Several days ago New York City’s dominant political party—Democrat—selected Zohran Mamdani to be its candidate in the general election for Mayor. Many were startled anticipating the much blemished Andrew Cuomo the likely winner. He, after all, had the support of big wigs including Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg.
Mamdani by most accounts is charismatic. He identifies as a Shia Muslim. He ran as a Socialist. He called for making busses “fast and free”, for a million new housing units and to have the City get into the grocery business so prices would be lower.
Mamdani’s selection followed a week of news about the upcoming marriage of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy. The stories were filled with excess the couple will purchase with millions of dollars.
The selection of Mamdani and the Venice marriage are heavy with cultural dissonance. I can easily imagine quite a few people who voted for Donald Trump being aghast at the wedding extravaganza, while being shocked and dismayed by Mamdani’s victory.
It will be said by strict devotees of capitalism that Bezos earned his right to be extravagant. Certainly Amazon, the company he founded, is enormously successful. So too Berkshire-Hathaway, the company Warren Buffet built. Buffet’s lifestyle is said to be modest and frugal. Is this generational? Or just personal?
Presumably, President Donald Trump’s success is some sort of composite. His residences: Mar a Lago and the White House (the house George Washington built). And regardless of what he is called—right winger, populist, pragmatist—he is certainly transactional. If you worship at his rhetorical altar, you are a winner.
America can be confusing. And politics often sends conflicting messages. And one of today’s conflicts encircles truth. A quick analysis (today’s preferred format) had Iran’s nuclear work sites we bombed devastated. Interestingly the Pentagon said not so quick—the setback was months not years. I suspect default bias will have Trump supporters choosing his description. History would say give us a few years.
And I suspect more conservative voters will say of Mamdani’s success—“it could only happen in New York”. My take: we have entered a new generation of what the Hollywood scriptwriter’s muse blasted: “I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore.” The movie Network and the muse Howard Beale.
New Yorkers were fed up with Andrew Como and the debilitating cost of living. And joining New Yorkers, most are fed up with the extravagance embedded in the celebrity marriage. And Donald Trump?
America was founded on principles; we should all periodically refresh our memories of the founding documents. Maybe many who attended the “No Kings” rallies were fed up in our departure from the founding principles.
Yet today in Washington and elsewhere transactionalism is dominant. Regardless of the dramatic fiscal chasm Mamdani’s programs would create, he knew how to tap the “mad as hell” voter. And in Washington the President is counting on political transactionalism to deliver the “big beautiful bill”. If you are a Republican member of Congress and vote no Trump will come after you. Fiscal principle: be damned.
A culture shaped by winning regardless of principle produces celebrities not heroes. Recall in an interview Trump said of John McCain, who was a Vietnam war hero: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.”
As commentators frequently say: here is my take. John McCain was a hero. Celebrity billionaires are undermining capitalism. And our lack of fiscal discipline will result and I hope soon, in a voter backlash or, as Donald Trump might say “the biggest backlash ever.” Our excesses will demand it.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
David Taylor says
New York residents aren’t going to get what they deserve, they’re going to get what they voted for. And they’re going to get it good and hard.
Deirdre LaMotte says
A prescient quote for today
“SOCIALISM IS WHAT THEY CALLED PUBLIC POWER.
SOCIALISM IS WHAT THEY CALLED SOCIAL SECURITY.
SOCIALISM IS WHAT THEY CALLED THE GROWTH OF FREE AND INDEPENDENT LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.
SOCIALISM IS THEIR NAME FOR ALMOST ANYTHING THAT HELPS
ALL THE PEOPLE.”
PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN, 1952
Mickey Terrone says
Hi Al. As usual, Democrats (and especially New York City Democrats) remain unforgiving of their political leaders. Make no mistake. That is what the mayoralty primary was about. Despite the fact that Cuomo wasn’t convicted of anything, most Democrats have convicted him in their collective minds after having rejected Eric Adams. I was there for 2 days immediately prior to the election and the talk was loud and overt about his alleged excesses. Democrats usually eat their own when it comes to scandals.
Meanwhile, our democratic republic is getting swept away by a 34-time convicted felon and his Congressional Republican accomplices with the blessing of the ultraconservative ideological majority on the Supreme Court. I think America is more confused than confusing. Yes, Trump is transactional, but his transactions have become seriously authoritarian and threateningly fascistic given today’s SCOTUS rulings.
The Republican Party’s Project 2025 move toward authoritarianism and defiantly against our American traditions as a nation of immigrants and diversity. This is becoming a national catastrophe. Republicans are perfectly willing to look the other way as the Felon President grabs people of color off the street using his newly pardoned January 6th masked brownshirt felons. He is clearly profiting massively (and unconstitutionally) from his status as President. He is abandoning NATO and Ukraine and democracy worldwide. He is very likely suffering from a considerable degree of dementia. He is overtly handing massive amounts of wealth into the hands of a tiny group of billionaire oligarchs and creating catastrophic deficits at the same time. And that’s just scratching the surface.
But thanks for reminding us that Zohran Mamdani is a socialist. Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogle submitted a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani, asking for him to be stripped of his citizenship and deported because he may be a Muslim terrorist and gained his citizenship under false pretenses. Meanwhile Ogle watches Trump defile the US Constitution daily. This is the difference between the Democratic party and the Trump/Republican Cult.
So many rank and file Republicans seem to be delighted with Trump and his supporting cast. Maybe we should be thinking and writing more about Germany in the 1930’s.
Steve Cades says
Mr. Sikes, it’s interesting that you link the Mamdani election and the Bezos-Sanchez wedding. I believe that they point to characteristics of the American population that we on the left misunderstand at our peril. First, let’s remember two statistical facts: First, as 20th century comedian George Carlin said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Ladies and Gentlemen, remember that the average IQ is 100. And half of the population is below that.” And second, that recent polling tells us that more than half of Americans get their “news” from social media exclusively; that is, they neither read news media nor watch news reports (even if Fox is included). We can disparage those as “low information,” but they *will* vote in the 2026 elections.
I agree that many (most?) of Mr. Mamdani’s voters fall into the “I’m mad as hell” category—and they’re right to be. But about that wedding in Venice: It’s all about celebrity. (If any evidence beyond its extravagance is needed, Khloie Kardishian seems to be a featured guest.) and here’s where the two threads combine: How better to explain the (re!)election of Donald Trump: the “mad as hell” voters and the celebrity-following voters. Perhaps those of us who read The Spy disparage those voters, but they will be at polls with us 19 months from now. Winning candidates will need at least some of those voters, along with those of us who hope to restore democratic principles to our government.
We need candidates who are both horrified by what we see in each day’s headlines, and who have the personality, skills, and charisma to reach beyond the reading, analytic voter. We need to recall Adlai Stevenson’s response to the woman who said, “Mr. Stevenson, you will have the vote of every thinking person”: “Madam, that won’t be enough.” We must hope that such candidates are on the ballots in November of 2926.