America Very Into Buying What Zohran Mamdani Is Selling
Everyone wants to tax the rich!
Last week, Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election against a former governor/son of a former New York governor and also against the current incumbent mayor and against a guy who’s been famous since the ‘70s. He won an absolute majority against all of them while running on the kind of progressive policies that pundits and consultants have claimed for years now would absolutely doom Democrats.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been running around saying “Great! Go ahead! Elect him! We’ll just use that to fire up all the people across the rest of the country who will naturally be horrified by ideas like taxing the rich or government-run grocery stores or not paying bus fare! That might fly in New York City, but not in the rest of the country!”
And you know what? I fully encourage them to do so. Because as it turns out, it’s not just New York City that wants nice things — it’s everyone!
A new poll released by YouGov on Monday has found that a whole lot of people out there are very into buying what Mamdani is selling.
Raising taxes on corporations and millionaires? Sixty-nine percent say they strongly or somewhat support that.
Implementing free childcare for every child aged 6 weeks to 5 years? Sixty-six percent!
Raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030? Fifty-six percent!
Freezing rent for lower-income tenants? Sixty-five percent!
Permanently eliminating the fares on public buses? Fifty-three percent!
Creating a network of government-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low rather than making a profit? Fifty-seven percent!
Frankly, I think, as far as that last one goes, the more people think about it, the more they’re not even going to be clear on why they would oppose them to begin with. “Oh no! We’ll have to pay lower prices! Whatever will we do?!?”
As soon as people actually start seeing public grocery stores that don’t look anything at all like the “Soviet-era bread lines” that Republicans keep likening them to, and that charge a lot less for food than regular grocery stores, you’re not going to get a whole lot of them going “Oh no, I’d rather pay more, because of how much I love and want to support capitalism.” I mean, some people might say that online or to their friends, but when it comes down to it, most are going to go with the cheaper option.
I’ve seen more than a few people saying lately that they wish people would vote the way they poll — and I think Mamdani is proof that they actually do. I’m sorry, but regular-ass Democrats are not running on “tax the rich.” They’re just not, especially the ones who were scared to even endorse him. They run, often, on being the “adults in the room” who will vote against the bad things Republicans want while also not capitulating to the elements of their base that are most vocal about wanting the kind of things Mamdani ran on. The things that, it does turn out, many people actually do like.
That’s not the only effect Mamdani is having. Since his win on Tuesday, 4,000 people across the country have registered for Run for Something, an organization that recruits and supports young progressive candidates. The week after his primary, 10,000 people signed up.
Things tend to stagnate when people feel like nothing can ever change. Americans have mostly resigned themselves to the fact that we can’t have the nice things that people in other countries have. They often believe Republicans when they say they will be necessarily horrible, and so even some Democrats shy away from pushing how great they’d actually be. People don’t always look at themselves and think “Oh hey! I could run for office!” unless they’re already super powerful in some capacity. Seeing someone else do it makes them think “Why not me?” Seeing someone successfully run on these issues makes us think “Why not us?”
And why not?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
About one year ago, right after Trump won the election, I mentioned here that one of the reasons why I liked it here so much is that Rebecca is unapologetically liberal. Too many elected Democrats *cough* Schumer *cough* feel like they have to apologize for being liberal, whereas the message out of Mamdani is fuck that, being liberal is awesome (which is the same vibes I get out of the writers here).
I'm sick and tired of Dems refusing to take their own side in an argument.
Repubs like to tell scare stories like "It can take a year to get a hernia repair with socialized medicine", which sound bad. Dems could counter with "In the USA the rich can get hernias repaired in a week or two, while the uninsured will likely never get hernias repaired. That averages out to a lot more than a year".