Zohran Derangement Syndrome

Frank Herbert was right, fear is the mind killer

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

―Frank Herbert, Dune

The Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor

New York City recently held the Democratic primary, for choosing the party standard bearer for the upcoming mayoral general election. The primary uses a relatively unusual process called ranked choice voting.

In NYC, you get a ballot with all of the candidates running for a particular office. You can choose up to five candidates, and you rank the order of preference you have for those candidates. I chose Zohran Mamdani first (more on that in a sec) Brad Lander second, Scott Stinger third, Adrienne Adams, fourth, etc. When the polls close all of the first choice votes are counted. If someone is ranked first by more than 50% of the voters, they are the winner. But… if no one has over 50%, then a second round of counting occurs, eliminating the candidate with the least amount of first choice votes, and moving on to those voters second choice. And if no candidate has over 50% after this second round, then the remaining candidate who now has the least votes is eliminated and we move on to those voters second choice preference (or third if their second choice was eliminated in the first round) and so on. Eventually someone reaches 50%.

The advantage of doing it this was is that the candidate with the overall strongest support will win. In a field with a large number of candidates, someone with say strong support from 30% of voters, but who is hated by the other 70% of voters, would likely win. Ranked choice voting is designed to prevent that. It also, theoretically encourages the candidates to be more civil with each other, and even cross endorse. “If not me, then you.” In fact this happened with Mamdani and Lander.

Going in to the election, the leader in nearly every poll was former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is a corrupt, incompetent, vengeful, mysoginist. You can read all about it in his wikipedia entry. I would sooner vote for either of my dogs, Babka and Stapleton, than Andrew Cuomo. For reference, here are Babka and Stapleton.

On top of the ranked choice voting, and on top of a disgraced former Governor being the leading candidate when the campaign began, the other “only in New York” feature was the absence of the current mayor, Eric Adams, who won the Democratic ranked choice primary last cycle, ran as a Democrat and won the general election.

Adams was indicted on public corruption charges by the local United States Attorney’s office, but cut a deal with Trump that essentially dropped the charges in exchange for giving ICE free rein in NYC. This did not endear Adams to Democratic voters, and it was clear he could not win the primary. Instead he is running for Mayor as an independent.

Excluding write-ins, a total of eleven candidates received at least 1000 first place votes in the primary. When the campaign began, they were all pretty much after thoughts except Cuomo. But as a reminder to everyone, actual campaigns matter. Zohran Mamdani, a 33 year old New York State Assemblyman, ran a highly effective operation, and went from zero to the strongest challenger to Cuomo, over the course of less than six months.

My approach to this election was ABC. — Anyone But Cuomo.¹ I did not use any of my five choices on Cuomo, and I put the leading challenger to Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, as my first choice. Do I think Zohran will be a good mayor? I honestly don’t know. I suspect that he is too young and too inexperienced. I think one of his signature policies, a rent freeze, is misguided, but:

1. He ran a great campaign;

2. He is a breath of fresh air;

3. He is clearly very smart and a gifted communicator; and

4. He isn’t Andrew Cuomo.

So with apologies to Babka and Stapleton, I voted for Zohran. And he won!

And then some people lost their minds.

Fear is the Mind Killer

The outpouring of hysteria since the election has been truly astonishing. Mamdani’s father, a professor at Columbia, is a Muslim Indian ex-patriot, his mother, a successful film maker is Punjabi Hindu, Indian American. Zohran identifies as Muslim, is married to an artist, and is a fan (according to his Wikipedia entry) of Arsenal, the Mets, and the Giants. I think we could hang! But as the joke image I included at the top of this post suggests, for many people it is as if Hamas is taking over the city.²

The Wall Street Journal says that both Wall Street, and NYC Real Estate developers are in a “panic” or “hysteria” over the election. Cuomo received the endorsement of Michael Bloomberg, Bill Clinton, James Clyburn (whose endorsement was critical to Joe Biden in 2020) and many others.³ That wing of the party, call it the establishment gerontocracy, is now speaking in tongues, and warning about the impending apocalypse triggered by Mamdani’s election. The New York Times, which claims it doesn’t endorse anymore, tried to knife Mamdani's campaign, prompting a savage beating by its former public editor.

Cuomo, after a moment’s hesitation, is apparently going to run as an independent in the general election, and both he and Adams are fundraising against Mamdani with wealthy New Yorkers, claiming Zohran is anti-semetic, anti-Israel, anti-business, anti-rich people and not part of broader New York City. For example:

Rich people are threatening to leave the city, which we have heard before, and which might have happened a little, but not at scale. The apocalypse is nigh!

Of course not all old Democrats agree. Paul Krugman for example:

[I] was enormously cheered by Mamdani’s victory, not because I think he’ll be a great mayor — honestly I have no idea — but because a Cuomo victory would have been deeply depressing. Why? Because it would have been an affirmation of elite impunity and lack of accountability. Cuomo is by all accounts a terrible person, and his bungled response to Covid killed people. For him to make a comeback simply because he’s part of the old boys’ club and had the big money behind him would have said that the rules only apply to the little people.

There’s a huge argument among Democrats about whether they need to run more centrist candidates. I am not ready to weigh in on that debate. But if you’re going to take that side, find better centrists. I mean, are Cuomo and Eric Adams the best you can do?

And this from Bernie:

And then there are the Republicans. Trump called Zohran a communist. Stephen Miller, probably the second most powerful man in the country posted this:

Former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, jumped in with:

And not surprisingly, many Republicans are calling for Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, but came to the US when he was 7 years old, went to Bowdoin College in Maine (that hot bed of American radicalism!) and became a US citizen in 2017 — the winner of a free and fair election with widespread support — to be de-naturalized and deported.

This is from a sitting Republican Congressman of Tennessee!

If you are wondering whether they can do that… well in a world where words have their intended meaning, and we abide by the law… no… they can’t. But sadly, I am more and more convinced we are living the Orwellian nightmare of 1984, where the state defines, and redefines meaning, the law has no purpose other than to further the interests of those in power, and yes, they can do that.

But is Zohran Mamdani Really a Dangerous Radical?

I don’t think so, but you should decide for yourself. I like the clear friendship and support between Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani. In general I think this piece by Michelle Goldberg is spot on. I have found the following material instructive.

• This interview with the Bulwark, a never Trump conservative outlet. I didn’t love Zoran’s answer on “globalize the intifada” but it didn’t make me break out in hives either.

• This interview with ABC News.

• This interview with Derek Thompson.

• This interview with CNN.

Again, I don’t agree with everything he says, but clearly he is smart, thoughtful, at least on the surface logical, and not consumed with hate. In contrast to the current President of the United States, who is none of those things. So, Republicans have set the bar low, and I can’t see how Zohran doesn’t clear it.

1. Another organization called it DREAM… Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor.

2. I will add, that anyone who knew me in college, when I had a full head of hair and a full beard, will recognize the very very slight resemblance between us.

3. In a great profile of courage, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a prominent critic of mysognistic behavior among politicians (just ask Al Franken) chose not to endorse Cuomo, but did not oppose his candidacy, saying “This is a country that believes in second chances.” I hope she gets a primary challenger.