This is why Zohran won

They were so fixated on painting him as an antisemite, they completely forgot to attack him on things that could've actually made an impact like inexperience. I think he still would've won regardless but it shows how fucking clueless the Democratic establishment is.

[quote] how fucking clueless the Democratic establishment is.

You don't say!

Do non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries have the same rights as Muslims?

The fixation on Israel is so fucking offensive. The obvious pandering is just nauseating.

There's really no mystery why he won. Democratic voters are tired of being taken advantage of by party leaders with a completely different set of priorities. Israel is a foreign country! It's not part of the US. It's as relevant to a mayoral debate as Uganda or Iceland.

He’s a charismatic demagogue promising the impossible to anxious people.

Just like Trump.

Populism works on both sides.

Hopefully, he’s not a cynical grifter like Trump.

Zohran won because Millennials and Gen Z are exhausted with Boomers and Gen X consolidating wealth and power for themselves and treating younger people and their issues like shit.

The Boomers are quickly going bon voyage and that just leaves Gen X all alone, tethered to a sinking ship.

This used to piss me off about Joe Lieberman. He was constantly going on about Israel and visiting there. Everything he did was through the lens of Israel.

R5, No one is a cynical grifter like cheeto, please. He will be studied and laws named after him.

R5 At least his empty promises are relevant to the residents of the city, the others couldn't even be bothered to give them that. They'd rather pledge allegiance to a foreign country.

The US is so polarized right now it's unsurprising that a progressive leftist would have won in New York, especially since his only real competition was an elderly hack from state politics who had resigned after a sex scandal.

There are a few other mostly left-coast cities where progressive leftists could emerge again to win city government, but I strongly doubt it is indicative of any nationwide tilt to the far left. Democrats will be best off nominating centrists overall.

R3, I think you're lost, wrong thread.

R5 Also cost of living, healthcare, and housing shortage are NOT matters of anxiety, you useless geriatric leech on society.

[quote]they completely forgot to attack him on things that could've actually made an impact like inexperience.

Trump’s two Presidential wins have demonstrated that voters don’t care about experience. In fact, the more “Washington outsider”, the better for most voters.

Good, he answered the right question, not the stupid one posed to the candidates

[quote]R6 The Boomers are quickly going bon voyage and that just leaves Gen X all alone, tethered to a sinking ship.

Nah, straight Gen X will just turn Republican and the "moderates" of DL will be on their own.

[quote] R5] Also cost of living, healthcare, and housing shortage are NOT matters of anxiety, you useless geriatric leech on society.

Of course they are.

That clip is hard to watch. The media bias is so blatant and thorough.

R14 Turn Republican? They already are much more Republican than even the Boomers. They're the only group to vote for Trump all three times and they'll probably vote Sliwa.

I agree that it shouldn’t be a “requirement” for a mayor to be a supporter of Israel. Or made to kiss a wall or any other kind of symbolic gesture. But there’s a reason why democrats are so anti-Israel. Contrary to what they think, the Qatari lobby is much larger than the Israeli lobby. Contrary to what they (and righteous Christian right wing keyboard warriors) think, Islamic supremacy isn’t going to coexist with them or any other Catholic, or any Jew. There’s nothing righteous or beneficial for Western civilization to defend Islamic supremacy and pretend like it’s not a threat.

Ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, successive Iranian leaders — both so-called “moderate” and extreme — have all said that they wish to annihilate the state of Israel and destroy the United States of America.  Israel is closer to Iran than this country is. And so it has to take this threat more seriously than the United States does. Every reasonable voice agrees that Iran cannot ever acquire nuclear weapons.

For decades every Western democracy has said that Iran cannot get the bomb. For years almost every non-democratic ally of the US in the Middle East has also said that Iran must not get the bomb. The reason Democrats are now defending Iran is because they are scared of being called Islamophobic, which is exactly the kind of culture they created and nurture. If a black person tells you that what you are saying to them is racist, or if a gay person tells them they are being homophobic, it is taken seriously and at face value. But if a Jew tells them they are being antisemitic? They will then lecture the Jew about why they’re not Antisemitic and how they’re a Zionist fascist. This is the left wing problem with Israel and Jews.

[quote] Zohran gave the only sensible answer here - forget Israel,

I'd be thrilled if he'd forget it. Instead, he vocally supports the BDS movement and has threatened to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York. These are just the kind of issues that the mayor of New York needs to prioritize. *eye roll* Meanwhile his defense of phrases like "globalize the intifada" and "from the river to the sea" will surely have zero real world repercussions for Jewish New Yorkers Just like Trump calling Nazis very fine people and telling the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by has had no impact on the rise in white supremacy, right?

