841–850 of 1001 posts
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't it proposing running like five grocery stores to test? That's not bonkers or radical. Or even expensive. It seems like the type of experiment HN would love.
It’s an unnecessary experiment that wastes time. Kroger/Costco/Walmart/Albertsons all have 2% profit margins. These are extremely optimized, large scale businesses. No city government is going to do it for cheaper. Which means the most prices can be lowered is 2%. Which means the problem in food deserts is the customers are too poor. Which means the solution is giving poor people money. But that is not a winning poli…
And yet, plenty to spend billions on share buybacks.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/kroger-albert...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Obama was hated by San Franciscan progressives because Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage.
> Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage. If the message that Democrats take from this is NY progressivism wins on a national stage, we'll certainly lose the next presidential election, and maybe even fail to gain a majority in either the House or Senate during the midterms. That's my biggest fear.
Mamdani is a disciplined New York progressive. He’s left of the median voter. But the Mamdani that won the D primary was also left of the median NYC voter.
One can take a shallow policy lesson from this election. Or a deeper political lesson in the value of pragmatism and respect for the voter (versus the holier than thou crap that has polluted the far left).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Obama was hated by San Franciscan progressives because Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage.
> Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage. If the message that Democrats take from this is NY progressivism wins on a national stage, we'll certainly lose the next presidential election, and maybe even fail to gain a majority in either the House or Senate during the midterms. That's my biggest fear.
What you are advocating for is the same bullshit that cost the Democrats the election in 2016, and in 2024. We've tried it your way and it is nothing but a losing strategy. People want progress, people want change. If a candidate can't at least have balls to lie about wanting that too, then they are unfit to win an election.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is another example of a little radicalism is a dangerous thing. You don't need to be friends with landlords if you're prepared to simply seize all their property.
I…don’t think he is prepared to do that. That’s if he wanted to, which I am yet to be convinced. Further, I don’t think any City government (including NYC) is prepared to do that! - short of an already-occurring collapse.
I'm pretty radical myself and I also just don't think it's necessary. There's more than enough unusued buildings to rebuild upon or renovate than a need to seize property. Even a place as dence as NYC still has a lot of land to utilize.
Zohran is exactly the kind of change candidate that the San Francisco machine with Grow SF would actively seek to squash. But Zohran's not alone, today's election was a massive swing back in almost every single race. School boards, city councils, state houses and senates, all swung radically left. It should be ringing alarm bells that the SF / YC / startup community that used to champion utilitarian, meritocratic QoL…
Peter Thiel and Mamdani are more alike than you may think. https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1937879912221667792 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-peter-thiel-warns... Nobody wants to hear this because it departs from the 'billionaire bad' trope. But Thiel has been remarkably consistent in his criticism of housing being the center of all of the Millenial economic woes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/peter-thiel-antic...
Douthat: I think you would prefer the human race to endure, right?
Thiel: Uh ——
Douthat: You’re hesitating.
Thiel: Well, I don’t know. I would — I would ——
Douthat: This is a long hesitation!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, didn't you know we're in free fall because of checks notes the influx of Muslim Communists? If only New York had learned this one important lesson then they too wouldn't fall as far as checks notes again the state with the largest GDP of any state.
Willful ignorance doesn't change the facts. California could fall off into the ocean and the United States wouldn't blink. But keep livin' in your bubble if that's what makes you happy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Because San Francisco progressivism doesn’t win on a national stage. If the message that Democrats take from this is NY progressivism wins on a national stage, we'll certainly lose the next presidential election, and maybe even fail to gain a majority in either the House or Senate during the midterms. That's my biggest fear.
Frankly, the Democrats have done nothing but pander to people who hate them, who will never vote for them, and fucking LOVE their opposition for years now. If there is one thing to take away from the Trump campaigns, it's that pandering to an imaginary moderate is not nearly as effective as being really exciting to your base. All ceding ground to the opposition does is lead to disillusionment and apathy amongst the p…
And maybe you are right. I'd love to see America move to 4 or more major parties. With the far-left and far-right of each separated out into their own parties. Would even settle for 3 parties.