Is NYC About to Hand Trump a Massive Gift?
Plus: The fog of Trump's war.
Catching up:
Officials Concede They Don’t Know the Fate of Iran’s Uranium Stockpile - The New York Times
Trump floats regime change in Iran, muddying the administration's message - POLITICO
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Happy Monday.
The Dems’ NYC Clusterf**k
Jeffrey Blehar calls tomorrow’s NYC mayoral primary a “glorious dumpster fire,” which is right, except for the “glorious” part.
It is actually a rather squalid affair and there is no optimal outcome. Unless, of course, you are Donald Trump, who may about to be handed a gift from his fever dreams.
Polls show that 33-year-old state legislator and TikTok star Zohran Mamdani is running strongly in polls behind the sleazy, disgraced front-runner, Andrew Cuomo. Mandami is a “proud democratic socialist,” and critic of Israel, who is “running on a left-wing populist agenda — rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, free public transit.” Indeed, writes Blehar, Mamdani “might as well have been purpose-built by Soros-funded scientists in a lab to activate every fashionably progressive erogenous zone in city politics.”
But his “digitally native, culturally fluent campaign” has made Mamdani very much the hot thing among progressives, their fanboys, and the Cool Kids. (Via Axios: “A recent poll suggested he could win 60% of first-choice votes among 18- to 34-year-olds”.) But when Mamdani was featured in the Bulwark (! ) podcast last week, he refused to condemn the chants of “Globalize the intifada”.
“I know people for whom those things mean very different things,” Mamdani says. “To me, what I hear from so many, is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
“What’s difficult also is the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle,'” he says, apparently referring to the Washington institution.
This was rank (and embarrassing) bullshit and the blowback was immediate and intense.
[The] Anti-Defamation League; Representative Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat; and other Jewish leaders had condemned the phrase, and some tied it to recent spasms of anti-Jewish violence in Washington and Colorado. The Washington-based Holocaust Museum weighed in, too, calling Mr. Mamdani’s remarks “outrageous and especially offensive.”
The Democratic Majority for Israel also denounced Mamdani’s sophistry:
Just this week, Mamdani defended the phrase ‘globalize the intifada.’ Let’s be clear about what ‘globalize the intifada’ means: killing Jews. The intifada killed Jews in pizza shops, cafes, bars, clubs, and while just waiting for the bus. This is not a slip-up; it is endorsing a phrase that leads to murder, terrorism, and death. This is an antisemitic phrase — no question.
**
But I’m afraid this only scratches the surface of the Mamdani Problem, which is why centrist Democrats are freaking out about tomorrow’s election. Even though it is a municipal election, tomorrow’s vote will have national implications for the future of the Democratic party. It could also hand Donald Trump and his MAGA allies a humongous political cudgel.
Even the New York Times editorial board is sounding the alarm about the threat of a Mamdani victory. The paper notes the disastrous track records of uber-progressive mayors in other cities:
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson, a de Blasio-like politician who took office two years ago, now has an approval rating below 20 percent. On the West Coast, residents of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore., have come to regret their leaders’ blasé attitudes toward crime and drug use…
The Times notes that the charismatic Mamdani “ is running a joyful campaign full of viral videos in which he talks with voters. He offers the kind of fresh political style for which many people are hungry during the angry era of President Trump.”
But…
Unfortunately, Mr. Mamdani is running on an agenda uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges. He is a democratic socialist who too often ignores the unavoidable trade-offs of governance. He favors rent freezes that could restrict housing supply and make it harder for younger New Yorkers and new arrivals to afford housing. He wants the government to operate grocery stores, as if customer service and retail sales were strengths of the public sector. He minimizes the importance of policing….
**
And then of course there is his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America. The Third Way — a Democratic centrist group — describes the DSA platform as “so extreme, so profoundly anathema to the vast majority of voters, that they sound like they were cooked up in the offices of a Trump-aligned ad maker.”
“These are not policies that would move the country a few clicks to the left or shift the ‘Overton Window.’ Rather, they are a call to completely reorder American society in ways that are self-evidently bizarre, dangerous, and deeply unwise.”
They provide a quick sampling:
Abolish prisons and police and free all prisoners
“Defund the police … [and cut] budgets annually towards zero”
“Decertify police unions”
“Disarm law enforcement officers”
“Close local jails” and “free all people from involuntary confinement”
Provide free housing, college, water, gas, food, etc.
“Housing for all” and “universal rent control”
“Guarantee publicly available water, energy, transit, food, and other necessities for all, free of charge”
Require public ownership of most real estate, insurance, banks, and telecom
“Social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure”
“The nationalization of businesses like railroads, utilities, and critical manufacturing and technology companies”
“Nationalize and bring under public ownership institutions of monetary policy, insurance, real estate, and finance”
Ban private health care
“Public ownership and funding of our healthcare system, including hospitals and other healthcare providers, pharmaceutical research and production, and other medical research and production facilities”
“End or limit counterproductive [patent and copyright] protections”
**
And here are a few tidbits from the DSA’s view of America’s role in the world:
Stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against apartheid, colonialism, and military occupation, and for equality, human rights, and self-determination, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Dramatically slash US military spending to a level sufficient for a genuine national defense, not the projection of power outside the country.
