There are days when you go to Citifield and the other team (the Braves, usually( are just . . better. They keep crooked numbers off the scoreboard. They hit with runners on base. And the Mets just - futz it up. So it was with the New York mayoral primary. His deplorable positions aside, Momdani’s campaign was very effective - hip, online, and full of energy.
He mobilized two groups - one I don’t have a problem with: Asians (East, West and South) got into it with their newcomer energy and demonstrated they will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. A few of them, shop owners among others, are probably now waking up and asking “what have I done”?
The other group was the hip young people - from Astoria to Williamsburg to Park Slope. And here we have the problem that what driving this crowd is alienation - a lot of them, I think, know Momdani’s can’t deliver on his promises but they don’t really care: what is more important is demonstrating to Dad how pissed off you really are. Especially with a problem like affordability, the answers are a bit uncomfortable for many (subject of a whole other rant).
That said, we need to go easy on the likes of Schumer and Jeffries - in the current political environment, we need these kids in ‘26 and beyond. They have already demonstrated an appalling tendency to sit out elections, so calling them out is likely to be counterproductive. What we do need to do is to reach out to as many of these folks as we can and explain that some problems are going to take awhile to fix and that sugar highs like Momdani’s rent freeze will only make things worse. And keep looking for attractive moderates who can mobilize the mushy middle.
And we need to do all this in the next 15 months. We dare not lose the next election.
I'm looking for support from other sectors--small businesspeople, non-elitist service workers. There are relatively few young Mamdani sorts outside NYC.
More important--actually crucial-- I saw the Mets beat the Braves at Citi in late June...and we're gonna be ferocious in the second half. I hope. LGM.
It would help a lot if we could get rid of the ancients in Congress and the senate. They need term limits and not stick around until they're wheeled out on a gurney after they've made their fortunes. We need more turnover.
My other pique is gerrymandering. In my state, Ohio, it's ridiculous.
Trump exploited an empty vessel in 2016; for alternatives the Republicans were down to “lose with Cruz”. Today, it is Democrats who have the empty vessel problem. The more we citizens expect our leaders to interact with us directly, the more effective leadership depends on communication. Sherrill, Spanberger, Moore, Shapiro, etc each offer an appealing combination of backstory, identity, and issue emphasis. Jeffries and Martin are well intentioned. But until and unless some of our rising or current leadership light up the socials to gain mass followership the way FDR, JFK, Reagan, and Clinton did with the medium of their day, I’m afraid lesser minds will fill the void.
I am fully in agreement with what you are trying to say here but, and I say this with great respect for you: less heat and more cold-eyed analysis. DSA is foolish, fecklessly elitist and wrongheaded, but they are NOT a paramilitary and seditious threat to our Democratic Republic. Comparing them to the Proud Boys is not up to your usual high standard of analysis.
The Democrats are a joke and a poor opponent for the fierce ignorance of MAGA and I sense that enrages you as much as it disappoints me. I acknowledge that what I am about to write is a generalization, but there is a critical and fundamental idifference between evil principles on one side and ineffective and outdated tactics on the other.
Keep up the good work. Really happy to be a subscriber. I am a longtime fan.
Thanks, John. I appreciate, but disagree with your criticism. Neither the Proud Boys nor the DSA are very effective, but both represent dangerous ideas. I once got into trouble with Ron Klain for comparing the NRA to the teachers unions--a facile analogy, to be sure, until you look at what's going on in the schools in poor communities and the relentless campaign of the teachers against progress and accountability. So I'm not going to pick and choose between terrible 20th century ideas--fascism and communism. I'm looking for some party, or coherent group of people, who'll shed all that baggage and look to the future.
Hope so, Joe! But right now the Democrats sure look to me like they're going towards a replay of 1972, which a far-left presidential candidate emerging from the primaries, some darling of the "activists" who is unacceptable to the mass of the general population, who will only to be crushed by the next Republican Darth Vader (Vance or Rubio). Hope I'm wrong here.
My friend Maurice Isserman, one of the DSA’s two founders (the other being Barbara Ehrenreich), publicly resigned from DSA when it supported the Hamas pogrom of Jews in 10/7/23. He expected the organization would collapse because of its hideous stance. Unfortunately, Maurice was wrong; DSA and/or DSA-types are going from strength to strength within the Democratic Party.
let's stop beating up on Dems, they're going to have to figure things out for themselves (I can't look at that Ken guy, he reminds me of Plouffe and it's triggering). In the meantime, we need to organize The Big Middle. And since "meeting people where they are" today means meeting them online, let's meet in The Big Middle, where most Americans are, and come to consensus on practical solutions to our common problems. Then candidates (of whatever party) can join the effort — on a platform both digital and political.
Up until the NYC primary, the Dems weren’t doing too bad a job of gingerly moving to the center - in the district in which Joe and I reside, we replaced the increasingly unhinged congressman with a lunch bucket moderate. Moderates were nominated in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. The Dems have to quietly emphasize that these are the faces of the Democratic Party, NYC is very much an outlier. In ‘26, the Upper Peninsula is going to be more important than the Upper West Side.
As for a digital platform for discussion - you’re on it. And frankly, getting some of those lefty fire breathers on here (rather than rubbing one another up on, say, Salon’s threads) wouldn’t be a bad thing.
For the love of God Democrats... Please figure out how to love America 🇺🇸.
"90% of Republicans describe themselves as patriots; about a third of Democrats do. It is hard to win elections when you hate your country."
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
- Mark Twain
There are days when you go to Citifield and the other team (the Braves, usually( are just . . better. They keep crooked numbers off the scoreboard. They hit with runners on base. And the Mets just - futz it up. So it was with the New York mayoral primary. His deplorable positions aside, Momdani’s campaign was very effective - hip, online, and full of energy.
