Wednesday, June 25, 2025

GO BIG OR GO HOME, DEMOCRATS (updated)

It's fascinating to me that Zohran Mamdani's upset victory in the New York Democratic mayoral primary took place less than 24 hours after congressional Democrats congratulated themselves in the media for shutting down an impeachment effort against President Trump:
House Democrats privately vented their fury Tuesday about what they said is a "premature" and "unhelpful" vote on impeaching President Trump for his strikes on Iran.

... 128 Democrats sided with House Republicans to block Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) from bringing a Trump impeachment vote, including most of Democratic leadership.
Obviously, a successful impeachment vote can't happen in a Republican-controlled House. And maybe Democrats shouldn't cast even a symbolic vote to impeach Trump in response to U.S. attack on a country that's a global bad actor and domestically repressive, especially to women. But Democrats proudly shut down an impeachment effort last month by Michigan congressman Shri Thanedar, on different issues. Maybe they shouldn't be trying to impeach the president at all, given the two-thirds threshold for conviction in the Senate, which will probably make removal impossible even if Trump's poll numbers plummet and Democrats take both houses of Congress in 2026, but they don't have to act pleased with themselves when they stifle this kind of outrage. And maybe they should be targeting other members of the administration -- Robert Kennedy Jr., for instance, who seems to have lied to a U.S. senator about keeping a vaccine advisory committee in place, or possibly Pete Hegseth after those security breaches. Why not unite on votes impeach them, even if the votes fail? What's the downside? You might alienate pro-polio or pro-security breach voting blocs?

The connection between this and yesterday's primary results in New York is that millions of Americans want to believe that someone is fighting to change the direction of our politics. Mamdani won because he gave Democratic primary voters in New York a reason to hope that the same old evil bastards might not run everything forever. National Democrats need to give the rest of America a sense that another world is possible. They need to be bold and defiant and take actions that are visceral and compelling, even if they're risky. They don't necessarily need to have the charisma of Mamdani -- Chris Van Hollen is a soft-spoken senator, but his trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia changed the immigration narrative, forced Abrego Garcia's repatriation, and began the process of pushing Trump's poll numbers on immigration underwater. More like that, please.

I'm seeing takes on Mamdani's victory that reinforce the same-old-same-old approach of the Democratic establishment:


But Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries shouldn't look at Mamdani's win and think, Ignoring everything but the economy and promising to preserve the economic status quo is the key to success. That wasn't Mamdani's approach. He made big promises: a rent freeze, free city buses, city-run grocery stores. More important, he ran against the elite -- the real elite.


And he couldn't avoid getting dragged into culture wars -- he was relentlessly accused of wanting to "defund the police," an approach he now rejects, and he's regularly (and falsely) portrayed as an anti-Semite and terrorist sympathizer. He won anyway.

Democrats are looking for a way forward, but many of them, including some I admire, like Chris Murphy, seem to believe that they're doomed to failure if they don't identify the correct spot on the political grid with pinpoint accuracy. Being overly analytical in this way is not the answer. Reject business as usual. Offer hope for a significantly different future. Take risks.

Democrats don't have to be perfect They have to make voters believe they care. They have to show that they're as impatient with the status quo as voters are.

*****

UPDATE: Will the Murdoch press now try to revive the career the scandal-plagued current mayor, Eric Adams, in a desperate attempt to prevent Mamdani's election in November? I think so. (Adams will be on the general election ballot as an independent.) A New York Post editorial says:
This is certainly an opportunity for Mayor Eric Adams, who’s right now low in the polls thanks to his uneven first-term performance and a taint of corruption mainly created at the behest of a White House furious that he called out some obvious failings of a president who the nation now knows was unfit for the office.

Maybe Adams can come back roaring off the mat....
Yes, the Post is all in on the narrative "Biden's White House directly intervened to secure the indictment of the poor, innocent mayor of New York, a member of Biden's own party, because ... reasons."

Adams was on Fox & Friends this morning:
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is one step closer to becoming New York City’s next mayor, but current Mayor Eric Adams believes voters won’t be fooled.

"He’s a snake oil salesman," Adams said on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday. "He would say and do anything to get elected."
Cuomo will also have an independent ballot line available to him, but my guess now is that he won't run -- he'll be encouraged not to, in the hope that Murdoch and Cuomo's fat-cat donors can rehabilitate Adams (and do a more effective job of demonizing Mamdani). It probably won't work, but I think they'll try.