It’s 2026 and any talk of political labels outside an academic setting is useless.
Hitler wasn’t a Socialist; North Korea isn’t a Democratic Republic; the Chinese Communist Party has numerous billionaires.
Pick actual candidates and vote for them without tying yourself in knots over what they call themselves.
Second, stop pretending there’s some giant ‘Left’ majority in the US. Mamdani won NYC with 51% of the vote; Harris got 65%. She got more total votes and a higher percentage than the guy who called himself a Socialist.
I like Mamdani, and I voted for him, but if he gets re-elected it’ll be because he’s a savvy pol, not because of some Left wave.
He won 51% of a three-way race, which means moderate Democrats and independent voters had another option that wasn’t a Republican, and he still kicked both of their asses with a majority.
I support what you’re trying to say but your argument is built around a very disingenuous framing of the election outcome.
A better argument is that Mamdani won DESPITE being a known socialist. He won despite the tag. Just like he won despite his religion and name.
Understanding why he won despite those things is how we can best use his election to inform our other candidate and voting choices.
Mamdani won NYC with 51% of the vote; Harris got 65%. She got more total votes and a higher percentage than the guy who called himself a Socialist.
What Harris are you talking about? Kamala Harris? And what election? Because if you’re talking about the presidential election, she got like 48% of the popular vote. And what do you think the effect of cuomo ratfucking the election and splitting the vote was, on Mamdani’s performance?
Thanks for the clarification, that wasn’t very clear indeed! Then OP’s argument is stopped dead in its tracks by the fact that the mayoral election had more than two candidate, and the presidential election did not.
Yeah no that wasn’t very clear. Still it’s a very misleading (or ill thought out) argument. As others have pointed out, you’re comparing apples and oranges here because the races had different number of realistic options for the electorate to choose from.
Either you vote for the Democratic Socialist, or you don’t.
Mamdani was running against Andrew Cuomo, who had to resign as NY Governor after being outed as a sexual predator. The GOP candidate was Curtis Silwa, a radio shock jock with zero government experience.
If there was a big Socialist majority in New York, it chose to stay home.
And exactly one person couldn’t figure out what I was talking about, so I think it’s more on them than I what I wrote.
On one side, most people when told actual policies which are generally considered left-wing (say, Free Education) agree with them
On the other side, most people don’t have the attention span to read long lists of policies (hands up anybody who ever read the entire electoral program of even just one candidate in an election they voted in) so even the most well-intentioned politicians end up using short political terms with vague-ish definitions which are easily subverted, to describe their own set of policies or those of others.
So we end up with Liberal this, Socialist that and if you try and get down to tightly defined nitty-gritty details of their meaning, no two people fully agree on the definitions.
Judging from the hammer and sickle, OOP thinks North Korea is a Democratic Republic, and the billionaires in the CCP are all self-made unlike the ones in the GOP…
Second, stop pretending there’s some giant ‘Left’ majority in the US. Mamdani won NYC with 51% of the vote; Harris got 65%. She got more total votes and a higher percentage than the guy who called himself a Socialist.
Ok, but now suppose you were to alter time and space and switch them so that each is now running for the other’s office.
We’d have President Mamdani and Mayor Cuomo.
Yeah most Americans wouldn’t call themselves leftists. But most Americans would agree with leftist policies. Anything less than that and Americans will just be voting by party, name recognition or by how bad the Republican candidate is.
It’s 2026 and any talk of political labels outside an academic setting is useless.
Hitler wasn’t a Socialist; North Korea isn’t a Democratic Republic; the Chinese Communist Party has numerous billionaires.
Pick actual candidates and vote for them without tying yourself in knots over what they call themselves.
Second, stop pretending there’s some giant ‘Left’ majority in the US. Mamdani won NYC with 51% of the vote; Harris got 65%. She got more total votes and a higher percentage than the guy who called himself a Socialist.
I like Mamdani, and I voted for him, but if he gets re-elected it’ll be because he’s a savvy pol, not because of some Left wave.
He won 51% of a three-way race, which means moderate Democrats and independent voters had another option that wasn’t a Republican, and he still kicked both of their asses with a majority.
I support what you’re trying to say but your argument is built around a very disingenuous framing of the election outcome.
A better argument is that Mamdani won DESPITE being a known socialist. He won despite the tag. Just like he won despite his religion and name.
Understanding why he won despite those things is how we can best use his election to inform our other candidate and voting choices.
He won despite running against a known sexual predator and a radio shock jock.
The argument I keep hearing is that there’s a giant Left majority that stays home every election because they can’t stand voting for corporate Dems.
When the time came for these folks to show up and vote for a Socialist they didn’t vote?
What Harris are you talking about? Kamala Harris? And what election? Because if you’re talking about the presidential election, she got like 48% of the popular vote. And what do you think the effect of cuomo ratfucking the election and splitting the vote was, on Mamdani’s performance?
I think you misunderstood them, aren’t they referring to the vote in NYC? Harris won in NYC by a good margin
Thanks for the clarification, that wasn’t very clear indeed! Then OP’s argument is stopped dead in its tracks by the fact that the mayoral election had more than two candidate, and the presidential election did not.
Yes, I was referring to the NYC vote.
I thought that would be obvious, but apparently some folks need more explanation
Thanks for replying to them.
Yeah no that wasn’t very clear. Still it’s a very misleading (or ill thought out) argument. As others have pointed out, you’re comparing apples and oranges here because the races had different number of realistic options for the electorate to choose from.
Actually, it’s an either/or option.
Either you vote for the Democratic Socialist, or you don’t.
Mamdani was running against Andrew Cuomo, who had to resign as NY Governor after being outed as a sexual predator. The GOP candidate was Curtis Silwa, a radio shock jock with zero government experience.
If there was a big Socialist majority in New York, it chose to stay home.
And exactly one person couldn’t figure out what I was talking about, so I think it’s more on them than I what I wrote.
It’s a big conundrum:
So we end up with Liberal this, Socialist that and if you try and get down to tightly defined nitty-gritty details of their meaning, no two people fully agree on the definitions.
Any fool can see the difference between Black and White.
The trouble starts when we start arguing over ‘eggshell’ vs. ‘clouds’ vs. ‘salt.’
Find the actual candidates available and pick the best one.
NYC Mayor Ed Koch wasn’t my favorite politician, but I love this quote.
"If you agree with me 51% of the time, just vote for me. If you agree with me 100% of the time, talk to a psychiatrist.’
Judging from the hammer and sickle, OOP thinks North Korea is a Democratic Republic, and the billionaires in the CCP are all self-made unlike the ones in the GOP…
Ok, but now suppose you were to alter time and space and switch them so that each is now running for the other’s office.
We’d have President Mamdani and Mayor Cuomo.
Yeah most Americans wouldn’t call themselves leftists. But most Americans would agree with leftist policies. Anything less than that and Americans will just be voting by party, name recognition or by how bad the Republican candidate is.
You tell me how to alter time and space and then I’ll consider it.