Hope Helps

Last night in NYC, something that has the potential to drastically alter the political landscape unfolded. Against all odds, Zohran Mandani decisively won the Democratic Primary for the NYC mayor. Similar to AOC’s upset in the the 2018 primaries that put her on everyone’s radar, we saw a relatively unknown candidate win by a large margin over a candidate with backing from the establishment.

Andrew Cuomo, long seen as a front runner was so soundly defeated that he conceded the election less than two hours after the polls closed. By all conventional wisdom, Cuomo should have won, he has name recognition reaching back decades, has supporters who are willing to throw millions of dollars at him, and was a reasonably popular governor before he resigned due to controversies around his handling of COVID and sexual harassment allegations.

The same conventional wisdom also tells us that politicians like Mandani aren’t supposed to be able to win elections. Mandani is a vocal member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and a Muslim immigrant, pushing the kinds of leftist policies that very serious people in positions of power insist the American people will never accept.

Counterintuitively, Mandani leveraged the same issues that have led to the popularity of the MAGA movement, focusing on quality of life solutions that impact every day New Yorkers. But the difference between someone like Donald Trump and Mandani comes down to one major factor. Mandani has policy proposals that will address those concerns, while Trump’s governance has only exacerbated the struggles of regular folks.

Digging deeper, it’s also notable that Mandani was able to mobilize segments of voters that the DNC has been struggling to reach in recent elections, namely younger voters. Yesterday’s primary turnout was about 30% of registered voters, one of the highest primary turnouts in recent history despite the city being in the throes of a brutal heatwave.

Mandani won by running on a message of hope, a message that was echoed by Brad Lander, who finished 3rd in the ranked choice voting yesterday. On the national level, democrats would do well to pay attention and reconsider their strategies of moderation trying to appeal to moderate Republicans who seem to no longer exist. Americans are facing real challenges in their lives, and touting gains the stock market has made that contradict the economic reality of the majority of Americans doesn’t win Democrats any voters.

Establishment Democrats may echo the GOP and claim that the pain so many suffer is just the way the world is and that there’s nothing anyone can do. But politicians like Mandani dare to imagine a better world where we aren’t beholden to the economic “realities” so many uncritically accept. Working together, it is possible to make that better world a realty, all it takes is a little bit of hope.

Today’s title might be a somewhat common phrase, however, like most of my writings here, I took inspiration from music, this one from a band called Slow Crush that I’m particularly fond of. On a related note, if you’re in the New York area and you’d like to celebrate my birthday with me, you’ll be able to find me at their show in Brooklyn on September 7th.