{"id":236048,"date":"2025-09-18T09:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236048\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:33:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:33:24","slug":"in-nyc-zohran-mamdani-makes-politics-fun-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236048\/","title":{"rendered":"In NYC, Zohran Mamdani makes politics fun again"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a journalist and political commentator<\/a>, I\u2019ve covered politics for nearly 20 years \u2014 presidential elections, midterms, state and local races, even international elections.<\/p>\n

It used to be fun. There was the horse race, a colorful cast of characters, the debate over ideas and policies, all occasionally punctuated by a juicy scandal or two.<\/p>\n

But the business of covering politics, much like politics itself, has become a fetid, toxic cesspool of worse and worsening incentives to go lower, louder, darker, and angrier. That goes for our candidates, parties, as well as the media charged with covering it all \u2014 we used to joke that politics was a blood sport, but, sadly, it\u2019s not a joke any longer.<\/p>\n

Our political leaders physically threaten one another, our president constantly threatens the media and anyone else he doesn\u2019t like, our media exploits and foments the division in this country, and some very troubled Americans have decided that political violence is a justifiable response to disagreement.<\/p>\n

Trust me, there\u2019s nothing \u201cfun\u201d about this anymore.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine it\u2019s fun for voters, either. Where there was once an option to be politically engaged without being politically enraged \u2014 a casual but informed observer of the news and the issues \u2014 it feels as though the only option today is, ready for battle. And if you\u2019re not angry at someone, you\u2019re just not doing it right.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not sustainable for a person or a society. If I\u2019ve learned anything from my anxiety disorder and the therapy I receive for it, it\u2019s that no one can operate in a high-adrenaline state of fight-or-flight all the time. Eventually, you break.<\/p>\n

I have no words of optimism to share about the state of our national politics. It\u2019s unequivocally awful, and I fear only going to get worse. But, I can offer a brief respite from it.<\/p>\n

About a month ago I started covering the New York City mayoral election for a show called \u201cBattleground NYC\u201d on Fox 5 NY<\/a>. Five nights a week I interview local reporters, local political analysts, candidates, activists, elected officials, and importantly voters, in an effort to get inside the race.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no yelling, no debate. Just informed guests and good questions.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a plug, but meant to tell you that what I\u2019ve discovered is this race is a refreshing throwback to those fun days of politics, and a lot of that is because of the frontrunner.<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who unexpectedly won the Democratic nomination<\/a>, is the opposite of everything I\u2019ve ever typically voted for in a political candidate.<\/p>\n

Where I prize experience and expertise, he has practically none.<\/p>\n

Where I\u2019m a staunch conservative and capitalist, he\u2019s a progressive socialist.<\/p>\n

Where I\u2019m not usually compelled by personality contests, he\u2019s winning this one handily.<\/p>\n

But with his inarguable charm, authenticity, sincerity, and Happy Warrior ethos, he\u2019s injecting hope, humanity, and even humor into politics at a time when we are so utterly bankrupt of all three.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve interviewed political activists like the two \u201cMoms for Mamdani\u201d I had on a week ago<\/a>, who sounded genuinely excited for the future. There was no doom or gloom, no fearmongering, no anger at this group or hatred for that group \u2014 just pure hope for something better and different.<\/p>\n

Practically everyone I talk to about Mamdani has the same outlook as he seems to \u2014 urgent but optimistic, aware of our many problems but sanguine about solving them, cleareyed about the stakes but refusing to add fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n

In the midst of Mamdani\u2019s unexpected rise, the campaigns of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a> and incumbent Mayor Adams<\/a> seem so flatfooted, unsure of what to do to break through his bubble of positivity. Dogged by scandal and corruption themselves, and messily intertwined with President Trump, Cuomo and Adams are stuck in today\u2019s politics, while Mamdani\u2019s managed to transcend them.<\/p>\n

It reminds me of covering former President Barack Obama\u2019s first presidential campaign. He wasn\u2019t my candidate, but there was absolutely no denying the sense of hope and change voters felt.<\/p>\n

Rijkaard Alexis, a 31-year-old Haitian immigrant who recently became a U.S. citizen, said he was excited to vote for Mamdani in his first election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched my mother cry when Obama got elected. That hope people had, I finally understand it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a poignant reminder that in a sea of Andrew Cuomos and Donald Trumps, there\u2019s still an appetite for John F. Kennedys and Ronald Reagans. Even today.<\/p>\n

And not in Mayberry, but in New York City.<\/p>\n

secuppdailynews@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a journalist and political commentator, I\u2019ve covered politics for nearly 20 years \u2014 presidential elections, midterms, state…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-236048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-opinion","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115224615541315218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}