Bill Ackman pledges to bankroll any NYC mayoral candidate capable of defeating Zohran Mamdani
11mon 25d ago by lemmy.world/u/SLVRDRGN in news from fortune.com
Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman plans to bankroll a New York City mayoral campaign, arguing that his affluent associates are poised to flood the election with money in an effort to defeat Democratic Socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
Arguing that his own support of President Trump would automatically disqualify anyone Ackman might put forward, the activist investor said he was making a public appeal: Anyone capable of taking down Mamdani in the Nov. 4 election should step forward and volunteer.
“Importantly, there are hundreds of millions of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight (believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups) so that a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time,” he wrote.
“So if the right candidate would raise his or her hand tomorrow, the funds will pour in.”
It’s unclear whether New Yorkers would honor such a candidate. The recent intervention by Elon Musk in Wisconsin’s state supreme court election indicated the voting public does not always respond well to billionaires using their money to sway races.
New York mayoral races are notoriously unpredictable due to the city’s chronically low turnout. In 2017, for example, Bill de Blasio won reelection with only 14% of registered voters coming out to support him.
A large influx of New Yorkers heading to the voting booth because they are as concerned as Ackman could easily affect the outcome. If Cuomo can hold on to enough fundraisers, political pundits also point out, it’s possible he could run as an independent like Adams, splitting the left vote and spoiling the race.
Ackman, however, argued all these factors would support the emergence of a centrist candidate looking to position themself on the national stage. It could even be another businessman like Bloomberg, he suggested, although Ackman in an earlier post appeared to indicate he would not seek to run himself.
“For the aspiring politician there is no better way to get name recognition, build relationships with long-term donors, and to showcase oneself,” the hedge fund manager wrote, pitching the campaign like a business deal. “The risk/reward of running for mayor over the next 132 days is extremely compelling as the cost in time and energy is small and the upside is enormous.”
Billionaires are against Mamdani, eh? Something tells me he is the right guy for the job then.
Surely this billionaire Trump supporter cares about the interests of democratic voters
What a "centrist" guy this billionaire Trump supporter is.
Surely, the billionaires have the common people’s best interests at heart, right?
Right?!?!
An amazing endorsement from Ackman.
I mean, this guy must live in an insane bubble if he doesn’t understand that this will help Mamdami more than if he had endorsed them. I am sure NYC voters will just rally around a guy who, through funding, owns its allegiance to billionaires.
Billionaires are scared. That's a good sign ..
What's super ironic to me is that taxing them actually makes them safer because if they pay their fair share people wouldn't want to murder them as much as they do now.
They think they can buy enough guards to keep this from happening to them.
They absolutely can not if people finally decide it's time. Guards are good against individuals wanting to fight, not against a mob, or against assassins who really want to kill them. Guards can't stop bullets or bombs, and they can't hold back much more than one person each if those people want through.
they can’t hold back much more than one person each if those people want through.
Keyword "IF" those people want through. A lot of people still seem to think the world would crumble without billionaires, but that vibe is visibly shifting which is nice to see.
Gotta remember we're talking about state guards too - cops, military, etc. They stopped an invasion of the capitol by killing one lady. They would've killed many more if necessary... And those were their own fascist protestors. They'll murder progressives/leftists en masse without remorse. Just check out any fascist state (eg. pinochet)...
You don't think the entire police/military is already enough guards? They need a few more personal ones?
https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/one-nation-under-guard/
And if they paid as much of a percentage as you or me they'd still have more wealth than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes. When a hoarder can't self-regulate, others have to step in.
That's why taxing the ultra-rich and closing all the loopholes needs to be seen as the compassionate option: it's literally better for everyone. All of society is harmed when the wealth gap further widens...
Billionaires control the actual weapons of murder, surveillance, torture, etc. They're completely protected regardless of their tax bill. One Luigi isn't going to change that.
One person has already made a massive difference, and the ruling class is scared. What if we had 100 Luigi's? How about a million? How about 100 million? Luigi is inspiring people. Maybe he was the first snowball of an avalanche.
Luigi saved lives and billionaires cried.
So kind of this guy to give Mamdani an incredible basis for an ad campaign.
Like, for real, does this rich fuck not understanding that the vast majority of the American populace wants to see more blue shells? Honestly, how could it be more clear? All Zohran has to do is something like:
There’s an old proverb that says you should judge a person by the enemies they’ve made. Well, I’ve made an enemy of the billionaire Bill Ackman, and he’s pledged a blank check to whoever runs against me. But, there’s good news: votes decide elections, not money. I’m not listening to the money. I’m listening to the voters. I’m listening to you. Let’s win this together.
