Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race • Hacker News Board

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#411

Post by afavour » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:10 AM UTC

YZF wrote: post #391

afavour wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, current day European social democracies. You can’t help but laugh at the amount of hysteria about Mamdani. No cost childcare? Free buses? Using existing rent control regulations to keep rent affordable? Oh no

There are fundamental differences between Europe and the US. The US is not magically going to become Europe by electing a "left" mayor. Also this is a city- since when does a mayor set economic policies. Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them. Rent control, if the rent is low, there won't be any rental property. What's the next step, forcing people to build? The city wil…

> since when does a mayor set economic policies.

Childcare, buses and rent control are all under the control of the NYC mayor.

> Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them.

Most places have “free” roads and public schools and survive just fine. The point in invoking Europe is to say that having a higher tax burden and getting more public services in return is not some crazy North Korean dystopia. It’s pretty common. If it’s not for you that’s absolutely fine, just don’t move to NYC.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#412

Post by timr » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:10 AM UTC

bayarearefugee wrote: post #379

dralley wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mamdani. Millennial candidate. No dirt. Other that some stupid stuff he said while he was young, his policies are relatively common sense and middle of the road, and are aimed at leveling the playing field. Look, Mamdani ran a good campaign, and if I was an NYC voter (I am not) I'd probably vote for him out of the options provided. However, this just is not true. Many of his policies are neither "common sense" nor…

> And lots of his dumb comments were from like 2 years ago, not 12 - he was not "young" when he said them. If you're talking about the "globalize the intifada" comment, he actually never even said that, but a whole lot of people (you among them, it seems like?) have been brainwashed into thinking he did through political maneuvering. The root of that whole drummed up controversy was him refusing to blanket condemn th…

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Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#413

Post by whateveracct » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:10 AM UTC

yesbut wrote: post #376

jrm4 wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely can't believe, still, that I have to spell this out for people. Obama did not do a U-turn . It is the worst naivete to think that what happened was "he had big ideas and he changed his mind." He had to bring up big ideas to get elected, and then he got elected the first Black president and some of you seem entirely too dense to actually grasp what that means. President. Not King. Subject to all of those c…

Consider the framing today: "Trump is doing all these terrible things, making all of these drastic changes, exploiting the system to his will." The Dems can no longer use the excuse that the president is handcuffed. Trump 2.0 is showing us what the president can do. The dems consistently use that excuse to prevent popular policies from being enacted. Obama even had a ~6mo super majority where he could have codified a…

I don't want my President to act like a dictator even if they're on "my side." Some things are more important than policy.

Obama understood this and respected the office. Trump took a fat dump on the office and I'm not sure if our country's values will ever recover from this race to the bottom.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#414

Post by nwienert » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:12 AM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #357

WillPostForFood wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans in Congress never wanted or proposed anything like ACA. It is weird half truth because Massachusetts, one the more liberal states, with Democratic supermajorities in both houses, passed something similar while Mitt Romney was Governor. It was the brainchild of Jonathan Gruber, MIT Economist and Democratic consultant who worked on the ACA for Obama. You can go back and read the GOP platforms of the time, t…

The 1993 HEART Act was very much like the ACA, built around the individual mandate to purchase private health insurance, primarily through your employer. Romneycare was massaged out of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Equity_and_Access_Refor... This was the Republican alternative to the time's Hillarycare proposal, and was authored by the Heritage Foundation of Project 2025 fame.

From what I understand, the HEART act wasn't really backed by Republicans, it had only 20 or so R's on it and was actually more of a ploy to prevent other more substantive bills from passing. It was designed to obstruct not to pass, later Dole supported a more restricted bill and HEART was never even debated. The vast majority of R's didn't support it, it was basically a political maneuver.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#415

Post by xivzgrev » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:12 AM UTC

reenorap wrote: post #401

michaelbarton wrote: post #13

I hope this win signals (to both parties) that voters are receptive and will get engaged when a clear message is presented about cost of living and quality of life issues. Some of which are taken for granted in most other western countries. I’m no political wonk, and I’m curious what others with more insight might say about his ability to fund and implement his polices. I’m reminided of Obama and his hopeful message…

