They Won

     Democrats won resoundingly yesterday, from Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York to centrist Dems in New Jersey and Virginia. Down-ballot races also went Democrat; school board elections, largely nonpartisan, rejected book-banners and candidates endorsed by "Moms for Liberty," the conservative group that made headlines when their Noblesville, Indiana chapter approvingly quoted Hitler's opinions on education in their newsletter.

     Politicians (and pundits) tend to over-read election results and this will be no exception.  The common threads of the last two elections are the cost of living (rent, groceries, utilities) and the general unwillingness of  Americans to be bossed around; go too much deeper than that and you're on thin ice.

     Mamdani, for all that he's made out to be a boogeyman,* has more in common with Indiana's Eugene V. Debs than Karl Marx.  He has been sharply critical of the governments of Venezuela and Cuba, especially their dictatorial leaders.  As Mayor of New York City, he'll be working with a 51-member City Council.  Unsurprisingly, the Council membership is overwhelmingly, though not exclusively, Democrat.  But New York City being as assorted as it is, they're an unusually wide range of Democrats, so don't expect the new Mayor to make a bunch of drastic changes.  (At least one prominent online opinionator lamented that in NYC, "women will be forced to cover themselves from head to toe...and hot dogs will be replaced by goat meat."  I can only conclude he's never seen Mrs. Mamdani, and doesn't grasp that goat meat would be a significant -- and not inexpensive -- upgrade from the mysterious contents of lower-grade frankfurters.  And all that along with not understanding that the City Council makes NYC's laws, not the Mayor.)

     All of these newly elected officials will be operating in the same old framework, in which (despite what certain politicians appear to believe) we don't elect Czars or dictators who rule by fiat (or even Chevy), but politicians who must negotiate and compromise with their peers and whatever other branches or units of government their own interacts with, politicians who must answer to their constituents via direct contact, the press, and eventually the ballot box.  The truly awful ones will reveal themselves in due course, either by trying to enact lousy notions into law or via an inability to work and play well with others, and some of those will discover they are "one-term wonders" or laughingstocks consigned to the sidelines.  This is entirely normal, and the system has survived all manner of wild and crazy ideas and people.

     Truly transgressive behavior in American politics consists of trying to unduly expand the powers of an office, of ruling unilaterally, of not understanding that Americans are at heart a mob, and a mob with a very wide range of ideas and beliefs.  We can all agree that we don't agree on much, and we should all agree that we ought to give one another as much latitude as we can manage.  Our worst failings begin when we forget or ignore that.
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* He is, as has been pointed out by more insightful people, exactly what President Obama was accused of being: a socialist Muslim born in Africa.  I guess we'll all get to see how that goes.  Maybe he'll even read the newspaper funny pages on the radio!