They said FDR was a Communist and he wound up saving the Western World from both fascism and communism. He got the Oligarch class that he was tangentially a member of under some kind of controls just in time to save them from themselves.
I read all over the news about Democrats wringing their hands over the possibility of 5 government owned grocery stores in NYC. They imply or say directly that the next thing will be a socialist governor, then a socialist president. My opinion: What's the big deal? Chances are they'll fail and be gone forever. But if they are successful, wouldn't that mean that they fill a need? And a need the dems can fill?
"The New York City mayoral election has fork-all to do with American politics. ... Please, I beg you, don’t get sucked up into thinking that Mamdani is the future of anything except New York City".
Mamdani is NOT akin to Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg, or Rudy Giuliani.
Mamdani didn't just win in New York - he took on the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Israeli Government, the local media, the national media ... and the sitting President of the United States.
And won.
He overcame the most racist, Islamophobic, demagogic campaign in modern American history. Trump blushes at the lengths Cuomo went to. What Cuomo did was far worse than Trump's campaign on his worst day - and that includes birtherism.
Mamdani set the agenda for 2025 and 2026, "affordability", which Spanberger and Sherrill are running as cheap knockoffs, mouthing the word, but then denouncing Mamdani for not being able to fulfill his promises. Spanberger even went so far as to deny that Mamdani was a Democrat:
One of your co-hosts said today that Democrats could even "learn authenticity" from Mamdani. You can't learn authenticity - you are either authentic, or you aren't. Pretending to be authentic is the definition of inauthentic ... and voters can smell it a mile away.
But mostly - Mamdani rejected the beating heart of the Democratic Party ... no, not black women ... billionaires. And he rejected unconditional deference to Israel. And now "normie Democrats" are running away from both ... Seth Moulton being the latest:
“ Prop 50 is the big one today. We are unlikely to know the result for sure tonight. But this is the one where America strikes back against Trumpism.”
I’ve been saying this for a week and, finally, the results are in. This is by far the biggest anti Trump signal from last night and a huge breath of hope that the Democrats will finally start fighting fire with fire.
JVL, I was working at the polls yesterday so I am catching up on my Bulwark reading today--this is a sneaky good article with pieces that we should revisit frequently in 2026--not just an election day 2025 piece! Thank you.
Sorry, JVL, I went golfing and drinking whiskey and didn't get to this until today. It was still relevant and interesting given the results from the evening.
Agree with the point overall, with one exception. Yes, Momdani's election does not matter from a strict electoral politics standpoint. NYC is a special place and a special case. However, this does matter: The mayor of NYC will now be a visible, vocal, and contrasting (read: young, non-white) opponent of Trump and MAGA, especially with respect to ICE operations. The regular flow of highly public resistance we can reasonably expect could have enormous impact on the moral battlefield.
Read this after the results - still quite informative- as always. I would like to whine about NYC for a moment. All my nieces and nephews who are in their 30s voted for Mamdani. And my nephew is an investment banker go figure. But when I asked them, why – – they gave me very vague responses. I would have voted for him. I would never have voted for Cuomo. But I looked back to the Primary– – there were so many good candidates. Much more qualified than Mamdani. Sometimes I want to say to this young electorate - Grow up it’s not all about charisma! My preferred candidate — was Zelnor Myrie. He had a fantastic housing proposal for the city. I know people who have worked with him in the state legislature and they said he was a tireless worker. They did not say the same thing about Mamdani. They said he was a bit of a gadfly. I wish him well. I really do but listening to his victory speech last night – – gave me a lot of pause.
Ranked choice voting enormously helped Mamdani in the primary, because Cuomo was so toxic, and most of the other Dems in the primary urged their supporters to rank Mamdani 2d choice to deny Cuomo and avoid diluting the progressive vote.
I think this is a pretty good result for ranked choice voting. We might not get the candidate we really want, but we avoid the one we really don’t want. Isn’t that sort of the point of it? Hopefully, the candidates who encouraged their supporters to rank Mamdani 2nd will get rewarded in another election or with a place in his administration.
“Or Mamdani could be a good mayor! Anything is possible in the greatest city in the world.”
Put aside the free buses and the grocery stores and whatever else has people’s knickers in a twist about Mamdani and consider the bigger picture; America is in a dark and dangerous place right now, and New York City has always been “America’s City.”
American history has deep roots in New York City. It was our first capital. George Washington took the first oath of office as a President there. NYC is America’s global portal for culture, finance, fashion, food, entertainment, etc. and the United Nations calls NYC “home”. NYC is the place, the “face of America” that bore the very worst of the violent attack on our country on 9/11. And, one of the greatest symbols of the idea of our nation, The Statue of Liberty, stands in the harbor of New York City, watching over our past, our present, and our future.
