What #MayorMamdani Can Learn From The US Military
The question is not Can the government run grocery stores?. They do. The question is Who's going to make this happen and who's going to stand in their way?
What #MayorMamdani Can Learn From The US Military
The question is not Can the government run grocery stores?. They do. The question is Who's going to make this happen and who's going to stand in their way?
Never let it be said that #MayorMamdani is unwilling to share the spotlight...today, with New York's Cutest, announcer ng a new RFI
Never let it be said that #MayorMamdani is unwilling to share the spotlight...today, with New York's Cutest, announcer ng a new RFI
When we evaluate a new mayor, we are usually taught to separate “style” from “substance,” and to treat visibility, symbolism, and public presence as distractions from the real work of governing. That distinction feels natural—but it is also historically specific, and it may no longer describe how political legitimacy actually forms in a society marked by institutional distrust, media saturation, and social fragmentation.
One way to read the article below is as a familiar early-tenure assessment: is #ZohranMamdani still performing like a candidate, or has he begun governing “for real”? But there is another way to read it—one that does not assume that governing happens only behind closed doors, or that public presence is merely theatrical. From this perspective, visibility, explanation, and embodied action are not substitutes for governance; they are among the conditions that make governance intelligible and credible in the first place.
Mamdani’s early actions—showing up at tenant buildings, explaining the budget directly to the public, appearing in moments of crisis rather than delegating them entirely—can be read not as campaign leftovers, but as an attempt to close the widening gap between political authority and lived experience. In a political culture where institutions often feel distant, opaque, or unresponsive, governing “in public” may be less a performance than a way of rebuilding trust through shared orientation and presence.
The article that follows can still be read critically, and it raises real questions about budgets, appointments, and limits of executive power. But it may also be read as documenting a deeper tension: between an older model of politics that treats legitimacy as something institutions possess and dispense, and an emerging model that treats legitimacy as something that must be continually enacted, explained, and sustained in full view of the people it claims to serve.
When we evaluate a new mayor, we are usually taught to separate “style” from “substance,” and to treat visibility, symbolism, and public presence as distractions from the real work of governing. That distinction feels natural—but it is also historically specific, and it may no longer describe how political legitimacy actually forms in a society marked by institutional distrust, media saturation, and social fragmentation.
One way to read the article below is as a familiar early-tenure assessment: is #ZohranMamdani still performing like a candidate, or has he begun governing “for real”? But there is another way to read it—one that does not assume that governing happens only behind closed doors, or that public presence is merely theatrical. From this perspective, visibility, explanation, and embodied action are not substitutes for governance; they are among the conditions that make governance intelligible and credible in the first place.
Mamdani’s early actions—showing up at tenant buildings, explaining the budget directly to the public, appearing in moments of crisis rather than delegating them entirely—can be read not as campaign leftovers, but as an attempt to close the widening gap between political authority and lived experience. In a political culture where institutions often feel distant, opaque, or unresponsive, governing “in public” may be less a performance than a way of rebuilding trust through shared orientation and presence.
The article that follows can still be read critically, and it raises real questions about budgets, appointments, and limits of executive power. But it may also be read as documenting a deeper tension: between an older model of politics that treats legitimacy as something institutions possess and dispense, and an emerging model that treats legitimacy as something that must be continually enacted, explained, and sustained in full view of the people it claims to serve.
Opinion: Millionaires must pay their fair share to ensure NYC’s affordability
By John Liu and Phara Souffrant Forrest
the Fair Share Act, legislation we introduced... would authorize New York City to enact a modest 2% surcharge on incomes over $1 million.
It’s entirely fair and appropriate to ask the highest income earners, who just received a permanent 2.6% tax cut courtesy of President Donald Trump, to help generate the revenue needed to strengthen our economy and not leave working New Yorkers behind. This is, quite literally, a matter of fairness and fiscal responsibility.
As it stands, raising taxes on NYC millionaires must happen at the state level.
Governor Kathy Hochul doesn't want to raise taxes on millionaires. Fair enough. But the state legislature should authorize NYC to do so. #MayorMamdani has given them ample warning.
Opinion: Millionaires must pay their fair share to ensure NYC’s affordability
By John Liu and Phara Souffrant Forrest
the Fair Share Act, legislation we introduced... would authorize New York City to enact a modest 2% surcharge on incomes over $1 million.
It’s entirely fair and appropriate to ask the highest income earners, who just received a permanent 2.6% tax cut courtesy of President Donald Trump, to help generate the revenue needed to strengthen our economy and not leave working New Yorkers behind. This is, quite literally, a matter of fairness and fiscal responsibility.
As it stands, raising taxes on NYC millionaires must happen at the state level.
Governor Kathy Hochul doesn't want to raise taxes on millionaires. Fair enough. But the state legislature should authorize NYC to do so. #MayorMamdani has given them ample warning.
Municipal Politics as Praxis
Over the past year, many of us supported Zohran Mamdani because we believed he represented more than a set of policy positions. He seemed to be pointing toward a different way of doing politics—one grounded in participation, visibility, moral clarity, and a refusal to accept the quiet shrinking of public life as inevitable. Now that he is mayor, the question has necessarily changed. The campaign is over. The work of governing has begun. What does democratic socialism look like in practice, once slogans give way to decisions, institutions, and constraints?
That is why this article is worth reading carefully. Not because it praises Mamdani, and not because it claims everything is going smoothly, but because it treats his first weeks in office as a serious political experiment—one with real stakes, real resistance, and real limits. It asks what it means for socialism to become legible as governance, rather than remaining a posture of opposition or a set of ideals waiting for perfect conditions.
