7 responses to “A Quick Thought on Mamdani”

1. 

   al Ameda

   June 28, 2026 at 4:15 pm

   Or maybe this is just a guy who seems to have some real joy for life and understands how to connect with people?

   I understand that there are a lot of people who object to his policy positions (welcome to politics!), but I can’t help but think that the GOP makes a mistake in trying to paint him as a villain (ditto some member of his own party).

   So far, what I like about Mamdani is that he isn’t slick or evasive.
   Neither Mamdani nor AOC dodge questions about their ideology, their views.

   19
2. 

   Gustopher

   June 28, 2026 at 5:27 pm

   I understand that there are a lot of people who object to his policy positions (welcome to politics!), but I can’t help but think that the GOP makes a mistake in trying to paint him as a villain (ditto some member of his own party).

   His rent freeze is a feel-good bad-policy. Most studies have shown that a rent-freeze has negative consequences on housing supply (milder than you might expect)

   It also gives him a quick win politically while he pursues the longer term policies that make it easier to build new housing in NYC — policies that will take years to bear fruit.

   I think Democrats need to learn from this — generate easy wins and feel good moments, while also pursuing the big ponderous things they actually want to do. Both are important in this era.

   20
3. 

   Steven L. Taylor

   June 28, 2026 at 5:44 pm

   @Gustopher: I endorse this comment, top to bottom.

   8
4. 

   Ken_L

   June 28, 2026 at 9:15 pm

   Mamdani is a troublemaker. Democrats electing a likeable human being who speaks like a normal person to high office sets a very bad precedent. Hundreds of thousands of people in the PR, public opinion and media spaces will lose their jobs if Democrats start making a habit of it.

   10
5. 

   DK

   June 29, 2026 at 2:17 am

   Seems like liberal circle jerk material, the kind of self-soothing onto which our commentariat’s missing contrarions would throw cold water.

   First, Mamdani is popular within the echo chamber of our personalized liberal algorithms, but he’s not that popular overall. Sub-50 polling for a newly inaugurated politician in any office is not Adams, especially not a new New York mayor. Eric Adams was polling in the 60s at his 100-day mark; nobody would confuse him for Mr. Popular.

   Second, I’m not seeing anything Mamdani is doing that is so new. Joy? Kamala Harris did that, setting several rally attendance records in the process. Still lost. Likeable? Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did that. Still couldn’t get their handpicked successors to overcome our national 8-year itch. Easy feel good wins? Sure, while the feeling lasts. Biden got some brief mileage out of student debt relief, Ketanji Brown-Jackson, and child tax credits. But structural pressure remained.

   Mamdani is a feel-good story that reinforces our liberal confirmation bias, like the Selzer poll that had Harris winning Iowa. But we been there done that on joy, likeability, and policy trivia; hasn’t been enough to hold onto Rust Belt and Sun Belt swing states. Swing voters there are not Manhattanites.

   If past is prologue, the thing that’s gonna get Dems back in power is a) standard issue midterm backlash + b) the Republican screwing up the economy. Both conditions exist now. In response, I hear Dems are working on a Project 2029. Thank gawd. Having Dem politicians connect every issue to Republican economic mismanagement seems more useful trying to be joyful or likeable or either pro-or-anti-socialist. And then move fast, break things, and use the imperial power the John Crow Court granted the presidency to pass a sweeping, pro-democracy, liberal agenda as quickly as possible.

   Since Americans will probably get amnesia (again) and hamstring the next Dem president with a Republican congress in 2031 (again).

   3
6. 

   Scott

   June 29, 2026 at 7:26 am

   People either vote for a person or issue or they vote against those things. No one seems to be talking about the voters and why they voted the way they did. It is as though they didn’t have any agency or motivation of their own. It is always about personalities.

   1
7. 

   Jay L. Gischer

   June 30, 2026 at 1:03 pm

   @DK: I liked Kamala Harris. Many of the working class people I know thought she sounded too much like a lawyer (which is what she is, mind you, and it didn’t bother me. I am fluent in lawyer-speak.). Harris spent most of her life trying to lift herself out of the working class, to differentiate herself from them, to be able to turn around and be relatable to them.

   I don’t think Mamdani has that issue. He seems a lot more able to connect. I will say though, that I really appreciate the whole “lean into liberalism” rather than run away from it or weasel word about it. Tim Walz did this with the school lunch thing. I thought it was effective.

   Republican politicians work very hard to portray Democratic politicians as faithless and cowardly. Sometimes they *are* faithless and cowardly, but mostly it’s just cowardly. Meanwhile many, many R politicians held positions that didn’t poll well for them, which was about getting the trust of their base.