As of right now, Zohran Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite to be elected mayor of New York. Beyond his appeal to many New Yorkers on a variety of issues—most notably his extremely left-leaning policies intended to deal with the issue of affordability—in a race where three other candidates are poised to split the anti-Mamdani vote, his victory is all but assured.
Many major interest groups in New York believe a Mamdani victory would be disastrous. It is almost impossible to find a business leader who thinks Mamdani would not be highly destructive to the interests of the city. Similarly, many Jewish leaders think that a city with the biggest Jewish population outside of Tel Aviv shouldn’t have a mayor who still cannot disassociate himself completely from slogans supporting a “global intifada,” especially during a time of rising antisemitic incidents.
Moreover, hardly anyone who has expertise in law enforcement and crime reduction believes Mamdani is the best candidate to protect public safety—and for a large proportion of New Yorkers, that issue is right up there with affordability as a top concern.
. . . Tom Rogers is executive chairman of Claigrid, Inc. (the cloud AI grid company), an editor-at-large for Newsweek, the founder of CNBC and a CNBC contributor. He also established MSNBC, is the former CEO of TiVo, a member of Keep Our Republic (an organization dedicated to preserving the nation’s democracy). He is also a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Democracy.
Jesus Fuck. Whatever the fuck NY passes as Democratic is losing its fucking mind. Lol. Cuomo’s money pimps should pay off Adams to not run. Insanity.
I think AOC is a better point of reference here, while Obama tapped into the same vibe he never had the commitment to progressive policies in the same way.
Of course that is easy to say in retrospect but Obama had a much different trajectory into politics than Mamdani.
I think your warning is good though, as someone who was largely influenced by Bernie Sanders I genuinely find inspiration from his emphasis in his runs for president about it really being about the platform and policies not about Bernie Sanders or any one particular leader.
I am sure being a politician there is a good chance Bernie is narcissistic but I have always believed him when he emphasizes that he is just the guy trying to get the policies, the actually important bit of politics passed, and I took that to heart.
If Mamdani loses it will be dark though, not because I hinge any future on Mamdani winning but rather because of how hopeless it will reveal US politics to already be if he loses to Cuomo or is blatantly thwarted in winning by an immense amount of money hostile to the humanity of the poor and downtrodden of NYC.