Daily News readers weigh in on Mamdani

I knew a post-primary read of the Daily News’s Voice of the People (letters to the editor) would be fun. And it was.

Ed, from Ridgewood, NJ, says that Trump had a great week bombing and the Democrats had a bad one, given that they elected a socialist in New York City — “the financial capital of the world.”

Dear Ed, You don’t seem to understand what democratic socialism is, or would be if we lived in it. You’re confusing it with Soviet-era communism. Plus, as many smart people have been pointing out, we already live with and are grateful for quite a bit of socialism. And so do you. I won’t specify the items because it’ll just make you furious and you’re having such a good, sulky time telling me how my whole world is about to be destroyed. P.S. Since Ridgewood, NJ is not a suburb of New York City, you didn’t vote here.

Drew, from Syosset, Long Island, reminds us of the time Nancy Pelosi, et al, dismissed AOC as fringe, while the Republicans warned us how these “extremists” would take over the Democratic Party, and now it has, what with a Democratic Socialist taking over New York City.

Dear Drew, I guess you didn’t get the follow-up on the story of Pelosi and AOC and how well they’ve gotten along since AOC entered Congress. AOC isn’t an “extremist;” she’s an extremely effective voice for her constituents. She excites voters and inspires them.  Moreover, she’s great on her feet, regularly taking apart those Republicans who try to diminish her. (Re socialism, see above, in my response to Ed.) And I notice that you, too, aren’t a NYC voter.

Donald, from Merrick, Long Island, tells us to get our bell bottoms out of storage because everything ’70s will be coming back to New York. I.e., crime will run “rampant.” He is amazed how much suffering New York Democrats seems to want, and now they want more. He calls Mamdani an “anti-Israel, defund the police” guy who never had a job in his life. But this Donald does not feel sorry for us Dems and thinks it’s funny it was liberal white Democrats who voted for him. Then he gets in a dig at Alvin Bragg and tells us to continue being crazy enough to vote for anyone with a “D” next to his name.

Donald thanks his god he doesn’t live in the city. Which means he doesn’t vote here, either. Or, apparently, visit: his description of our suffering? Nah. BTW, Mamdani has had quite a few “jobs” in his life. Moreover, Donald, your comments show your racism. Aren’t you aware of this?

Dan from Belvidere NJ (not a NYC borough) says that Mamdani’s pledge to make buses free will kill any socialism in New York City. Dan says when Mamdani raises taxes to pay for the free-riding hoi-polloi (he doesn’t use that word), the billionaires will be departing NYC for places like, say, Florida, where DeSantis will welcome them with open arms.

Dear Dan, why am I thinking you want to or are planning to move to Florida? Where you will continue not being able to vote in New York City. (I don’t get the comment about killing socialism with free bus rides.) Plus, billionaires do not depart NYC. They stay here, and maybe buy other homes in other places like Florida, where they spend their money on home insurance. If they can get it.

One guy weighed in with a diatribe against socialism which, he said, has been an absolute failure everywhere. Fortunately, one of the sane readers today reminded him of how successful democratic socialism has been in a number of countries; she listed them.

 

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What does one New Yorker think about our primary election?

That one New Yorker = me.

I have my idealistic side and my practical side. Actually, there are no sides; both ideals and practicality roll around each other in my brain and whatever other body parts they visit.

I always spend time considering candidates. I vote for candidates who are intelligent about government and who appreciate what government can do — and how it can do it. Creative enthusiasm is welcome; cynicism is not.

I prefer to vote for lawyers because a large part of governance is legislation. I won’t vote for businesspeople: capitalism and government are separate worlds and should never be conjoined. Enjoined, yes. Capitalism is in essence amoral; democratic government is the ethical consenses of the people.

Experience in governance is important, given that New York City seems from my point of view to be a complex municipality. I couldn’t manage it. (I wouldn’t want to manage it, either.)

And then there are ideals. My candidates have to show me values similar to mine: concern and empathy for people who are unfortunate, and the willingness to lean toward them, to offer meaningful assistance and humanity. Rule of law, equal rights and justice for all, and everyone who is qualified to vote in elections, can vote.

I have grander ideals, too but I never look for or expect a candidate to hit all my celestial items; high level competency, fairness, decency and justice will do.

I don’t care about charisma, looks, religious beliefs, race, big money or age — unless any of these characteristics looks likely to get in the way of fair and competent governance.

Ranked choice voting caused me to learn about and listen to all the candidates. It’s hard to be knee-jerk when you have five choices to make; I made those choices.

