorkers, it was “In New York City, where there are more Jews than in the whole of Israel, more people drink Rheingold…”
That was true back then. It’s not now, but New York City is as great as it is in part because of Jewish influence. New Yorkers schlep, they buy tchotchkes, they eat knishes – and all 8 million of them know what those phrases mean.
So Israel is a big issue here, much more so than in any other locality in the U.S. and maybe the world.
Mamdani is Muslim. That’s the background to the fact that he doesn’t support what the Netanyahu government has done in Gaza. He didn’t dance around it. He made one unfortunate comment that gave opponents ammunition to say he’s antisemitic.
He’s not. Opposing Netanyahu and what’s happened in Gaza is not anti-Israel. As I said last week – and stand by – no one has done as much to reignite antisemitism in the world as Benjamin Netanyahu.
I suspect Mamdani will be more assertive about supporting Israeli’s right to exist as much as he supports the Palestinians’ right to self-determination – he kind of mumbled that in his appearance of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this week.
Importantly, Mamdani garnered a lot of support from Jewish voters who are as heartsick about Gaza as they are about what Hamas did to kids and the elderly in October 2023. And his collaboration with one of his opponents who is Jewish, city comptroller Brad Lander, is meant to show that Mamdani will work with others to make the city a more affordable place to live.
THE DEVIL (aka SOCIALISM): Americans are conditioned to believe socialism is evil. It’s something the wealthiest among us have pushed since the Gilded Age.
In particular, because they take on the mantle of being “socialist,” communist states such as the Soviet Union and China are what are sold as being the outcome of turning toward socialism.
That’s not right. At all. We already have some vestiges of socialism. Defense contractors and farmers receive subsidies from the federal government. Most public transportation is run by local government agencies.
That’s not going to stop Mamdani’s opponents from conjuring images of empty store shelves and fleeing businesses if he’s elected.
But the real socialism Mamdani proposes is best seen in his plans for small businesses. He wants the city to foster small businesses – provide subsidies, cut fees and fines, offer mentoring programs to get new enterprises going.
That is what people want.
New Yorkers may have swallowed hard and realized they’re socialists after all. Now those who can’t stand that idea – think hedge fund managers and other moguls – need to decide if they want to do without being in the city.
If so, here’s my thought: Don’t let the limo door hit you on the way out.
DEMOCRATS: We’re now five-plus months into the dark world of Trumpdom II. Sternly worded letters, lawsuits, those endless fund-raising e-mails haven’t done much to make the Democratic party more palatable to the people who rejected it last November. For all of Trump’s plunge in polling, there’s been no political coalescing force.
Maybe Mamdani is the answer. But not in the way Democrats like to think.
The lazy thing would be to think the country is ready for a turn left as exemplified by Mamdani. And it does seem as though New York City might be ready for that after years of being run by supposedly business friendly types: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg and Eric Adams.
But what Mamdani did was tap into what New Yorkers want for their city. His little ads were entertaining – watch the one about Halalinflation for a sense of what really matters.
Instead of preaching from a hill, Mamdani and his supporters traveled the city and understood the problems. And that’s what Democrats around the country need to do.
They do not need to mimic Mamdani’s policy ideas. They need to listen first and then adopt a plan of action that fits the community.
It might very well be more conservative. People in western Pennsylvania or Scottsdale or northern Minnesota might have their own unique issues that require action.
Listen and respond. Get a plan together. Adapt to your constituency. Be smart and engaged about it. No knee-jerk, one-size-fits-all solutions. I love New York, but I don’t think central Wisconsin should be a rural version of it.
In the midst of 100-degree heat and the casual “let’s lob a few bombs into Iran” during the past week, Mamdani’s primary win seems like a moment to cheer. It will certainly make for a little brightness among the gloom – especially if he can further build his coalition from now until November.
SUBJECTISM 