Ok where can I find a crochet blue shell because that’s pretty rad
Yeah. Mr. Mangione would be the only person who I think of who could be competitive against Mamdani, on a campaign to "deny, defend, depose" corrupt billionaires and corporations from NYC.
Lmao holy shit, could you imagine if the other Mario brother gets acquitted and then Mamdani gets him to sign on as some sort of high-level city official? Honestly, considering the caliber of human that the current regime is appointing at the national level, we could do a damn sight worse than “some random engineer who got thrust into the spotlight, likely framed, and is now the patron saint of Healthcare as a Human Right”
does this rich fuck not understand
No.
Billionaires should not exist.
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
wtf? Is this really the route they're going to take? I know, pay your fucking share of taxes and then there wouldn't be a "hollowing out."
It's not like they were paying taxes to begin with.
If it’s a choice between hollowing out the billionaire population or the middle class, I choose the billionaires.
Canoes?
A billionaire just causally announcing that he can influence, finance and promote an election using his money in order to get what only interests themselves ... rather than in allowing democratic processes elect someone the people actually want and need.
All that money spent against them when they could idk just stop being little shits and pay their fair share. With interest of course
This is the biggest endorsement Mamdani could get. I hope New Yorkers are paying attention.
Billionaires hate him, genocide enablers hate him, fascists hate him, Nazis hate him, government criminals hate him, citizen concerned for fellow citizens love him.
This Texan Jew is about to send some donations to a Yankee antisemite.
*references to antisemitism are sarcasm based on comments from people who apparently loooove fascism*
the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy
Is that a promise? Look dude I'm already sold on him, you don't need to keep selling him
That is what they always claim, don't they? You can't tax the rich, they'll leave!!
Cool.
Where?
Where will they leave to? Europe? Good luck, taxes are way higher there (not enough , though) either way, you'll be gone from what made you rich in the first place. You're not going anywhere
Florida. We have no income tax, an increasing population of millionaires, mosquitos, alligators and homeless people.
Ohh! What's not to like? 😵💫
They'll go to some red state where fascist stormtroopers keep their boots on the necks of the poor... (ok yeah florida)
It's wild that they billionaires are openly just saying "whoops, we can't be letting the people elect someone good for them, here let's fix that".
It's beautiful. Mamdani and any other socialist will campaign on this hard. These mfkers have gotten really dumb having amassed wealth in an environment where their ancestors had made relative peace with the working class in part by propagandizing that rich people are food for the workers. They seem to think that the status quo where people aren't wholesale anti-rich is a stable equilibrium. I guess they're not reading the latest data.
We need to fix democracy in this country. We can't keep allowing the poor and brown-skin people to vote in favor to their best interest. At least the GOP, MAGA and Billionaires are swiftly working in a solution for this problem.
So they are ok with spending hundreds of millions of dollars, just not in any way that actually improves the city for the people that live in it?
It’s not about the money, it’s just misanthropy.
Exactly. The ‘public services’ he wants to save is bribery to avoid paying his fair share. This guy is offering a ‘powerful people’ club membership so he can avoid giving back to a society that enabled his mindblowing fortune. Our system has gotten so used to it he’s totally good with saying it all out loud as if he’s some sort of victim.
Society’s cancer.
A leech trying to explain why it's good it's sucking your blood.
"It's not to make sure that I have a lot; it's to make sure that I have a lot more than everyone else. Forever."
Ackman is also a part owner of X, and that platform will also definitely be a big part of an effort to defeat Mamdani.
Edit: a family member just asked me what I think of Mamdani wanting to put a tax on all hiring, saying he proposed a 35% tax on the salary of all new hires. I googled this, and the only results are on X. The fix is in.
35% tax on salary is fine with universal healthcare, child care, education, housing, and food. I would give you 50% rates for that.
People think this is a scare tactic but that is what people want. Instead most pay 22%-24% anf can't afford any of the above things.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets
IS he promising universal housing and food? Big if true.
Estonians pay a nearly 50% tax on salaries, we get universal healthcare and education, but not the other stuff you listed. Would definitely be way happier if we got that. Happier than a couple of euros more post-tax salary could make me.
This is a hypothetical.
However, he wants affordable housing built by unions for new yorkers. Also city owned grocery stores to provide affordable and better options.
