#226: New York’s mayoral race is a parable

If you happen to be both leftwing and extremely online (solidarity & condolences), you may be following New York’s upcoming primary election for mayor. With two wildly different candidates leading the polls—legacy moderate Andrew Cuomo and young upstart Zohran Mamdani—the race has been exciting and annoying in all the predictable ways. If you don’t live here, I understand tuning out all the drama, but I wanted to briefly talk about the election because the way it’s unfolding is eerily familiar and could be instructive for elections across the country. I also think it offers some lessons on navigating life in general during a time when hope feels elusive.

Zohran Mamdani's policies were the first thing I heard about him. I didn’t know what he looked or sounded like, who he associated with, or what his “strategy” was, only that he was running on free buses, free childcare, rent freezes, and city-run grocery stores. Avi told me he was impressed, which surprised me given his deep disillusionment with electoralism. When I went to Mamdani’s website, I wondered about the last time I’d visited a candidate’s website out of genuine interest in their ideas. I’ve grown so used to the tribalistic theater of electoral politics, it was nice to come at it from another direction. In contrast, my familiarity with Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former New York governor, has little to do with his policy positions and more to do with his PR strategy, which is mostly concerned with framing him as a tough New Yorker, whatever that means. (Also, he lives in Westchester.)

As far as I could tell, Mamdani was basically ignored by the establishment during the beginning of his run. It was only once he breached a certain level of popularity that the liberal media apparatus scrambled to delegitimize him, suddenly willing to forget Cuomo’s stunningly negligent political past out of fear that a democratic socialist might get anywhere near the levers of power. As Politico reports in an amazing feature that lays the hypocrisy bare: “Many of Cuomo’s former detractors have abruptly reversed course without publicly reckoning with his controversy-laden past, leaving little explanation as to why elected officials who once deemed him unfit for public office now want him to run the nation’s largest city.” In my opinion, no explanation is needed. A close read of the Mamdani smears expose a clear attempt at leftwing suppression.

via Politico

In a piece for The Atlantic, liberal writer Annie Lowrey nods at Cuomo’s checkered past but summarizes him as tough and realistic with a “fat résumé”—an asshole, but our asshole. She describes Mamdani, meanwhile, as Cuomo’s “rumpled, earnest foil” with no experience, despite his four years as a State Assemblymember with clear policy wins and his 10+ years of political organizing. (He’s also an African immigrant and a child of a political scholar and progressive filmmaker who grew up attending academic lectures on post-colonial thought.) The race, she says, is “improbably close.” Who would have thought so many people might prefer an idealistic young guy with clear-cut policies over a controversy-laden proven sexual harasser who resigned in shame only four years ago? Despite previously writing in support of ranked-choice voting, Lowrey now suggests it’s unfair because it might allow Mamdani to win. Ranked-choice voting, she claims, is confusing and undemocratic, despite the fact that it’s actually very simple and was chosen by New Yorkers themselves to ensure fairer elections.

This is out of date. Cuomo’s Super PAC “Fix the City” has actually spent nearly $25 million on his campaign (via X)

Then came the utterly unsurprising piece by the New York Times editorial board, which is addicted to being wrong. Supposedly they are not endorsing a candidate, but instead discuss that the race is between two people, one who is obviously “better for New York’s future” (the corporate- and billionaire-backed Cuomo who wants more cops) and the other who doesn’t even deserve to be in the race, despite amassing a critical swell of grassroots support. They’re careful to explain why progressive policies never work, and why we instead need “thoughtful liberal governance, in which city leaders use empirical evidence and effective management to achieve results.” In other words, they want more of the same bloviating that’s caused the city to become increasingly dysfunctional and unaffordable. Civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis pointed out on X that the board’s line of argument is “faux-intellectual neoliberal propaganda” designed to keep disruptors out of office.