One of the most important themes running through the piece is the distinction between policies that merely deliver benefits and politics that actively reshape how people understand their relationship to government and to one another. There is a difference between public goods that are quietly administered and public goods that are openly claimed, explained, and defended as collective achievements. The article suggests—rightly, I think—that socialism succeeds or fails not only on outcomes, but on whether it makes public power visible, accountable, and shared, rather than hidden behind technocratic language or market logic.
The essay also pushes back against two familiar temptations on the left. One is the belief that compromise automatically equals betrayal. The other is the idea that working through institutions is inherently corrupting. What Mamdani’s early moves illustrate is something more demanding: governing as an ongoing process of judgment, direction, and repair. Not purity, but coherence. Not spectacle, but capacity. Not withdrawal from conflict, but a willingness to name what is at stake and act accordingly.
If you are interested in how socialism might be pursued in a way that is serious about power, administration, and democratic legitimacy—without losing its moral imagination—this article repays attention. It does not offer a blueprint. What it offers instead is a way of seeing what is unfolding, and of asking better questions about what must come next.
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
#ZohranMamdani
#EmbodiedPolitics
#ReinventingSocialism
Municipal Politics as Praxis
Over the past year, many of us supported Zohran Mamdani because we believed he represented more than a set of policy positions. He seemed to be pointing toward a different way of doing politics—one grounded in participation, visibility, moral clarity, and a refusal to accept the quiet shrinking of public life as inevitable. Now that he is mayor, the question has necessarily changed. The campaign is over. The work of governing has begun. What does democratic socialism look like in practice, once slogans give way to decisions, institutions, and constraints?
That is why this article is worth reading carefully. Not because it praises Mamdani, and not because it claims everything is going smoothly, but because it treats his first weeks in office as a serious political experiment—one with real stakes, real resistance, and real limits. It asks what it means for socialism to become legible as governance, rather than remaining a posture of opposition or a set of ideals waiting for perfect conditions.
One of the most important themes running through the piece is the distinction between policies that merely deliver benefits and politics that actively reshape how people understand their relationship to government and to one another. There is a difference between public goods that are quietly administered and public goods that are openly claimed, explained, and defended as collective achievements. The article suggests—rightly, I think—that socialism succeeds or fails not only on outcomes, but on whether it makes public power visible, accountable, and shared, rather than hidden behind technocratic language or market logic.
The essay also pushes back against two familiar temptations on the left. One is the belief that compromise automatically equals betrayal. The other is the idea that working through institutions is inherently corrupting. What Mamdani’s early moves illustrate is something more demanding: governing as an ongoing process of judgment, direction, and repair. Not purity, but coherence. Not spectacle, but capacity. Not withdrawal from conflict, but a willingness to name what is at stake and act accordingly.
If you are interested in how socialism might be pursued in a way that is serious about power, administration, and democratic legitimacy—without losing its moral imagination—this article repays attention. It does not offer a blueprint. What it offers instead is a way of seeing what is unfolding, and of asking better questions about what must come next.
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
#ZohranMamdani
#EmbodiedPolitics
#ReinventingSocialism
Here’s what to know about the walkout by about 15,000 New York nurses. On Tuesday, Mayor #ZohranMamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders lent their support.
Mr. Mamdani framed the strike as part of his administration’s focus on affordability. For nurses, the walkout is about making sure “that this is a city you don’t just work in but a city that you can also live in.”
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/nyregion/what-to-know-nyc-nurses-strike.html
Here’s what to know about the walkout by about 15,000 New York nurses. On Tuesday, Mayor #ZohranMamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders lent their support.
Mr. Mamdani framed the strike as part of his administration’s focus on affordability. For nurses, the walkout is about making sure “that this is a city you don’t just work in but a city that you can also live in.”
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/nyregion/what-to-know-nyc-nurses-strike.html
If Mamdani succeeds, he will do more than improve working-class New Yorkers’ circumstances. He will lay to rest the axiomatic American belief that efficiency and innovation belong to the private sector and the governments most deferential to it.
#UnderstandMamdani
#MayorMamdani
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/mamdani-executive-orders-housing-childcare
If Mamdani succeeds, he will do more than improve working-class New Yorkers’ circumstances. He will lay to rest the axiomatic American belief that efficiency and innovation belong to the private sector and the governments most deferential to it.
#UnderstandMamdani
#MayorMamdani
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/mamdani-executive-orders-housing-childcare
The New York mayor’s popular moves on rent and free childcare defied rightwing predictions of a far-left hellscape
#ZohranMamdani has eschewed turning the city into the forewarned dystopian nightmare in favor of making progress on campaign promises like housing and rent, while also conducting minor municipal repairs.
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/10/zohran-mamdani-new-york-10-days
The New York mayor’s popular moves on rent and free childcare defied rightwing predictions of a far-left hellscape
#ZohranMamdani has eschewed turning the city into the forewarned dystopian nightmare in favor of making progress on campaign promises like housing and rent, while also conducting minor municipal repairs.
#MayorMamdani
#UnderstandMamdani
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/10/zohran-mamdani-new-york-10-days
Let's be clear about who is the star attraction in this particular joint appearance -- it's not #ZohranMamdani... but #MayorMamdani seems to know how to share the limelight, and even how to work in a mention of the new childcare initiative he announced with governor Kathy Hochul yesterday.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-NuVg-Fp0&pp=0gcJCTIBo7VqN5tD
Let's be clear about who is the star attraction in this particular joint appearance -- it's not #ZohranMamdani... but #MayorMamdani seems to know how to share the limelight, and even how to work in a mention of the new childcare initiative he announced with governor Kathy Hochul yesterday.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-NuVg-Fp0&pp=0gcJCTIBo7VqN5tD