People of NYC: your vote is far more powerful than this dude throwing his lunch money at the opposition.
Huh. I wonder why he just doesn't vote for the other person. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Isn't that what poor people do? I was told voting was important... /s
That got tossed overboard by Citizens United. Money is free speech, and for most cases money is a big bag of votes.
So let me get this straight. Current tax law favors billionaires. He’s concerned that progressive policies will target taxing billionaires forcing a mass exodus of billionaires thereby undercutting the tax base. In other words they’re already not paying taxes but taxing them more will make them leave. Make it make sense.
It's sad because it does have to be a global movement. If my country decides to heavily increase taxes on the wealthy - as should be done - this is exactly what happens because they can just easily move to Switzerland or Monaco, or some other tax haven, and laugh us right in the face. It's the genius of capitalism
Evidence shows that while rich people threaten to leave for tax or financial reasons, they rarely do.
Because generally speaking they aren't that hit. Sweden, for example, removed its wealth and inheritance tax reeal fast once it was introduced in the 90s.
Norway introduced such measures with their current government and suddenly you have a ton of wealthy Norwegians finding their way to Switzerland. So yes, you do see it happening, and the more you'll increase it the more likely they are to move and take their resources with them. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't gax the rich, of course, but that it needs to be globally coordinated (which it will never be)
US taxes don’t really work like that. Any money earned in the US is subject to taxes, regardless of where the person lives. The only taxes they would avoid are state taxes.
Of course, this guy is a city mayor, so he's not doing federal taxes.
It is at least plausible that taxation could cause a move, but if you are rich in NYC moving out would be forfeiting some of the prestige. Who wants to admit that money issues caused them to leave "billionaires row"?
IE. The rich can easily avoid state taxes but it takes special "accounting" to avoid national taxes.
Guess what we in Switzerland have though? Wealth tax and inheritance tax.
In USA it's not even nationally coordinated. Forget about globally. That's the whole point. The state doesn't fix capitalism but rather violently enforces it.
That's not how it works. If you're American, you pay taxes to the US no matter where you live. If you work overseas you may have to ALSO pay taxes to the country you're living in, unless you expatriate yourself (where the word "expat" comes from) or denounce your US citizenship completely and emigrate. It's a mess.
Let them cry all they want, because they're not going to leave. And if they do -- good riddance. They contribute nothing to society anyway.
If you’re American, you pay taxes to the US no matter where you live.
lol... That's not how rich people do things.
That's why the founding enslavers setup a federal system of states. So the states could compete with each other to see who best serves capital.
Somebody more left-wing than Mamdani has the chance to do something hilarious
You joke but he might like that just fine. Two progressive candidates splitting the progressive vote could hand an easier victory to a right winger.
Gotta run a hard right campaign, backed with the money. Either the money works and you win, then expose yourself as a secret leftist, or the money doesn't work and it doesn't matter
What a crook.
Literally buying elected officials.
A true enemy of the people
Bill Ackman is evil and actively harming the NY and US economy. He wants people to become poorer year after year, until they can't spend on consumption anymore, and that will cripple the economy.
Standard Republican.
You leaving NYC Ackman? Gonna take Wall St. with you?
Fuck off to Ireland, see if I care.
Stop being a tax haven?
I think Ireland is still pissed about the Potato Famine, and how other countries treated them in their time of need.
Now they pull out a big "fuck you" to all their neighbors.
I have no clue what Mamdani ideas for NYC are, but if this pile of crap is against him, that signals to me that Mamdani has principles. Bill Ackerman will only support candidates that he can corrupt.
Free daycare, free public transit, and city-owned grocery stores. Sounds like a dream to me.
Those are the types of things that would encourage people to have kids, then get back into the workforce. Conservatives can't even do what's needed to obtain their goals.
No give! Only take!
Lots of articles say that Ackman is a real bloodthirty piece of crap, a famously petty crybully, and a supremecist. So I can see why he'd be against Zohran Mamdani.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/crybullyism-bill-ackman-ruling-class/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bill-ackman-war-harvard-mit-dei-claudine-gay.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzkY3NA_ZkQ
Yeah ofc, he's a billionaire.
Nobody who massively exploits people for their own disgusting privilege is ever a good person.
His daughter was in the social-studies department just like her father, and rowed crew, too, but she had chosen to write her thesis on “The Concept of Reification in Western Marxist Thought,” having come to very different conclusions than her father had about how the world should work. Ackman said it felt as though she “had been indoctrinated” into a cult.
