Against the politics of exhaustion and retribution

I can understand people who are think the mayoral election of New York City is being overblown. But as someone with strong anti-NYC provincialism credentials, I do think there’s something of significance here for people who don’t live in the city. Jon Ganz’s brief Mamdani endorsement puts it well:

 I know Mamdani foreswore the idea of a moral victory as hollow, but his success thus far in challenging the forces of political cynicism, despair, and stagnation is still laudable. The politics of national despair needs figures like Cuomo to become the default setting. Then figures like Trump can present themselves as alternatives. They represent almost identical brands of sleaze and corruption.

I would add to this that Cuomo is also Trumpian in that his entry into the mayoral race was just pure revenge. Beyond Trumpian, even — Trump does seem to really care about tariffs and brutalizing immigrants. Cuomo has never had any interest in policy, had no interest in campaigning, and palpably hated the city he was seeking to lead. He was also pretending to be the candidate to stand up to Republicans when he actively worked to keep Republicans in control of the state Senate and is indirectly responsible for Republicans controlling the House of Representatives. Bill Ackman didn’t give him a shitload of money because he would stand up to Trump. He ran for mayor for one reason — to take revenge against the women who revealed his pattern of sexual harassment and the Democrats who demanded that he resign, some of whom he disgracefully got to bend the knee (I will never respect Kirsten Gillibrand again.) Allowing him to win, and to reward the people in the party who cynically got behind him, was unacceptable.

There’s also a lesson here for left primary challengers — run good candidates with campaigns that appeal to a majority of the party’s voters. Don’t make preemptive conspiracizing excuses about The Establishment like an endorsement from a washed-up politician or donation from a rich guy is some kind of political doomsday device. Endlessly whining about how the Establishment won’t give their ex ante support to anti-Establishment candidates is for losers. This isn’t 1870 — attract voters and attract small donors and it doesn’t matter what some party elites think of your candidacy.