There’s something about NYC, an intangible, inexplicable sort of tether, that becomes anchored into anyone who is, or becomes, or longs to become, an American. And *that* is a powerful bit of magic.
If Mamdani can grab onto the tether that starts in New York and connects us all, maybe he could send vibrations (if you will) and cinch us together as a force to fight against the tyranny of Donald Trump.
There were between five and seven million people out protesting at the recent No Kings events. There are about 8 million people in New York City.
Maybe Mamdani will be a good mayor, maybe he’ll be an average mayor. But, maybe it’s more important, for our time in history, that Mamdani is a great American leading NYC. Maybe he can lift NYC high for all of us, harnesses its people and their stories and voices. Maybe Mamdani can remind us of the history of NYC, and in doing so, remind us of the history we all share as Americans.
We’ve all been wondering if someone will emerge to rally us all to fight for our democracy. Maybe it’s not an exactly a “someone” we can all look to….maybe it’s a city? And, maybe Mamdani will be much more than a mayor.
Given the results tonight, what are the chances that dems take backs Congress next year? Does Trump get spooked by tonight and start making plans for overturning next year’s election?
Dammit JVL, I am crying. Lines wrapping around buildings in Sacramento and Torrance at 20 min until polls closing with people having waited over an hour to vote on a ballot with a single item on it. Jacob Soboroff asked one dad there with his kids, "Why are you here?" His answer? "We gotta stay free." We talked and talked and talked about Democracy being on the ballot and we were pilloried - "people don't care about that, it's the price of prescription drugs!" In reality it's all of that, but I am crying because I think we - the people of the United States - finally get it. A year late, but maybe, just maybe, not too late.
I had dropped off my ballot earlier in the week, but walked down to my local polling location just to see the turnout on final day. Made me happy to see how busy it was for an off-election cycle. Great turnout, and huge win on prop 50!
They said FDR was a Communist and he wound up saving the Western World from both fascism and communism. He got the Oligarch class that he was tangentially a member of under some kind of controls just in time to save them from themselves.
I read all over the news about Democrats wringing their hands over the possibility of 5 government owned grocery stores in NYC. They imply or say directly that the next thing will be a socialist governor, then a socialist president. My opinion: What's the big deal? Chances are they'll fail and be gone forever. But if they are successful, wouldn't that mean that they fill a need? And a need the dems can fill?
Holy shit, Lina Khan is the co-chair of Mamdani's transition.
https://x.com/linamkhan/status/1986137682691420349
HELL YEAH!!!
It's going down for real
OK, I see how it is. The new talking point: Mamdani who?
JVL is in vigorous agreement with perpetually wrong, fail-up NYT opinion writer, Ross Douthat:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/opinion/mamdani-interesting-times-podcast.html
"The New York City mayoral election has fork-all to do with American politics. ... Please, I beg you, don’t get sucked up into thinking that Mamdani is the future of anything except New York City".
Mamdani is NOT akin to Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg, or Rudy Giuliani.
Mamdani didn't just win in New York - he took on the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Israeli Government, the local media, the national media ... and the sitting President of the United States.
And won.
He overcame the most racist, Islamophobic, demagogic campaign in modern American history. Trump blushes at the lengths Cuomo went to. What Cuomo did was far worse than Trump's campaign on his worst day - and that includes birtherism.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/voters-everywhere-strike-back-against?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=174018118
Mamdani set the agenda for 2025 and 2026, "affordability", which Spanberger and Sherrill are running as cheap knockoffs, mouthing the word, but then denouncing Mamdani for not being able to fulfill his promises. Spanberger even went so far as to deny that Mamdani was a Democrat:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/03/politics/mamdani-spanberger-democrats-two-paths
One of your co-hosts said today that Democrats could even "learn authenticity" from Mamdani. You can't learn authenticity - you are either authentic, or you aren't. Pretending to be authentic is the definition of inauthentic ... and voters can smell it a mile away.
But mostly - Mamdani rejected the beating heart of the Democratic Party ... no, not black women ... billionaires. And he rejected unconditional deference to Israel. And now "normie Democrats" are running away from both ... Seth Moulton being the latest:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/10/24/moulton-pledges-return-aipac-donations/
When you lose Moulton, you're in trouble.
JVL - don't stand with Douthat.
“ Prop 50 is the big one today. We are unlikely to know the result for sure tonight. But this is the one where America strikes back against Trumpism.”
I’ve been saying this for a week and, finally, the results are in. This is by far the biggest anti Trump signal from last night and a huge breath of hope that the Democrats will finally start fighting fire with fire.