It's only "indoctrination" when the system of preference isn't capitalism. They'd never admit capitalism breeds its own cult.
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
Fucking seriously.
Those rich people aren't going anywhere. Theres not another New York City. They're not gonna pack up their factories and offices with datacenters and move them elsewhere.
Schroedinger's billionaires. They're propping up the economy with all the tax they pay, but they'll leave if they have to pay tax.
Honestly, I'm really liking how this race is shaping up. Adams is refusing to drop out because, well, he can't; the second he loses power he stops being useful to the Trump administration, and then he's vulnerable to prosecution. Cuomo is also staying in because he's a narcissist, and Ackman is willing to throw money at anyone else who wants to run.
So that means the centrist shit-libs and conservative ghouls are splitting their vote between at least two, probably three candidates, while the progressive vote will go entirely to Mamdani. I'm still wary of DNC fuckery, but so far, so good.
Is the NYC Mayor General also ranked choice? Vote splitting is less impactful with ranked choice.
Still, it would be nice to see what a democratic socialist executive can do with NYC.
Great question, IT IS NOT! Only the NYC primaries and special elections are ranked choice, but the general elections are still first-past-the-post! So Cuomo and Adams will most certainly hurt each other if they both refuse to drop out!
Hopefully, the DNC won't do something stupid (e.g. support someone other than Mamdani).
Honestly, given how unpopular they are at this point, that might help him.
Anyone working-class that's unhappy with the DNC should look into the Working Families Party. They are non-existent where I am, but I believe they are fairly active in NYC in particular, and on the other coast as well.
Gimme a hundred million dollars to lose to Mamdani. Sounds like a cushy gig.
why vote when legal bribes work this well?
Because they massively outspent Zohran in the primary and still lost. Vote because you can still overcome this. They want us to give up and think we can't. Don't do their dirty work for them
Yep, and even larger can be overcome too. If you look AOC's 2018 primary upset, she was outspent by over 10x
Insane outspending can be overcome. Obviously it makes the fight harder, but money is not everything
Always vote, despair after. Don't hand them an easy win.
He wants to flood the FPTP ballot with progressive and centrist candidates so that those votes are spread so thin, the single conservative candidate is a shoe in with a landslide 3% of the votes.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the NYC election ranked choice?
The democratic primary was ranked choice. The general election is still the old broken system.
I can beat him, money pleaseeeeeee
Zohran should drop a diss track collab with Kendrick on Spotify. No amount of billionaire money could combat that.
These guys were the first against the wall, come the revolution.
Hollowing out the tax-base? Of what? Billionaires who have turned tax evasion into a sports championship?
In most places in the world, tax is primarily paid by the working people, not by the rich.
Which obviously leaves them with to much money that they squander on anti-citizen political campaigns like this. When they have the money for bribery on that level, they have the money to pax taxes like everyone else.
So the TV pundits are calling this "class warfare", right?
Ackman said he was “gravely concerned” because he believed the left-wing candidate’s policies would be disastrous, triggering an exodus of the wealthy that would endanger New York’s public services by hollowing out its tax base.
Fake fucking news. Well all know the wealthy don't pay taxes.
Anyone who the billionaire hedge fund manager is planning to bankroll is the guy you probably should be voting against.
As a potential independent candidate Cuomo didn't poll that bad if you don't consider that:
- the 39% he got are the same as Mamdani, so it would be 50/50 at best
- as a known quantity, this 39% are probably his ceiling
- it still didn't factor Schumer effectively endorsing Mamdani on social media
Political players are in still in flux, but, for the right wing of the Democratic Party, moving against Mamdani is getting riskier and riskier by the day. Not only would they lose the "unity" argument to mobilize the left close to the midterms, but the risk of suffering an humiliating defeat is too great.
This is just blatant corruption
System working as designed. You see, Russia and China are the real problem.
They are real problems
Ukrainians, Tibetans, Tiawanese, uyghurs...
And that's just those who are racially oppressed then you've got the people oppressed for the sexual identities, political opinions, religious beliefs and so on.
Guy kinda sounds like a douchebag
This won't cause the exodus of the wealthy. It will cause an exodus of the greedy.
Astute distinction.
Always follow the money. Why are GOP and billionaires afraid and against this man who pledges to help the poor and struggling working class? Because they obviously have an interest in keeping the poor and struggling in the status quo conditions in which they live.
