Zohran on the 4th of July
Let Him Cook
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Dearest Reader,
Alright! We’re in the game now!
Obviously the biggest story for a week and counting is the miraculous upset of the Cuomo dynasty by newcomer Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and current New York State Assemblyman from Queens won the first round of the Democratic primary mayoral race initially at 43.5%. As seen across the media landscape, that Mamdani is skyrocketing through, his campaign started with less than one percent name recognition for the candidate and ended this week with an outsized final vote count of 56% for Mamdani. In fact, this primary election boasted the highest voter turnout for a mayoral race since 1989.
Broadly speaking Mamdani ran a hell of a campaign and attracted the support of many new voters, Gen Z, Millennials, middle and upper class New Yorkers and many working class folks across the five boroughs. His greatest weakness is among mature black voters who are essentially the core of the Democratic party. Which is perhaps a product of unfamiliarity since Cuomo is the son of a revered NY governor, Mario Cuomo, but something deeper probably needs addressing. Mamadani has begun making his case and getting invited to churches, large events and the like, but he has some work to do in expanding his coalition which is certainly on the upswing. Nevertheless, that he was so successful despite being outspent by some $23 million is nothing to scoff at.
The general election will now be a more crowded, though beatable field with current scandalized mayor Eric Adams and possibly a second run by former scandalized governor Andrew Cuomo running as independents. Reverend Al Sharpton advised Cuomo to drop out this week, so I think he may be dunzo as unions and leaders like Sharpton defect. The GOP candidate is Curtis Sliwa, founder and chief executive of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit crime prevention organization that’s been around since the 1980s. In fact, Sliwa is historically no friend of the Jewish community and may want to make up for it, even though it may be too little too late as noted in The Forward. He is not a real threat for the office given the popularity of everyone else running in a Democratic leaning city, but Sliwa’s partcipation could ratchet up competition over votes across three or four candidates. Therefore, Mamdani cannot rest on his laurels, which I think would be impossible for such a spirited candidate.
I’m choosing to take a hopeful perspective on Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy. He is young, smart, committed (it seems), organized (in community-oriented terms), charismatic as all hell, and appears to have an actionable vision that the public loves, while many naysayers or pundits proclaim it impossible. Nevertheless, many of Mamdani’s campaign promises have been piloted successfully whether in NYC like the recent free bus pilot program and no cost childcare introduced by former mayor Bill DeBlasio or city-owned grocery stores like in Kansas (and we know Kansas is brimming with anti-war commies *sigh*). Here’s a Rolling Stone piece debunking all the rumors and prejudice about Mamdani—He’s a good egg.
The Assemblyman’s key campaign platform issues are below (here is the comprehensive platform):
Housing
Freezing the Rent (for NYC’s 2 million rent stabilized units)
Building Affordable Housing (200,000 new units over next 10 years)
Cracking Down on Bad Landlords
Supporting Homeowners and Ending Deed Theft
City-owned Grocery Stores
Fast, Fare, Free Buses
Fighting Corporate Exploitation
No Cost Childcare
Taxing Corporations and the 1%
Raising the Minimum Wage to $30 by 2030
Trump-Proofing NYC
Getting ICE Out of All City Facilities and ending any cooperation, increasing legal support
Protecting All Personal Data
Make NYC an LGBTQIA+ Sanctuary City and Protect Reproductive Rights
Protect Workers and Ensure Our Current Laws Are Enforced
However, as hopeful as I am, y'all know I’m also a realist (it’s in my bio: “a hopeful realist”). Since his electoral victory last week Zohran Mamdani has been a man on the move, it’s like he never stopped campaigning. As soon as he was preliminarily declared the victor last week on June 24th, Mamdani saw an uptick in racism and death threats. The Democratic establishment has been deriding or minimizing him except for Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren who all endorsed Mamdani. In fact, some like NY senator Kirsten Gillibrand have gone as far as doing a National Public Radio (NPR) interview last week where after congratulating Mamdani on winning with his affordability message, she falsely claimed Mamadani called for ‘global jihad’ which is, well…bonkers.
The claim she made is unfortunately a persistent false rumor. She apologized this week after being rightly accused of Islamophobia, defamation or at the least mischaracterization. In his own sit down interview with NPR this week Mamdani acknowledged the sharp rise in threats and aspersions against him to the point that he now has security. It appears that like former President Barack Obama, overt racism will be a feature not a bug in his political life--which is deeply unfortunate. However, I have been moved by the increased collective awareness that he is being unfairly smeared. This is a welcome improvement from when Obama was unjustly accused of being foreign born and a secret Muslim, lies birthed, no pun intended, among racists. It was then given life through doubt in a 2008 television interview by Hilary Clinton and nurtured to full bloom by Donald Trump.
