I generally feel like a broken record pointing this out, but Bernie Sanders still isn't a Democrat.

People want to hear what Democrats are going to change, and how it will make their lives better.

This generally applies to all political parties and not just Democrats.

The Democratic Party establishment lives in fear of the progressive wing.

I disagree.

They close ranks whenever a progressive candidate seems to be gaining steam.

Wasn't the race for mayor in NYC a case of the progressive candidates closing ranks against the so-called "establishment" candidate? Seems like it to me. :)

@bashi,
I feel like it's an error to presume that someone less experienced will also be less corrupt.

JL

Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State. Perhaps there is no one that I know who could have worked in better harmony with the President of the United States, ME, than Bibi Netanyahu. It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu. THIS TRAVESTY OF “JUSTICE” CAN NOT BE ALLOWED!

. . . and of course:

Bibi and I just went through HELL together

Don’t forget that when you elect someone you are electing a team. And the team’s competence makes-or-breaks the Big Kahuna. Zero experience Trump didn’t work out but that’s because he’s racist moron Donold Trump. Anyone who wins the NYC Mayoral election has got enough brains to potentially make good staffing decisions, so let’s see what he does.

First please keep in mind the background in 2016 and to this day.

The Great Recession so bad that people realized that the American system doesn’t work for the 90% of us across the political spectrum that aren’t in the top 10%.

You know, the top 10% that have a different set of rules than the rest of us, that with enough money can get away with almost anything (see: Donold Trump and, say, Bestie Jeffry Epstein). That pay taxes at a lower percentage than the average bear. While 2008 screwed millions of Americans, not a single banker went to jail. Before that, Dubya lied us into attacking Iraq (“because after 9-11, we just wanted to kick somebody’s ass” was the bottom line) and wasn’t held accountable. And on and on.

Worst of all the American Dream — that our children do better than we did, is no longer happening, it’s dead.

As a former salesman myself, I have great respect for Trump’s abilities. But the biggest reason Trump beat 16 Establishment Republicans, the best of the GOP, is that primary voters were willing to roll the dice on Trump in hopes he’d change this sucky status quo.

Misogyny (and later misogyny AND racism) certainly didn’t help. But just like the GOP Thoroughbreds Trump beat in 2016, both Corporatist Hillary and Chained-to-Biden Kamala lost because neither looked remotely interested in changing our shitty for most of us status quo. It’s why Kamala got 77 million voters in a 63% turnout 2024, down from Joe’s 81 million in 2020 with a modern era record 67% turnout. Voter suppression and dissatisfaction with the status quo are what killed Kamala.

Establishment Democrats have a messaging problem and a lousy approval rating because of their refusal to roll back Reaganism and return to being the Party of FDR and LBJ.

So what should the collective Democrats do? What and how should they change?

I have some answers but it’s late, I’m tired, I bapped all this out on my iPhone twice because I accidentally deleted the first one. So I promise Part Two by Friday.

I am less curious about how national Democratic strategists will read Mamdani's surprising (? Cuomo really is a jerk) victory, and more curious about how people and pundits think he will do - assuming he wins the mayoralty in the general election - in actually implementing his European-style 'Democratic Socialism' in New York City. The city's electorate may be liberal compared to the nation, but the city's fiscal and social establishment and its governing mechanisms still tend to be pretty conventional: i.e., conservative in working terms. All that free stuff he campaigned on does have to be paid for by raising taxes on the city's rich people (there are a lot of them), but those rich people (there are a lot of them) actually know how the game is played, and they have their ways and means of defeating municipal initiatives that might seriously draw down on their investment portfolios.

Also, as Cuomo desperately tried to show in his campaign along with the heavily bearded "scary immigrant" imagery about his opponent, Mamdani actually has almost no real-world political experience. He may become mayor of the country's largest city with no actual idea of how to govern it. That argues against - repeat, against - any chance that he will be able to actually push through and pass city legislation to fulfill his gorgeous, gorgeous, working-class promises.