Obama was hated by San Franciscan progressives because he came in with all of these promises and then backtracked on almost all of them. He basically turned into a Bush-lite, and he even maintained every single one of Bush's policies as well as deadlines. For example, he talked a lot about abortion and then immediately said it wasn't a priority for him once he got into office. He never closed Guantanamo and in both e…

I'll give you one reason, among many, it wasn't a failure. It made it illegal to deny people health insurance coverage based on pre existing conditions. That was a big step forward in a broken system to restore some humanity to the system.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#416

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:14 AM UTC

reenorap wrote: post #401

michaelbarton wrote: post #13

I hope this win signals (to both parties) that voters are receptive and will get engaged when a clear message is presented about cost of living and quality of life issues. Some of which are taken for granted in most other western countries. I’m no political wonk, and I’m curious what others with more insight might say about his ability to fund and implement his polices. I’m reminided of Obama and his hopeful message…

Obama was hated by San Franciscan progressives because he came in with all of these promises and then backtracked on almost all of them. He basically turned into a Bush-lite, and he even maintained every single one of Bush's policies as well as deadlines. For example, he talked a lot about abortion and then immediately said it wasn't a priority for him once he got into office. He never closed Guantanamo and in both e…

> Obama was hated by San Franciscan progressives because

Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#417

Post by macNchz » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:14 AM UTC

somenameforme wrote: post #334

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he called for universal health care but once he was elected he started saying it was "too radical" ACA was the most radical package that could have passed, and it still cost Democrats the Congress. This line of argument reminds of the folks who complained about Sinema and Manchin. You know what we’d have with a few more Sinemas and Manchins in the party right now? A majority. The bill that passes is better than the…

I think people had rose colored glasses about Obama because he was, by far, the most charismatic President we've had in modern times. His speeches still give me goose bumps, even when I disagree with what he's saying! That man has the gift of gab. Him also being intelligent further, sadly, makes him an outlier in modern times. But many of the things he did were dubious and ACA is a perfect example of this. It's littl…

The ACA was, I believe, a highly intentional better-done-than-perfect effort, fully cognizant of the historical cycles of political will around major healthcare policy in America. If you review in depth the efforts in the 90s under Clinton, and earlier under Johnson, I think the approach was well considered. A more ambitious policy proposal ending in failure very well may have have put the topic to bed for another twenty years. The loss of the “public option” did sting, though.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#418

Post by uncircle » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:14 AM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #282

seydor wrote: post #165

The fact that people in here (who are richer than average) disagree with his policies makes his election more hopeful

The reality, which kinda sucks and is boring, is that generally people with money understand how money works, and why things like rent control, government grocery stores, and free [expensive service], are financially brutal policies.

Appeal to authority and sweeping generalisation in a cynical dismissal package.

You’re not talking to bilionaires on this site, only a portion of bilionaires know about making money, which has no relation whatsoever to having a good grasp about political philosophy, large-scale economic principles and statesmanship.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#419

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:14 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #243

olalonde wrote: post #23

It's funny how in the US, even mayors get tagged as "conservative" or "democratic socialist." I always figured their job was just to keep the city services running.

You don't make yourself a name by properly managing garbage trucks and street sweeping. It's not just the US either, Australian local councils went headlong into culture wars long ago.

Counterpoint, I read this interesting article recently contrasting two progressive mayors in the USA, Brandon Johnson (~6% approval rating) and Michelle Wu (66% approval rating)

https://cityjournal.substack.com/p/big-city-progressives-kee...

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#420

Post by Tryk » Wed, Nov 05, 2025, 6:14 AM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #360

overfeed wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brutal to who? Wage theft is also brutal, but it's pretty obvious why the folk who "understand how money works" condone it. It's a tad credulous to think the billionaires donated against Mamdani out of a sense of noblesse oblige

Brutal to everyone. Society is a chain linked web, not a loose cluster.

What about tax cuts for the rich, quantitative easing? Who are they brutal to? Everyone? Where in that chain linked web does it hurt the most when you distribute money to the wealthiest 10%?