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Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

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Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#651

Post by meowface »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115
nialv7 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda feel Obama is more of a Trojan horse. It was not he tried and failed to get what he campaigned for implemented, it was more like he did a U turn after he got elected. e.g. he called for universal health care but once he was elected he started saying it was "too radical". I hope the same doesn't happen with Zohran. If he was going to fail after all, I wish that will at least be after he had fought as hard as h…

> 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…

The fact that people are still saying things like what the post you're replying to is saying really makes it so clear how Democrats have to face endless false propaganda from the left and the right while Republicans generally don't have the same problem.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#652

Post by cbility »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #595
reenorap wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>ACA is a failure and the only thing it did was make it mandatory and unaffordable at the same time. Compared to what? Is it really better to just be uninsured and go bankrupt over an ambulance ride? This point alone makes your entire post suspect, even though parts of it are indeed true (it's a real shame guantanomo was not closed down).

Unaffordability doesn't need a comparison - if you can't afford something it doesn't matter what the alternative is.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#653

Post by dachworker »

seydor wrote: post #165

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

I love how they always style themselves experts on economics, as if there is one global economic policy that benefits everyone, equally. How cute.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#654

Post by shawn_w »

ch4s3 wrote: post #320
throwaway81523 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of red states have government run liquor stores. And army bases have government run grocery stores along with government run everything else. I don't see the problem here. Progressive version presumably would be free groceries for everyone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_grocery_store

State liquor stores are terrible, and I’ve never heard anyone say a nice word about on base grocery stores.

I have fond memories of the Navy commissary my parents did most of our food shopping at when I was growing up. Huge variety of reasonably priced goods.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#655

Post by shawn_w »

fastball wrote: post #556
nice_byte wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"communism is when government do thing"

Communism is literally when the government owns the means of production. Owning the means of distribution is not far from that at all.

There is no government in an end stage Communist society.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#656

Post by ben_w »

Eisenstein wrote: post #473
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Manchun was genuinely the best Democrats could hope for from West Virginia. Sinema was absolutely not the best Democrats could hope for from Arizona Sure. My point is both are preferable to a MAGA enabler. If you lose perspective and start aiming for perfection at the expense of the good enough, you lose power.

Maybe, maybe not. The problem with being fine not 'losing power' but without actually doing anything that your constituents need while facing an uncompromising opposition that is trying to destroy the way of life of your constituents is that you end up losing most of the battles while losing any active support. When people only vote for you because they are afraid of the opposition and not because they think you are…

A former partner of mine* sometimes shared a political cartoon along the lines of this: https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediu...

Never could convince her that her team could do the same in the opposite direction of motion.

* American but also actually a communist, not a Democrat

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#657

Post by pauldelany »

apparent wrote: post #575
octaane wrote: post #73

You guys have it all wrong. There was only one candidate for the dem party, Here's the list: 1) Cuomo. Sexpest who has been accused by many women of some pretty shitty stuff. Also a member of a multi-generational dynasty, which is not good. 2) Mayor Adams. Federally indicted by the Feds. They have a 99% conviction rate. Not because they're corrupt, but because they only go after people who have dome some really egreg…

> his policies are relatively common sense and middle of the road Free buses and free child care are not remotely common policies in the US. Ditto for govt-run grocery stores. And freezing rent for controlled units.

Correct - common sense policies != common policies

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#658

Post by d1sxeyes »

zimpenfish wrote: post #648
d1sxeyes wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US policies wouldn’t affect the life expectancy in the UK, which has broadly the same trend: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/gbr/uni... This is despite no-one paying (directly) for health care. Would you be willing to submit to invasive investigations into how you live to identify any risk factors you have (both under your control, like choosing to drive, international travel, and not under your…

> Would you be willing to submit to invasive investigations into how you live to identify any risk factors you have To be fair, there are insurance policies (at least in the UK) which give you discounts if you drive "safely"[0] or health insurance that rewards you for "being active"[1]. [0] https://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/car-insurance/how-bl... [1] https://www.vitality.co.uk/rewards/ "you earn Vitality point…

Example 1 is car insurance, not health insurance, so not really apples to apples. Being able to drive is not the same as being able to access healthcare.