Zohran Mamdani was not among my ranked choices. His ideals are excellent, his enthusiasm is terrific. He has had no political experience in the City and his efforts in the State legislature were minimal.

So how do I feel today?

I feel fine. Mamdani is an interesting, intelligent, educated, exciting guy, with some creative ideas to address the core problems of my city — which are probably the same core problems of any city. I like democratic socialism as a political label, and as an ideal for my world.

I’m looking forward to Mamdani’s mayoralty (and equally forward to the end of Adams’), as he learns how he can put his ideals into practice.

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Why Trump will fail

Because of the lessons Trump is incapable of gleaning from history.

Toward the end of David Kahn’s comprehensive history, Hitler’s Spies, Kahn analyzes why, given “This gigantic, jerry-built apparatus” of Hitler’s intelligence agencies, Hitler lost the war.

Kahn specificies how excellent the Allies’ intelligence was, even given some big mistakes (“A Bridge Too Far,” for instance). Kahn continues:

The Germans, in contrast, were glaringly inferior.

Five basic factors bred this failure: (1) unjustified arrogance, which caused Germany to lose touch with reality; (2) aggression, which led to a neglect of intelligence; (3) a power struggle within the officer corps, which made many generals hostile to intelligence; (4) the authority structure of the Nazi state, which gravely impaired its intellience; (5) anti-Semitism, which deprived German intelligence of many brains.

  • Let’s take these factors one at a time, replacing Trump and his administration with Germany. “Unjustified arrogance.” We view and hear it every day. And along with the arrogance is the egregious and egregiously displayed stupidity. The combination causes them to lose touch with reality, if they ever had any touch with reality aside from an unreal TV show.
  • “Aggression.” Oh yeah.
  • “Power struggle within the” administration’s corps, making many officials hostile to intelligence. Kahn is using the term “intelligence” to describe Hitler’s “gigantic, jerry-built apparatus,” but it’s so easy to read it as intellectual capacity. Knowledge, factual knowledge. Today, as I write this, I’ve read a variety of claims about Trump’s bombing Iran, from hugely successful to “we’re not yet certain.”
  • Trump’s “authority structure” is both more bizarre and less cohesive than Hitler’s, partially because no one is afraid of being wiped out. Losing their jobs, yeah, but not being liquidated. As yet. And Trump’s “authority” shifts every day in his mad display of what he seems to think is power.

I left in Kahn’s point about anti-Semitism, although I’m not sure it applies to the Trumpists who are, in any case, hardly collected and competent enough to use anti-Semitism as a dynamic. They don’t have to. They have picked their vulnerable victims, people of color and foreign ancestry.

But as Kahn continues to deliberate upon Hitler’s anti-Semitism and how it weakened the Third Reich’s intelligence apparatus, he makes some striking points about how attacking and attempting to remove an entire population of certain people weaken a country.

So, as you read this, replace anti-Semitism with asylum seekers and undocumented workers who are employed everywhere in the country, doing work that Americans don’t want to do; and the many young people who have come to the United States on student visas to get an education and have hugely benefited our colleges, universities, hospitals and scientific research centers.

First, Kahn notes that anti-Semitism had a long life in Germany prior to Hitler.

The Prussian army…simply did not commission Jews as regular officers…The Nazis intensified this attitude and its effects. They “coordinated” scientific, technical, and academic organizations with the party philosophy, squeezing Jews out of them…

Is this sounding close to home?

The Nazis expelled the Jewish rector of the Göttengen Mathematical Institute…the foremost center of mathematics in Germany…Mathematicians, scientists, engineers streamed to Great Britain, Russia, above all the United States…

Kahn names only Einstein. I just asked Perplexity.com for a list of the European Jewish scientists who escaped the Nazis and worked on the Manhattan Project. There were nine, plus three who either didn’t work on the Project or had family Jewish connections.

Their departure fed [Germany’s] exhilarating sense of renewal and cleanliness and mission. But even the strongest motivation could not make good the replacement of superb intellects by mediocrities.

Read that one again and contemplate how many “superb intellects” have been tossed or pushed out of Trump’s government and our universities and replaced by mediocrities. Less than mediocrities. Wacky dimwits.

…German anti-Semitism both seriously depleted Hitler’s intelligence potential and vastly increased the allies’, thus doubly damaging the Reich’s intelligence.

Trump’s malicious and cruel anti-immigration onslaught depletes United States’s potential, thus doubly damaging our intelligence. Ergo, like Hitler, Trump will fail.

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