R18 or maybe Americans are fed up with astronomical prices for housing and healthcare and childcare and confused why they're supposed to care m ore about these melodramatic Middle Eastern people half a world away?

Why aren't New York politicians asked about visiting the Dominican Republic, or Italy, or China? Hell, what about Puerto Rico? There are plenty of New Yorkers with ethnic and familial ties to those places.

Seriously? WTF is so special about Israel? Why does every New Yorker have to listen to their politicians talk ad nauseam about a foreign country on the other side of the world? It makes no sense!

I would feel so embarrassed to feel that I needed very special attention and special treatment from politicians, especially if I was a rich nation. Like their problems are the ones that matter.

[quote] he vocally supports the BDS movement

Good.

[quote]has threatened to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York

Good to know there's at least one politician in the US that respects international law.

This is a piece of why Zohran Mamdami won, but in general younger NYC voters are so disillusioned with the dysfunctional status quo. Cuomo represented the status quo. Adams represents the status quo. Ask younger voters if they want a change or if they want a continuation of how the city is currently functioning or dysfunctioning. "Change" would win in an absolute landslide.

We've been here before, it's how Di Blasio got elected by the progressive wing of the Democratic voter base, and then he was Mayor, he was the status quo and he became deeply unpopular. Hopefully Mamdami can do better, because all signs point to him winning in November.

Mamdami obviously wants to win-- and he has months to try to finesse and improve his relationship to/with both sides of the irreconciliable Israel/Palestine divide. At least to assuage some Jewish voters' absolutely histrionic fears that he's some kind of Hamas trojan horse seeking to go after the Jews right here in New York City. About 25% of my FB friends cohort are NYC Jewish and the trauma-rooted craziness I have seen on social media these past few days is truly something else.

Funny that those arguing (correctly I think) that this wasn’t about Israel want to make it all about Israel.

He won because the rent is too damned high.

But what about Israel, R26????

This is truly bizarre, OP, the person who tweeted that is right. What a weird, fucked up question to ask a mayoral candidate, like job one is to visit Israel, by God!

As an Irish-American, I can honestly say I do not give a fuck if my mayor, my Congressman, my Senators, and my governor do not give a fuck about Ireland or have any plans to visit it, now or ever.

But the Irish never were subject to imperial invasion, genocide, and mass starvation. Only the Jewish people have suffered!

How much taxpayer money is given as welfare to Israel again?

The "AHA!! GOTCHA!!" bullshit behind the question was really out of hand, and it makes me more sympathetic to Mamdami. You really have to watch the clip to understand. Here's a no-hassle Facebook Reel version

R23 = clueless

Do you think those things don't have real world implications for Jewish New Yorkers? Yes, being anti-Israel does not = anti-semitic. But just like calling it "the China virus" isn't directly targeted towards Chinese-Americans, it still lead to a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US. When someone says to "globalize the intifada" what exactly do you think that means besides attacks on random Jews outside of Israel?

Also, Palestinians aren't the only oppressed Muslims in the world. Where is Zorhan's outrage over the Uyghurs in China, the Rohingya in Myanmar, or Modi's attacks against Indian Muslims. Funny how the only time he seems to care is when it involves the Jews.

Billions R30. They got over 8 billion alone last September.

Every Israeli citizen receives free healthcare paid for by their government. They have robust social services we in the US can only dream of. We're told "we can't afford universal healthcare," but we send billions upon billions annually to a wealthy country that provides it to their citizens. It's infuriating and I wish more people talked about it.

R33 as the generational leadership changes, we'll begin to talk about it a whole lot more. I think the days of not talking about this elephant in the room are ending.

[Quote] Just because Israel is immensely popular in Congress,

😂😂😂

Yes that’s why Congress kowtows to that rogue nation, because it’s just “immensely popular.”

R4 Uganda is most important to this race, dummy. Zohran was born there. RWJ nuts are demanding he be deported back to there.

R33 I wonder if Gen Z knows how much welfare money Israel gets while being told they're useless and lazy?

The single most important political event outside the city for NY politicians is held annually in Puerto Rico. Everyone!—pays attention to what’s happening re Puerto Rico.

[quote]There are a few other mostly left-coast cities where progressive leftists could emerge again to win city government, but I strongly doubt it is indicative of any nationwide tilt to the far left. Democrats will be best off nominating centrists overall.

As the 2024 election showed, there are no blue states, just blue cities in a sea of red.