Example 2 is private healthcare insurance, which does exist in the UK, but only about 10-15% of the population have it, and it's mostly about getting access to healthcare provision faster. These private providers can of course do what they like, same as in the US, with the caveat that everybody is entitled to free, comprehensive healthcare through the NHS if they don't have private healthcare insurance.

However, folks that can afford to sometimes like to skip the queue.

It's worth noting I suppose that the UK has significantly more in the way of 'sin taxes' than the US. For example, tax on cigarettes is 16.5% of the retail price plus £6.69 ($8.73) on a packet of 20, meaning on average cigarettes retail for around £15 (~$20). This compares to the US average of somewhere around $3 tax and retail of around $10 (varying based on state).

It's more complicated to calculate for alcohol, but again, the UK taxes alcohol more heavily than the US.

This additional tax revenue helps to fund the treatment of those who use those substances (although to be clear, it doesn't cover it fully).

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#659

Post by nobody9999 »

Taek wrote: post #552
nobody9999 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Mamdani's policies are incredibly controversial, that's why it's such big news. Which policies are "incredibly controversial?" And be specific. Here'a a direct link to his platform for your reference" https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform No rush. I'll wait.

His policies around being soft on crime (do you know what NYC was like in the 90's? It's not some distant history), the free bus fare, the city owned grocery stores, the rent control, are all policies that many feel threaten the economic viability and safety of the city. If you don't think any of those policies are contentious, you are living in a bubble and greatly disconnected from huge portions of the population.

>(do you know what NYC was like in the 90's? It's not some distant history)

I do. And today is light years better than it was in the 90s. In fact, there were crack dealers on my corner in the 90s. They're not there any more. Or on 95th street and Amsterdam.

And there aren't any hookers on 90th street and Broadway or 58th and Sixth like there were in the 80s.

And I didn't know Verdi Park was called "Verdi Park" back then either. I just thought they called it "needle park" because it was kind of shaped like a needle. Silly me.

Or the side streets between 38th and 42nd streets from 10th Avenue to the West Side Highway literally covered in hundreds/thousands of used condoms every morning

And the 80s were much, much worse than the 90s. And don't even get me started on the 1970s, when there were street gangs every few blocks.

Oh, and back then (not much change AFAICT), the cops were just the biggest and best-armed gang.

Oh, I'm sorry haven't you lived in NYC for nearly 60 years too?

Soft on crime because Mamdani wants to send non-cops to help people having mental episodes? Soft on crime because he wants to enforce the law and close Rikers?

Free buses? Really? that's not exactly going to break the bank. And even so, the MTA needs to approve that -- and the MTA is controlled by the Governor, not the Mayor.

Five grocery stores in areas which aren't served by private ones? How exactly is that going to threaten[0] (perhaps USD$10 million to acquire space and set them all up, then presumably it can cover its costs from, you know, selling groceries -- or even USD$2.5 million in subsidies) the economic viability of NYC which has a budget of USD$116 Billion[1]?

Crime is down at levels not seen since the early 1960s (before I was born -- that's relevant because I've lived in, with the exception of a year here, six months, three months elsewhere, etc. in NYC my whole life) and crime is at its lowest in all that time. Free buses are a few tens of millions and a few grocery stores are chump change[2] in NYC.

>If you don't think any of those policies are contentious, you are living in a bubble and greatly disconnected from huge portions of the population.

I take issue with that characterization. How long have you lived in NYC?

[0] https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/cost-to-open-a-sup...

[1] https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/06/30/nyc-council-passes-11...

[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chump%20change

Edit: Fixed prose/punctuation.

Re: Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race

#660

Post by yread »

lisdexan wrote: post #554
NullCascade wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Free buses" is not really a thing even in the most left leaning European countries. Most experts recommend very cheap subsidized public transportation but not free.

Well Luxembourg is pretty much less a dense Staten Island, and they do more stuff than buses.

Not without grumbling though. Recently the cost reached 1 billion euro/year and it drove quite some discussion
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