If helping the poor didn't hurt their bottom line, they wouldn't pay to keep it from happening.
I don't think it's just the money, but that people who have leisure time also have time to think deeply.
These are the ultra privileged who always get their candidates without any debate whatsoever.
This is the extremely rare exception where they show their faces.
Tl;dr: New Yorkers should elect Zohran Mamdani as their mayor, and should re-elect him as long as he chooses to serve.
Got it. Locked in. Never been clearer.
Thanks Bill Ackman!
Whenever I see anything like this I remember my days working for large American companies and how difficult it was, even as a senior engineer, to get spending approval for anything. Like, even a $20 replacement headset I had to keep resubmitting applications for for three weeks because the managers had a policy of rejecting every first request on the theory that if it was important enough to spend company money on, it was important enough to fill in the form twice.
The point being, these sorts of people do not hand out a single penny without running the numbers and realising that the cost of rigging an election multiplied by the probability of success, is still lower than what they'll financially gain from it going a certain way.
or what they will financially lose if people start realizing there is a better way to live in a different financial system
Usually they don't even have to try.
FOR SALE: NYC MAYOR
Price: Name your price.
Seller information: The putrid scum that a weeks worth of soaking in bleach wouldn't remove the stench from.
Sounds like he is a frightened douche-canoe. Fuck that guy.
by hollowing out its tax base
As if the wealthy pay taxes. GTFO with that BS.
at what point is it cheaper to just pay taxes than buying politicians? mindless greed from control freaks.
It’s such a mild change too. If you make $1.1 million then your NYC taxes go up $2000 under Mamdani’s plan.
Okay, but if you make $1.1B...
Politicians are surprisingly cheap.
If it was just paying taxes, that would be cheaper--at first, anyway. But the important thing is the power. Laws on everything from taxes to business regulations to social engineering need to be passed and/or stopped from passing, to benefit them and guarantee their lifestyle preferences. And it goes beyond that, because having that kind of power means everyone bows to them, serves them, kisses their asses, and most of all, fears them (or can be crushed by them if they don't do those things).
I remember the last time it was run. It's why we got president Bloomberg. Oh wait. Why would he actually reference Bloomberg himself whilst suggesting this? Did he just forget exactly how badly this worked?
Someone should bankrupt Bill Ackman!
Unfortunately, he's plugged into the unlimited free money system via his friends in private equity.
Much like Sam Altman and Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump, he will never run out of money to borrow and gamble away again.
Ahh yes, the big old group who control the stock market. Lookin at you Kenny boi.
Ackman wants more Luigi in his NYC I guess
Remember when Bloomberg tried running for president for like 2 weeks?
Somehow I expect similar effect, burning cash without budging almost anyone.
There's really no excuse for this
There's no excuse because it's completely normal.
Okay, but Cuomo spent triple what Zohran spent, and got his ass kicked.
Tell you what, just distribute all that money to your employees, and the result of the election will be the same as if you blew it all on a loser.
I'm gravely concerned that billionaires are allowed to exist
And it's all because he's a dirty democrat a dirty muslim ~a dirty ~socialist~~ will let poor people be less poor and rich people be a little less rich
New York mayoral races are notoriously unpredictable due to the city’s chronically low turnout. In 2017, for example, Bill de Blasio won reelection with only 14% of registered voters coming out to support him.
Damn, my hopes for Mamdani just got even higher. Low turnout under ordinary circumstances give high-enthusiasm candidates an advantage, by that enthusiastic base's relative size to the ordinarily voting electorate.
Wow, I wonder if that's the same billionaire Bill Ackerman who's hedge fund owns forty percent of the New York property firm Seaport Entertainment Group?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-ackmans-strategic-acquisition-seaport-230404410.html
How many millions do you think a rent freeze would cost him personally?
Who owns the voting machines? Is the software audited? Are there tabulation servers?
Electronic voting machines are a free-for-all. TBH, I would feel a helluva lot more comfortable with them if they were regulated at the very least as strictly as the 100K+ Electronic Gaming Machines across the state of Nevada.
“For the aspiring politician there is no better way to get name recognition, build relationships with long-term donors, and to showcase oneself,” the hedge fund manager wrote, pitching the campaign like a business deal. “The risk/reward of running for mayor over the next 132 days is extremely compelling as the cost in time and energy is small and the upside is enormous.”
