It has come to this:
— The elected Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) member who has not had any serious managerial experience in anything previously and recently rode a wave of populist enthusiasm into office. Mamdani represents the progressive edge of academic-style Leftism in the United States, part of the “anti-colonial” Global South – embracing rhetoric such as “globalize the Intifada,” language critics argue echoes Hamas-aligned activism, playing footsie with terrorists. Then there are the promises of government-run grocery stores, “free” day care, rent control, $30 minimum wage, and high taxes. SOCIALISM. The nanny state. “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
— The elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, a celebrity real-estate developer and reality TV actor who never had any political experience before being elected POTUS in 2016. A twice-divorced, twice-impeached self-promoter who has played footsie (and more) with adult film stars and who has been (in my opinion) a human wrecking ball of respectful decorum and public institutions. Right-wing populism and narrow-minded protectionism. MAGA. Mean-spirited xenophobia. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
As I have stated several times before, the voters in a democracy get what they WANT. They might very well also get what they DESERVE in their elected leaders.
When you look at Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump, this is just the visible tip of the iceberg. Beneath the waterline are the sharp divisions and destabilization in American society which results in persons like them winning elections. Mandani and Trump are the symptom, not the disease, in my opinion. I can hardly believe anyone like them would ever enjoy political success in America. I strain to recognize the country in which I have lived my whole life. Mamdani and Trump are the flip sides of the same coin which serves to highlight unmistakable national decline.
Three decades or more ago politics in the United States was a slightly boring affair, with sober and (mostly) responsible elected representatives compromising and getting the people’s business done. Political centrism held more sway at that time. Now it is the opposite. Politics is a take no prisoners affair of extreme polarization with too many acting the asshole. We just emerged from the longest ever 43 days of the federal government shut down because politicians would not compromise in passing a budget. Calls for compromise were decried as “cowardly.” Rage, “rage bait,” and rage monkeys. Rage everywhere; everyone is “enraged.” How tedious. What a waste of spirit.
I predict America will oscillate between wild POPULIST waves from someone like Trump on the Right to Mamdani on the Left, and then all the way back to someone like Trump in the next election. Unstable and extreme swings going forward until… the fever breaks?
Again, this is a decline (a disease) in American society, in my view. I already regret the time and energy politics in the United States has taken in my life over the past decade. I feel sorry for young people who will have to live with this for far longer than I will. The situation did not get this bad overnight, and it will not change anytime soon.
So, esteemed reader, I will resist any temptation to post anything more on American politics. We can all see what is happening.
Enough said.
I will turn my time and energies to more auspicious topics.
Amen.
One Comment
Jay Canini
Hi Rich,
I have some thoughts about the situation:
1. It is a shame that civility has collapsed in general in American society. I miss the days when the US felt like we were a country that was in it together.
2. A lot of the anti-Trump people are seeing “centrist” members of the Democratic Party trying to “compromise” with a clearly hostile Republican Party (think of Charlie Brown failing to get the football, or “The Alt-Right Playbook”‘s You Go Low, We Go High), and they see it as inappropriate. This is why there is now a push to primary those members of the Democratic Party (such as Hakeen Jeffries) and replace them with people who justifiably show hostility to the Trump GOP (and much of those people are more progressive/more leftist). I think a lot of it too is from the failure of the Biden presidency and the Harris campaign; some of the anti-Trump people online feel it catered to the center right too much and therefore did not encourage people who needed significant changes in American society to vote for them.
3. American politics is in general more to the right than European politics, and I feel a better sense of perspective is achieved when one compares the political maps. AOC said she and Biden would be in different parties in Europe, and the US Democratic Party in general, today, would be center right in Europe.
4. The usage of the word “conservative” in my opinion no longer describes the Republican Party. It is becoming more of a reactionary party. The “centrist” Democrats are now the true “conservative party” (trying to keep things the same).
5. This also explains why Biden/Harris failed in 2024: Many voters wanted a change in general, and true “conservative”/”centrist” positions didn’t work. This is why AOC found several people in her district voted for both Trump and her, and then some of the people who voted for Trump voted for Mamdani.
6. Now with Nick Fuentes’ Groypers (openly racist) taking a large number of young Republicans, the direction of the GOP may go darker, quicker. Fuentes is massively shifting the Overton window in an ugly way.
7. In general the far left is far, far weaker in the US than the far right. The pro-Trump elements of the Republican Party have the majority of the House of Representatives, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, and a majority or plurality of state legislatures and governorships. This is why I feel the far right is more of a concern than the far left.
8. The positions of most far-left and most-far right are not equally wrong/repulsive. The AOC/Bernie/Mamdami types are campaigning on making affordability, while a lot of the pro-Trump Republicans are campaigning to villify trans people and people who immigrated (regardless of visa status). I agree people need to make fair athletic competitions that involve cis-women and trans women, and there should be immigration laws and enforcement of them, but the promotion of joy in pain and suffering in the GOP is concerning.
9. In regards to the adoption of anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian positions, the Groyper/Tucker Carlson far right is also now taking that tack, so both far left and far right are doing this. The fundamentalist Christians are still very pro-Israel.
10. The repulsive far left (the tankies: those pro-CCP and pro-Joseph Stalin, those who hate Bernie and AOC) make up a very small part of the public, and mainly just fight with other left wingers, weakening the left wing.
Lastly: I may not like politics but politics, sadly, likes me. 🙁 Even though the topic exhausts me, I feel I cannot tune it out. I also think of the Fuentes/Trump GOP like a bully. Try to ignore them, and they won’t let me.