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Mayor says progressive peers who swept primaries speak to Americans ‘coast to coast’ as moderates have reservations
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a “national message” to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics “coast to coast”.
Mamdani made that triumphant clarion call on ABC News’s This Week just five days after he had seen his endorsed candidates win Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany. He made no effort to disguise his delight that his clean sweep marks a dramatic shift in Democratic politics – not just in New York City, which he has led since January, but also across the US.
He said that collectively they were carrying a “New Deal understanding” of Democratic politics to Congress and on to the “national stage”. It spoke, he said, to Americans feeling exhaustion at struggling to make ends meet “every single day”.
No, I think it’s because it’s a lazy, facile take. Americans can’t think for themselves and only do what they’re told? Trump’s been blasting shit at us from the country’s largest bully pulpit for a decade, why doesn’t he have 100% approval and support?
People vote for candidates for a variety of personal, communal, and environmental reasons. Some of that has to do with what those candidates say and do, but reducing it down to “Americans are brainless automatons who do what they’re told” is nonsense.