“That’s the playbook,” writes political journalist Suchitra Vijayan in her newsletter. “Frame proposals that benefit working communities as childish. Treat austerity as adulthood. But what are these dangerous ideas? City-run groceries to fight food deserts and corporate price gouging. Rent freezes. Free public buses. Universal childcare. Not radical. Just basic. Many countries already offer these things, and New York, the wealthiest city in the empire, could fund ten times more if it stopped feeding police budgets and Wall Street giveaways.” This strategy of dismissing progressives as naive and suggesting that moderate liberals are the only adults in the room will be familiar to anyone who watched the Democratic party push Bernie Sanders out of the running for President. Since then, the establishment has continued to manipulate primaries so that voters never get a real chance to pick a candidate who represents them. It’s insulting and patronizing, not to mention deeply undemocratic.

Movements like the one supporting Mamdani and candidates like him are an alarming threat to the status quo. The elite consensus across corporate-backed media, wealthy donors, and sitting politicians exists to protect things as they are. As Noam Chomksy put it in Manufacturing Consent, the function of the mass media is to “inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda.” The performative hand-wringing of liberals and moderates who suggest the left is well-meaning but woefully misguided and ineffective (despite global evidence that their policies can work) is an obvious expression of that propaganda. Their fear isn’t that Mamdani will ruin New York, their fear is that his victory will spark a broader leftwing movement that reveals their hypocrisy and pushes them out of power.

This Tuesday, I’ll be ranking Zohran Mamdani #1 (and I will not be ranking Cuomo). I’m ranking Mamdani because I share a lot of his values and like his policies, which he’s presented frankly and with conviction over and over (including how he plans to fund them). He may not be a perfect candidate and he may not manage to get everything done that he hopes to, but sometimes going for the thing you actually want and falling short is more productive than settling for half-assed, means-tested solutions that never actually seem to change anything. “We are living in the wreckage of compromise. The afterlife of hope,” writes Frederick Joseph in his newsletter about the potential of Mamdani’s campaign to re-enliven the left. “[T]he Democratic center offers the same old managerial liberalism—order without justice, growth without equity, politics without soul. What Zohran offers is not just a pivot from that inertia—it is a rupture. A clean break. A return to the idea that government can be both just and competent, that radical imagination and institutional function do not have to be at odds.”

One New York mayoral primary race isn’t everything, obviously. Mamdani may very well lose to Cuomo, who’s essentially running on name recognition and his willingness to cozy up to power. He could also win the primary and lose the general. But I think it’s worth noting the energy Mamdani has inspired. With some 30,000 volunteers knocking on over 750,000 doors, “Mamdani’s canvassers are in every borough, every night of the week,” reports The City. He’s not selling any campaign swag. He’s no longer accepting money, his request for support comes only in the form of an invitation to join the movement: make phone calls, knock on doors. I know electoral politics aren’t everything, but I can still so clearly remember how I felt the first time I canvassed for Bernie in 2020. I was so nervous beforehand and, afterward, I felt lighter than I had in years, full of hope not just that someone with integrity might finally win, but that there was still power in the collective, and that I was part of it. I’m so grateful to Mamdani, his supporters, and every leftwing activist, protester, and organizer who is keeping that spirit alive.

New Yorkers, FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE HERE! Mamdani needs a record turnout to win. Tuesday is the day.

My favorite article I read last week was “Air-Conditioned Unease,” an essay on Joan Didion by Andrew O’Hagan, following the publishing of her therapy notes. Last Friday’s 15 things also included a game-changing desk accessory, a goated frosting, our newest living room addition, and more. The rec of the week was, of all things, SKORTS (including my favorite one).

Hope you have a nice Sunday,
Haley

P.S. For anyone who plans to message me that Mamdani is “pro-Hamas,” as some already have, I will not be replying. I stand by Mamdani (who has addressed this false label clearly), all my Jewish friends (and ancestors), as well as reputable Jewish institutions like Jewish Currents and Jewish Voice for Peace in their repudiation of Israel’s far-right government. I’m horrified by America’s unflagging support of Israel’s actions and fear for the fate of humanity in light of the abhorrent disrespect for human life.

Cover image via Getty | Andrew Lichtenstein