Immediately withdraw from NATO.
Demilitarize the border and end all immigrant detention in the US.
Grant immediate and unconditional Amnesty for all immigrants, regardless of current immigration status.
End the Global War on Terror…
Coming soon to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ads in the midterms. The folks from the Third Way emphasize the stakes:
[A] Mamdani win for such a high-profile office would be a devastating blow to the fight to defeat Trumpism.
It does not take much imagination or political acumen to see how the DSA ideas could be weaponized against Democrats everywhere.
Republican attack ads in swing districts attaching moderate Democratic candidates to Mamdani and the DSA practically write themselves.
Exit take: Mamdani remains an underdog, but it’s not inconceivable that he could come out on top in New York’s complicated ranked choice voting process. And, indeed, NYC Dems have distinguished themselves by their ability make shoddy choices. In their annals of awfulness, they gave us the the unfortunate Bill DeBlasio, followed by the execrable Eric Adams.
So it’s not surprising, therefore, that the “best” (sic) choicenow is the guy who was forced to resign as NY governor because of sexual misconduct. As Blehar notes Andrew Cuomo’s best argument is something like: “Vote for the Scumbag — It’s Important!”
Boiling Frog Update
We throw around words like “normalization” and “numb” too often.
But take a moment to consider this: The Trump regime has been ignoring or flouting one law after another. By attacking Iran without any congressional input Trump blatantly ignored both the Constitution and the War Powers Act. And the reaction (even among some Never Trumpers) is to simply shrug.
Make sure you read Ilya Somin here: Trump's Iran Air Strikes and the Constitution — Reason.com
In addition to violating the Constitution, the air strikes also violate the War Powers Act. Section 3 of that legislation requires that "[t]he President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances." There was no such advance consultation here, even though it was obviously "possible" to do it (US strikes against Iran have been under consideration since Israel began its air campaign on June 13, if not before).
**
Conor Friedersdorf: Attacking Iran Without Congress’s Blessing Leaves Citizens With No Recourse”
Recall the last time that the United States began a war this consequential: George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Prior to invading, on October 10, 2002, Bush secured an authorization to use military force from Congress by wide margins in both chambers.
Even though the Iraq invasion was a mistake—something I have long believed—American democracy was better off for those votes, and not just because the Constitution assigns the war power to Congress. Debating the matter in the House and Senate helped educate lawmakers and the public about the arguments for and against the war, and left a record of who made claims that later proved incorrect. Prior to the vote, citizens could lobby their representatives, allowing for more participation in the process. And afterward, citizens could hold members of Congress accountable for their choices, not only in the next election but for the rest of the careers of everyone who cast a vote.
Finally
From the lost tweets of history:
Monday dogs
Summer solstice.
Let me put it like this: if Democrats vote to elect a Democrat, and centrists don't like that, they should perhaps consider that they're not as big a voice in their own party as they think. The issue with centrists continues to be that they demand that the party adhere only to their demands, and are continually frustrated when Democratic voters choose someone else.
Now, keep in mind, they haven't chosen anyone yet. But this critique, that centrists are the only voice that should be listened to, is partially why Biden's presidency failed. Over and over, centrists say that only they know the way forward, and over and over they're proven wrong.
They make a lot of excuses for this. But ultimately, if such a person is elected, it won't be for any reason other than voters wanted it. And if that's the case, then centrists need to decide what party they're a part of, and whether or not they are aware of the voters they actually have.
In Britain, there's a saying called 'hostage politics' which describes how Labour governs. They don't do anything their voters asked them to do, and instead go 'you have to vote labour, otherwise the Tories and Reform will win!' This basically treats politics as an endless hostage negotiation, where they have to swallow any and all policies no matter how against their principles in order to prevent Reform.
This is the tact that centrist liberals in America take. And ultimately, as we've seen, when that's done people will eventually vote for Trump. We know that, because after the centrist presidency of Joe Biden, who said 'no we can't' over and over, young voters defected to Trump. Their biggest complaint? That Democrats didn't do things and didn't represent their interests.
If Democrats choose someone who represents them, so be it. After all, the GOP continues to choose people who represent them, and it's worked out pretty well for them.
I just can't get worked up about NYC's candidate for mayor possibly being a bit of a lefty kook. It's NYC, not Milwaukee.
And in the bullet points of Third Way's concerns, all they did was outline and hand wring about what the GOP and the Fox Propaganda Hydra is going to say about all this. Who TF cares? Worrying about what the GOP is going to say all the time is what got the Dems into this mess in the first place.
News flash: the GOP and Fox are always going to operate in bad faith. The Dems waved the flag all over the campaign last fall and it was rebranded as a Commie Convention while Trump's rants about the Cat and Dog Buffet were recast as the ultimate in patriotism. No matter what the Dems do it will be shit all over as Anti American. Try something new: speak from the heart and actually be a human who believes something. All we have to do is reach the non cult members to end this MAGA nightmare.