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LIONS AND TIGERS AND SOCIALISTS, OH, MY!

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.

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WHO KNOWS WHAT GOOD LURKS IN THE HEART OF OUR COUNTRY? THE SHADOW MIGHT

When he isn’t busy pardoning fraudsters whose family members donate money to him, Donald Trump has the wrecking crew he assembled as a cabinet working to destroy this country.

Commercially exploiting federal land. Denying the effectiveness of vaccination in combatting disease and illness. Pissing off our traditional allies. Attempting to destroy one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

It’s like what the team the arch-villain in a superhero movie conjures. Except I don’t see any Bruce Waynes or Clark Kents in the neighborhood.

And the Democratic Party, the force best suited in this moment to fight back, is engaged in circular firing squad mode.

But Elissa Slotkin, the recently elected junior senator from Michigan, has one idea that might start to turn things around.

Slotkin suggests that the Democrats form a shadow Cabinet – a team of experts that mimics the roles of the actual team of horribles Trump assembled.

While a shadow Cabinet would have none of the enforcement power of its MAGA stooge counterpart, it would help give the Democratic Party something it needs desperately: a plan.

The “secretaries” would help to develop policies – in the same way the party develops a platform just before the quadrennial convention. Those policies would serve as alternatives to what Trump and his henchpeople are doing to America’s government and image.

For instance, with the Republicans seemingly determined to undermine Medicaid and strip it away from millions of people who need it, a shadow Health and Human Services Secretary could propose an expansion of the Affordable Care Act – aka Obamacare. That would further reduce medical costs for all Americans and stand in stark contrast.

Put that out there and see what happens. There’s a chance it could force the MAGA idiots to reconsider their plan – they’ll argue it’s socialism or whatever, but they’ll feel some pressure. As opposed to now, when all they’re hearing is that what they’re doing is bad.

Come up with an alternative that someone articulate can sell – and it doesn’t look like “he said, she said” politics as usual.

That’s the thing. The Democrats have an advantage in that most of the people who speak as leaders of the party can do so in complete sentences. From Barack Obama to AOC to Pete Buttigieg to Tim Walz, the party knows how to communicate effectively.

But a shadow Cabinet should not contain people who might be running for the White House in 2028. Or, obviously Obama – unlike the Republicans, Democrats take Constitutional term limits seriously.

Not sure exactly who that is just yet. But it could be AOC, Buttigieg, maybe Walz, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t talent to make the Democrats’ case.

Politico recently gave 21 names for a Democratic shadow Cabinet. Some of them are outright silly. Ben Stein is a hardcore Republican and I’d bet money he voted for Trump; just because his character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” bemoans tariffs doesn’t mean he’ll stand up against them in real life. He’s also 80 years old.

And Jon Stewart, while incredibly potent as an advocate for veterans, is much more effective as a nonpartisan lampooner than serving as a party spokesman.

But some of the other names are interesting. 

Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, has stood up to Trump before and even won a civil fraud case against him and his company. She is a no-nonsense law enforcement advocate and – as a native Brooklynite – isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

Samantha Power knows how foreign aid makes our country safer. She headed USAID when it was giving money to fight disease and hunger around the world – something Trump and Marco Rubio, his Secretary of State, feel is too “woke.” Having her out front as a defender of America’s generosity and compassion is a visual I’d be proud to see.

However, the personalities aren’t important. As I’ve said since January 20, the Democrats can’t just be against Trump. They have to stand for something more than returning to the status quo. They need to understand that people are frustrated with the direction of the country and want their lives to be easier.

Joe Biden understood that, but his limitations made that hard to sell – he couldn’t go to a lot of college campuses or big stadium rallies the way Barack Obama could. The Democrats need a plan of action and a bunch of articulate leaders of all varieties to go out and spell out a better future – and then watch Trump stew as those plans catch fire with the public.

It’ll take some work. But it’ll be worth it. Often bad things lurk in shadows, but they provide shade from a burning sun. And right now, the America we love is getting scorched – a little Democratic shadowing could help.

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IMPROV 101

My son took an improvisational comedy class this winter – and his class show was last Sunday.

It was a good hour of solid laughter as he and his fellow quick-thinkers responded to the moment with some hilarious ideas.

As his class instructor said at the conclusion, that was the only time that show will ever be seen quite that way. The next time, it will be somewhat different, funnier or maybe not.

Improvisation is a great form of comedy.

It’s a lousy strategy for fighting would-be dictators.

Right now, Democrats are wisely capitalizing on the nonchalance of Trump’s national security team, which accidentally gave a journalist access to deliberations on this month’s strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

No one claims to know how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in what should have been a top-secret chat on the messaging service Signal.

In the process, Trump and his Trumpettes have blamed Goldberg, called it an accident, told two versions of what they knew about the situation, blamed AOC, asked if it might have been a nefarious plot by Signal workers, said the dog did it, blamed Joe Biden and anything else you can think of. Not all of that is real, but given how these people are, you might be tempted to think it’s possible they used all those alibis.

Here’s the thing: I would be surprised if anyone loses their job because of this. Even Party Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary and White Lotus wannabe.

Accidentally broadcasting American military operations and putting the lives of brave men and women at risk is only a mild stretch from sexual predation, persecution, family destruction, illegal deportation, violations of free speech and 34 felony counts of fraud.

And if, by some stroke of unusual competence in Team Trump, somebody does get canned, what does that mean for the quality and integrity of the U.S. executive branch?

Bupkis.

It doesn’t matter if Pete Hegseth or Peat Moss holds the title of Defense Secretary, even if they have the same level of intelligence.

See, the thing is, Trump and the Republicans aren’t improvising. They’re working from a script. And they will stick to the script no matter who the actors are.

Their script is to weaken and decimate the federal government. And nothing – not even a scandal involving the basic idea that YOU DON’T TELL EVERYONE YOUR SECRET MILITARY PLANS – will cause them to ad lib.

They told you what they were going to do when they put out their Project 2025 playbook. And even when Trump went around denying he knew anything about a plan he almost certainly approved, did you ever believe the Republicans wouldn’t abide by it?

And that brings me to the Democrats.

We are good at getting mad. Reacting in the moment to some injustice or wrongdoing. Our lawmakers ask the piercing questions at committee hearings. We create clever memes and social media posts.

What Democrats don’t do is plan.

It’s almost as if they expect would-be voters to trust that they’ll find some way to attain the ideals they proclaim. But they don’t have a blueprint to get to that point.

And people like blueprints. They like specifics. They like benchmarks to gauge progress and ideas.

Democrats are afraid of ideas. They’re afraid people will shoot them down.

Try them. Instead of saying we think education needs to be reformed, ask people what they want for their kids and then work with them to attain those goals. Instead of saying we need to take care of our elderly, ask seniors and their caregivers what’s needed and figure out how we get to that point. 

If people are angry about their healthcare options, see what’s troubling your constituents and then work toward it. 

Trying to fight the drive toward Project 2025 won’t come ad hoc. It is, to be sure, extremely unpopular – it polled so badly that Trump and the others denied it existed even though it was in print and online for all to see. Once they won, they just went back to the plan as if it was a mandate.

The advantage Democrats will have if they develop an action agenda in consultation with the people showing up at town halls is that people will support it. Make it a genuine grassroots idea, and they’ll back you to the hilt.

It’s well and good to improvise a reaction to a security scandal or whatever Trump’s next A.S.S. (Act of Shame and Stupidity) is. But you can’t wing your way to win the hearts of your fellow Americans.

It takes a script. Write one.

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