JVL, I was working at the polls yesterday so I am catching up on my Bulwark reading today--this is a sneaky good article with pieces that we should revisit frequently in 2026--not just an election day 2025 piece! Thank you.
💖
Sorry, JVL, I went golfing and drinking whiskey and didn't get to this until today. It was still relevant and interesting given the results from the evening.
I know this is the morning after, but this whole piece rang true. And I'm beginning to remember what hope scrolling feels like.
Agree with the point overall, with one exception. Yes, Momdani's election does not matter from a strict electoral politics standpoint. NYC is a special place and a special case. However, this does matter: The mayor of NYC will now be a visible, vocal, and contrasting (read: young, non-white) opponent of Trump and MAGA, especially with respect to ICE operations. The regular flow of highly public resistance we can reasonably expect could have enormous impact on the moral battlefield.
Read this after the results - still quite informative- as always. I would like to whine about NYC for a moment. All my nieces and nephews who are in their 30s voted for Mamdani. And my nephew is an investment banker go figure. But when I asked them, why – – they gave me very vague responses. I would have voted for him. I would never have voted for Cuomo. But I looked back to the Primary– – there were so many good candidates. Much more qualified than Mamdani. Sometimes I want to say to this young electorate - Grow up it’s not all about charisma! My preferred candidate — was Zelnor Myrie. He had a fantastic housing proposal for the city. I know people who have worked with him in the state legislature and they said he was a tireless worker. They did not say the same thing about Mamdani. They said he was a bit of a gadfly. I wish him well. I really do but listening to his victory speech last night – – gave me a lot of pause.
Ranked choice voting enormously helped Mamdani in the primary, because Cuomo was so toxic, and most of the other Dems in the primary urged their supporters to rank Mamdani 2d choice to deny Cuomo and avoid diluting the progressive vote.
I think this is a pretty good result for ranked choice voting. We might not get the candidate we really want, but we avoid the one we really don’t want. Isn’t that sort of the point of it? Hopefully, the candidates who encouraged their supporters to rank Mamdani 2nd will get rewarded in another election or with a place in his administration.
America has spoken!
“Or Mamdani could be a good mayor! Anything is possible in the greatest city in the world.”
Put aside the free buses and the grocery stores and whatever else has people’s knickers in a twist about Mamdani and consider the bigger picture; America is in a dark and dangerous place right now, and New York City has always been “America’s City.”
American history has deep roots in New York City. It was our first capital. George Washington took the first oath of office as a President there. NYC is America’s global portal for culture, finance, fashion, food, entertainment, etc. and the United Nations calls NYC “home”. NYC is the place, the “face of America” that bore the very worst of the violent attack on our country on 9/11. And, one of the greatest symbols of the idea of our nation, The Statue of Liberty, stands in the harbor of New York City, watching over our past, our present, and our future.
There’s something about NYC, an intangible, inexplicable sort of tether, that becomes anchored into anyone who is, or becomes, or longs to become, an American. And *that* is a powerful bit of magic.
If Mamdani can grab onto the tether that starts in New York and connects us all, maybe he could send vibrations (if you will) and cinch us together as a force to fight against the tyranny of Donald Trump.
There were between five and seven million people out protesting at the recent No Kings events. There are about 8 million people in New York City.
Maybe Mamdani will be a good mayor, maybe he’ll be an average mayor. But, maybe it’s more important, for our time in history, that Mamdani is a great American leading NYC. Maybe he can lift NYC high for all of us, harnesses its people and their stories and voices. Maybe Mamdani can remind us of the history of NYC, and in doing so, remind us of the history we all share as Americans.
We’ve all been wondering if someone will emerge to rally us all to fight for our democracy. Maybe it’s not an exactly a “someone” we can all look to….maybe it’s a city? And, maybe Mamdani will be much more than a mayor.
Yes!
Given the results tonight, what are the chances that dems take backs Congress next year? Does Trump get spooked by tonight and start making plans for overturning next year’s election?
Election night sweep!
Dammit JVL, I am crying. Lines wrapping around buildings in Sacramento and Torrance at 20 min until polls closing with people having waited over an hour to vote on a ballot with a single item on it. Jacob Soboroff asked one dad there with his kids, "Why are you here?" His answer? "We gotta stay free." We talked and talked and talked about Democracy being on the ballot and we were pilloried - "people don't care about that, it's the price of prescription drugs!" In reality it's all of that, but I am crying because I think we - the people of the United States - finally get it. A year late, but maybe, just maybe, not too late.
I had dropped off my ballot earlier in the week, but walked down to my local polling location just to see the turnout on final day. Made me happy to see how busy it was for an off-election cycle. Great turnout, and huge win on prop 50!