Who wants to suck our dicks? Get to the dick sucking now! The chance never has been greater. We need our dicks sucked and will pay handsomely! If we like it, we'll pass you around to suck even more dicks!
Gentlemen, this is plutocracy manifest!
Official donation page for Mamdani
So hes a Trump supporter but doesn't like Sliwa so he's just going to fund an independent? Lmao.
Its good that he's not just funding Sliwa, looks like a rift is forming in the red party.
Question is whether he dislikes Silwa or just recognizes he can't just spend Silwa into sufficient popularity.
However if he funds a "plausible Democrat", he might split the left vote.
you're doing something right when luigi, zohran got billionaires panties in a wad.
I mean if money is all you need to win an election is it really an election? These people are fuckin ghouls.
I'll do it! Pay me, Billiam!
I hope the right people start to realise that when the parasite billionaire hedge fund managers are against a dude, then that dude is on the right track.
Ackman is throwing all this money out there precisely so that the right people don't realize it
Bill Ackman once again proves that he is a piece of shit.
These losers a terrified of people figuring out how badly they are being screwed by the Goofy Old Phuckers.
The racist republicans currently have the president of hells angels a biker gang responsible for coordinated killings, meth trafficking and sales. The gerontocracy of DNC is frightened and the GOP know this shift is their fault. Let it rain.
He could use some of that money for more immediate good. Start paying off people's school debt. Build housing. Whatever.
More like Bill Ickman
They are afraid of our collectivity. Billionaires should not be.
They can buy politicians and bribe people to vote for their candidate. When is a wealthy democrat going to start paying people to take it to the streets? The Gates, Buffets and Cubans in the US should fund a movement that would help support people who are registered, have a voting history and stand for the average American.
There is no such thing. If you think Gates, Buffet, or Cuban is on your side, you've fallen for the propaganda.
Oh! MeMe! I swear I won't waste your money filming ads of me farting into a microphone. I don't live anywhere near New York so you don't have to worry about meeting me to do planning. I bet they'd love that.
Bitch you lose
He can stuff all his money right up his ass
Sometimes a left leaning candidate is a great, effective leader (think AOC, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren). Sometimes they are bat shit (think Kshama Sawant). I'm not sure where his guy lands on the spectrum. But as voters, I think we have to look at the candidates through a critical lens and remember left-leaning doesn't always make a great leader.
Why bother "recommending caution" if you aren't informed in the topic?
You could've asked. You could've read about his policies and endorsements. You could've just stayed silent.
Instead, you fearmonger about nothing
The point was never about learning anything. The point was to sew divisiveness. Hey, higher poster than the one I’m replying to: fuck off.
I wasn't clear. I'm not saying centrist candidates are a good idea. I'm saying it is incumbent on us to select strong left-leaning leadership because the alternative can do more harm than good (ranging from being ineffective to outright divisive and undermining the movement). I want the left to be successful but it's like they looked around and chose the worst possible representation.
Well, the proposal here is to prop a billionaire's pawn to replace a left-leaning candidate who proved himself by winning the primaries.
Take your time with your assessment.
And he'll totally win the election even with an alternative running against him. I'm saying he's gonna do a bad job in office and make the left look bad, while simultaneously not delivering on his political promises.
"Vote blue no matter who" just evaporates into nothingness the instant someone other than a centrist wins a primary.
Maybe, but do you prefer someone failing while trying to improve things or someone successful at trickling up money? And how do you actually know the alternative will not be a total failure?
Any candidate is a risk of failure. Why would he be a bigger risk?
At least if he wins, he'll show a leftist can win! That may inspire some more to get in politics.
There's a greater risk of negative consequences when people try to make a sweeping change, which Mamdani is trying to - especially if some of that sweeping change is not well tethered to reality. I'm not spun up about the tax thing. That piece will be fine, good even. But his ideas around grocery stores shows a huge ignorance about the mechanics (and therefore costs and how much the customer will actually save) of running stores. Fair collection isn't the biggest, or even a substantial, cause of delay to public buses. If he wants free buses, that should be the end of the discussion. Closing streets for kids to play has all sorts of impacts to residents (how will they move?) that appear to be unconsidered. Mamdani has displayed poor thinking and bad decision making already - which I think will continue into his term. He is the best candidate, but not a good candidate.
The fact that this guy put together a political apparatus from grassroots that ran rings around the NYC Democratic establishment despite being outspent 4:1 speaks very well about his leadership abilities.
You're putting WARREN with the likes of AOC and Bernie?