Thursday Open Thread: What Lesson Should Democrats Learn from Mamdani's Election
Hint: New blood
I’m seeing a lot of pieces claiming that Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York City, with just over 50% of the vote, is a mandate for a far-left agenda. Free buses, government-run grocery stores, and gender-affirming care for all! That’s the future young Americans want!
Or do they?
Are there, perhaps, other lessons we should learn? Like, maybe don’t run terrible, tired, charmless old candidates like Cuomo? Or that candidates really need to make awesome, bite-sized TikToks and do things like walk the length of Manhattan to drive support? That they need to provide opportunities for young people to commune—in person!—around a vision of a better future, at a time of so much uncertainty?
That is: we need something, anything, new. Mamdani is full of charm. He’s poised. He’s got a terrific smile. And he has a real vision, no matter how difficult it will be to accomplish it. He is knowable, relatable, and appears trustworthy. He also took his opponents’ attacks like, well, a man.
What lessons do you think Democrats should learn—and where does the gender issue fit in?
"Like, maybe don’t run terrible, tired, charmless old candidates like Cuomo?" Definitely. But also, I think Tuesday's elections represent, in part, a mandate against Trump-style Republicans. The liberals I know hate him. As in, hate him. Total TDS. I mean, I'm no fan. I think he's absolutely despicable. But that doesn't mean I'm just going to blindly vote for the Dems (which I have not, since 2020, because of the gender stuff). There's not only a lot for the Dems to learn from this; there's also a lot for Republicans to learn. I frequently chat with Republican (and former Republican) friends who also hate Trump. I think a lot of American voters would be happy if our candidates could just try to be vaguely normal humans. That's probably wildly idealistic on my part, but here we are.
Avoiding the gender issue worked this election but not for Harris. What changed? As Jeff Maurer pointed out Spanberger's opponent may have gone too often to the gender wars when people had the economy and ICE cruelty on their minds. A revulsion to MAGA cruelty also undergirds the discomfort most folks have with GOP regressive attacks on transgender folks.