Returning to the Democratic establishment, NY senator Chuck Schumer and representative Hakeem Jeffries have yet to endorse Mamdani though they have been publicly congratulatory. Initially many came out with an aloof or overtly negative response to this generational and ideological shakeup of established norms. As a New Yorker, I can’t say I’m shocked but I am definitely very very impressed. The truth of the matter is that Dems have been losing a lot since 2012 or 2016, depending on when you start the clock. On the federal level, no leader has emerged that the established order can get behind.
In fact, more and more, the sabotage of Bernie Sanders’ campaign looks even more egregious to me than even an aging Biden setting up his overqualified vice president to fail and thus tumble the nation into an authoritarian takeover. If we’re being honest, the whole Democratic Party is out of step whether we’re looking at age diversity or tolerance for debate and descent. Putting on my ‘hope hat’ though, maybe this is our opportunity to do things differently. Our opportunity to bridge divides. Our opportunity to feel a new, better future is possible. Though I think Zohran Mamdani can take us to the general and win, I’m not sure if we should fixate on that outcome. Yes, get this man elected! Yes, I think his platform is reasonable yet aspirational and worth fighting for. But let’s not forget this feeling, that maybe the future isn’t so bleak and “abundance” can be more than a buzzworthy word on a book cover, but a way of living in-community with representative leadership.
The man in the White House has taken a shine to Zohran Mamdani calling him a “a 100% communist lunatic” the day after his electoral victory. Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist like Sanders (arguably also AOC, who was integral to Mamdani’s success) and caucuses with Democrats. A fair definition of democratic socialism is the belief that the economy and society (including government) should be run democratically to help everyone instead of just the wealthy or elite. Private industry can still exist in this framework though equity, opportunity and security are part of measuring success. The likely comparison on a national level to the aforementioned is Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway though they would more accurately be described as social democracies which are slightly different.
The point is there are many ways to democratically govern; private industry coupled with a social safety net could vastly improve society--think FDR and The New Deal in the American context. More socially responsible nations invest in their citizens, their education, health and infrastructure to make stable nations for residents to feel they have a hopeful future. Unlike socialists, democratic socialists don’t believe the government should control all aspects of the economy, but only help provide basic needs and help all of its citizens have an equal chance of success. Trump is clearly threatened by the captivating, articulate Mamdani who is thriving in the city he once called home, but now effectively hates his guts. That must sting.
Then this week Trump said he wants to arrest, denaturalize, detain and deport Zohran Mamdani who is a U.S. citizen that arrived here at 7 years old with his highly educated parents and has been a citizen since 2018. We should also take note of this for the marked escalation in response from the president--that’s a danger. As effective countermeasures to his chaos emerge, like the NYC mayoral primary election, Trump will escalate in exerting control. Remember that.
To this threat of so-called “denaturalization” Mambani came back forcefully calling out the president’s threats as a means to distract from an unjust GOP agenda including the “Big Beautiful Bill” that is struggling through Congress. He’s right and even Hakeem Jeffries agrees, offering his support to Mamdani alongside New York governor Kathy Hochul against these attacks from the White House. The contentious budget bill passed the House, was just revised in the Senate and has returned to the House this week for certification. If passed, which it very well could since Trump imposed a July 4th deadline, this budget (as of today) would strip 17 million people or Medicaid insurance, millions will lose critical SNAP (food) benefits, the rich will get another massive tax break, balloon the deficit while the dollar wavers as the global reserve currency, and ICE will get over $100 billion in government funds to grow a carceral industry of deporting largley non-violent immigrants. ICE will grow far beyond the scope of the allegedly widespread number of violent criminal immigrants that the Trump administration alleged to target. As of now, only 8% of detained immigrants have a violent criminal past. Shockingly, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council said this week that this bill, if passed, could make ICE “[ the largest] federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation.” That’s concerning...
To object to the new budget, follow this site for clear instructions on how/who to call. You can also find your representative here and senator here.
So here we are, going further and further down the rabbit hole. Zohran Mamdani’s bright leadership is something everyone should consider getting behind, even if it’s just for a much needed jolt of optimism. We continue the struggle towards a more equitable and law-abiding tomorrow, no matter the day. Let him cook.
Happy 249th Anniversary United States of America!
With Love During End Times,
Agunda