He mobilized two groups - one I don’t have a problem with: Asians (East, West and South) got into it with their newcomer energy and demonstrated they will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. A few of them, shop owners among others, are probably now waking up and asking “what have I done”?
The other group was the hip young people - from Astoria to Williamsburg to Park Slope. And here we have the problem that what driving this crowd is alienation - a lot of them, I think, know Momdani’s can’t deliver on his promises but they don’t really care: what is more important is demonstrating to Dad how pissed off you really are. Especially with a problem like affordability, the answers are a bit uncomfortable for many (subject of a whole other rant).
That said, we need to go easy on the likes of Schumer and Jeffries - in the current political environment, we need these kids in ‘26 and beyond. They have already demonstrated an appalling tendency to sit out elections, so calling them out is likely to be counterproductive. What we do need to do is to reach out to as many of these folks as we can and explain that some problems are going to take awhile to fix and that sugar highs like Momdani’s rent freeze will only make things worse. And keep looking for attractive moderates who can mobilize the mushy middle.
And we need to do all this in the next 15 months. We dare not lose the next election.
Play ball. ⚾️
I'm looking for support from other sectors--small businesspeople, non-elitist service workers. There are relatively few young Mamdani sorts outside NYC.
More important--actually crucial-- I saw the Mets beat the Braves at Citi in late June...and we're gonna be ferocious in the second half. I hope. LGM.
It would help a lot if we could get rid of the ancients in Congress and the senate. They need term limits and not stick around until they're wheeled out on a gurney after they've made their fortunes. We need more turnover.
My other pique is gerrymandering. In my state, Ohio, it's ridiculous.
Trump exploited an empty vessel in 2016; for alternatives the Republicans were down to “lose with Cruz”. Today, it is Democrats who have the empty vessel problem. The more we citizens expect our leaders to interact with us directly, the more effective leadership depends on communication. Sherrill, Spanberger, Moore, Shapiro, etc each offer an appealing combination of backstory, identity, and issue emphasis. Jeffries and Martin are well intentioned. But until and unless some of our rising or current leadership light up the socials to gain mass followership the way FDR, JFK, Reagan, and Clinton did with the medium of their day, I’m afraid lesser minds will fill the void.
I am fully in agreement with what you are trying to say here but, and I say this with great respect for you: less heat and more cold-eyed analysis. DSA is foolish, fecklessly elitist and wrongheaded, but they are NOT a paramilitary and seditious threat to our Democratic Republic. Comparing them to the Proud Boys is not up to your usual high standard of analysis.
The Democrats are a joke and a poor opponent for the fierce ignorance of MAGA and I sense that enrages you as much as it disappoints me. I acknowledge that what I am about to write is a generalization, but there is a critical and fundamental idifference between evil principles on one side and ineffective and outdated tactics on the other.
Keep up the good work. Really happy to be a subscriber. I am a longtime fan.
Thanks, John. I appreciate, but disagree with your criticism. Neither the Proud Boys nor the DSA are very effective, but both represent dangerous ideas. I once got into trouble with Ron Klain for comparing the NRA to the teachers unions--a facile analogy, to be sure, until you look at what's going on in the schools in poor communities and the relentless campaign of the teachers against progress and accountability. So I'm not going to pick and choose between terrible 20th century ideas--fascism and communism. I'm looking for some party, or coherent group of people, who'll shed all that baggage and look to the future.
The Proud Boys may be mostly ineffective, but DSA is increasingly effective, within an increasingly desperate Democratic Party world. Ask Zohran
I don't know about effective, but they are throwing heat--the heat, as I wrote a couple of posts ago, of self-immolation.
Hope so, Joe! But right now the Democrats sure look to me like they're going towards a replay of 1972, which a far-left presidential candidate emerging from the primaries, some darling of the "activists" who is unacceptable to the mass of the general population, who will only to be crushed by the next Republican Darth Vader (Vance or Rubio). Hope I'm wrong here.
My friend Maurice Isserman, one of the DSA’s two founders (the other being Barbara Ehrenreich), publicly resigned from DSA when it supported the Hamas pogrom of Jews in 10/7/23. He expected the organization would collapse because of its hideous stance. Unfortunately, Maurice was wrong; DSA and/or DSA-types are going from strength to strength within the Democratic Party.
Every one is a socialist until you have something to lose. Great work this week Joe. Thank you.
We are more and more in agreement, amazing what an election can do.
Joe, your blog has changed my viewpoint more than anything I have read in years. Thank you
let's stop beating up on Dems, they're going to have to figure things out for themselves (I can't look at that Ken guy, he reminds me of Plouffe and it's triggering). In the meantime, we need to organize The Big Middle. And since "meeting people where they are" today means meeting them online, let's meet in The Big Middle, where most Americans are, and come to consensus on practical solutions to our common problems. Then candidates (of whatever party) can join the effort — on a platform both digital and political.
Up until the NYC primary, the Dems weren’t doing too bad a job of gingerly moving to the center - in the district in which Joe and I reside, we replaced the increasingly unhinged congressman with a lunch bucket moderate. Moderates were nominated in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. The Dems have to quietly emphasize that these are the faces of the Democratic Party, NYC is very much an outlier. In ‘26, the Upper Peninsula is going to be more important than the Upper West Side.
As for a digital platform for discussion - you’re on it. And frankly, getting some of those lefty fire breathers on here (rather than rubbing one another up on, say, Salon’s threads) wouldn’t be a bad thing.
there's talk (what I call noise) here, but no actionable solutions or clear consensus way forward
Spot on, per usual, Joe!