Eventually, some of those blue cities will turn red, too.

By the next presidential election in 2028, the map will look even redder.

The Democrats are causing their undoing the farther left they go, but it seems inevitable.

R39, you mean the rural sea of red where nobody lives? Is that the sea you're talking about?

[Quote] Do non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries have the same rights as Muslims?

In the non-uber religious ones, they do. Just like in other non-uber religious countries

[Quote] you mean the rural sea of red where nobody lives? Is that the sea you're talking about?

Cows usually live there

Why is it impossible to imagine that any of those "sea of red" states might turn blue?

R39 sounds like a fat cow. Does he count, R42?

Because the new troll talking point is predicting the imminent demise of the Democratic party.

Believe me, they'll drop that talking point like a hot potato after next year's midterms. They're trotting it out here in a desperate way because this specific upset is a strong indicator of how the midterms will play out. The map will not be redder then.

r39, the point of all that is not that Democrats are all moving left, it is that some progressive cities are choosing to have progressive government. Oh the horror! Oh the trauma! Don't they know that every single person in this country must act like they are living in West Virginia and only ever choose representatives and mayors that represent rural, conservative, wingnut, deeply evangelical values?

Nah, fuck that noise. It's stupid and increasingly irrelevant. And even West Virginia will wake up to the fact that Republicans fucking hate them and wish they'd all just die already and stop wasting taxpayer money clinging to their useless lives. Let him who has ears to hear Joni Ernst, listen to her.

R32 I believe he has publicly called Modi a war criminal. No harm to check first before you sling accusations.

His mom is Hindu

His mom is the movie director Mira Nair

Progressive cities are seeing that moderate leaders make the cities playgrounds for the rich.

Eveyeone want change

[Quote] By the next presidential election in 2028, the map will look even redder.

The Trump administration is so overreaching that I wouldn’t be surprised it all turns blue. Just wait until the tariffs and the lack of a workforce because the illegals have been deported start affecting average americans

R39 was already blocked. Just a very basic right wing propagandist.

Holy crap, R19, did he really defend use of the phrase "from the river to the sea"?

His defenders always try to turn the subject to Israel whenever anyone points out how anti-Semitic some of his behavior comes across. But phrases like from the river to the sea" are specifically, categorically anti-Semitic. No spin or deflection possible.

well, assuming you are actually sincere r53, no he did not say "from the river to the sea" in the sense some people use it, to call for the complete destruction of Israel. In fact he didn't use it at all. What he said was he wouldn't condemn the phrase itself, any more than he'd condemn the word "intifada." What got him in trouble with the Holocaust Museum, which is being dishonest here, was that he said they themselves use the word intifada in its actual meaning, "uprising." They use it in Arabic translations to describe the Warsaw Ghetto, wait for it, Uprising, or intifada.

The charge that he secretly wants to kill all Jews in New York City remains Unfounded.

That’s a very lame defense of use of intifada …you did it too! Cheap bs on his part.

…in an Arabic version of a museum info sign… NOT the same.

[quote] The charge that he secretly wants to kill all Jews in New York City remains Unfounded

No one has said he wants to kill all Jews. But his anti-Israel rhetoric including defense of slogans like “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” stirs up anti-semitism in others that leads to actual real world harm to Jews.

[quote]it is that some progressive cities are choosing to have progressive government.

Which is fine and dandy, but the examples we've seen of progressive government in progressive cities hasn't been working out all that well. If I'm wrong, please correct me with examples of where it is working well.

The problem is that the Progressive label is slung around to mean what right wingers mean when they use it - they pretend that progressive cities pass out drugs to the homeless, that they forbid the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic in school in favor of lessons on how to trans at age 6, and that they encourage minority high school kids to shoplift or loot.

Progressive, which is the label I would use to describe my mayor, is supposed to mean good, standard DEMOCRATIC values - such as facilitating and leveraging money to provide health care for the maximum number of citizens, trying to figure out how to give the maximum number of women family leave time when they give birth, that they figure out options for inexpensive child care for working parents, fighting for the public schools so that they can try to reduce class size and provide the best possible instruction for kids - which might also include feeding them. It also means following the laws of our country, such as defending residents by insisting that they be provided with due process.

Many red cities solve their homeless problems by putting them on buses with one way tickets to destinations such as Los Angeles. I don't really see that as being a problem that is specific to blue cities. In fact, red cities exacerbate the problems that blue cities already face, namely being primarily in temperate areas of the US, with relatively generous welfare benefits. (Although NO city or state in the US can claim to have anything actually qualifying as generous when it comes to welfare).