Yes, there are other things in life besides fighting fascism and I'm busy with several of them, all to the good. But here are some morsels from Tuesday's national wipe out of MAGA and its ilk.
Let's start with a particular delight:
Alejandra Caraballo: 57% of all ad spending by Republicans in the Virginia governors race was on anti trans ads. Just an incredibly mismanaged campaign. Anti-trans politics are a losing issue.
{and] According to the Wapo: A Washington Post-Schar School poll from late last month showed that only about 3 percent of Virginia voters list policies about transgender students as top concerns, compared to far greater concern over economic security and the cost of living.
Once upon a time, hating on LGBT folks was the right wings' magic bullet. As recently as 2008 in California. But overexposure to nonsense eventually wanes in efficacy. I'll make the bold prediction that trans-hate will also recede as people realize somebody is trying to make them look away from their actual interests and concerns. Here's hoping the process is rapid, though inevitably uneven and painful.
• • •
We're finally seeing the generational transition of (small "d") democratic power that displaces my Boomer generation. About time.
I often find Jen Rubin annoying, but she sees what's in front of her face:
Democratic stodgy insiders seem not to appreciate that Gen Z-ers and Millenials are also more diverse than older generations. (And many white people in these age brackets have grown up, unlike their parents, among people whose religions, races, ethnicities, and languages differ than their own.) Along comes Mamdani, speaking from an immigrant’s vantage point about the values that have allowed New York to flourish as one of the most diverse cities on the planet. Entirely without pretense, he relates effortlessly with a swath of voters in a way that older, white politicians simply cannot. And while he has a specific religious and racial identity, he has given voice to New Yorkers of all backgrounds who feel overlooked by the white, rich power structure.
I bet my ancestors thought the end was near when an Irish immigrant wave began to establish its democratic power in New York City in the 1850s. Then came the Italians in the later 19th century; the eastern Europeans in the beginning of the 20th; European-origin Jews by mid-century; and now the offspring of a wider world. Good for New York for continuing its historical role as a landing place for people yearning for a living and "to breathe free."
 |
| Another generational transition. |
... Humanity has accomplished something truly incredible and almost utopian in New York: millions of very different types of people living peaceably—and sometimes even amicably—side by side. That’s every bit as real as the death and destruction halfway around the world. For me, New York is the living counterpoint to all that suffering and hate. It’s worth protecting and building upon. In fact, it’s the most important thing: New York City is, in my humble opinion, the greatest accomplishment in the history of human civilization. We’ve long set the standard for art, culture, industry, literature—you name it. Every good and great thing is available here.
As Pericles said of Athens in the funeral oration, “Because of the greatness of our city, the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as our own.” But in politics, we resigned ourselves, with a weary smile, to a certain cynicism. Now we are attempting a politics that lives up to our humane and cosmopolitan aspirations. Wedded to some hard-nosed pragmatism, it might just work.
Let's hope Mamdani is up to the challenge, as much as a mayor can be. My FIL, a life long New Yorker, called the job the toughest in American politics and he was probably right.
• • •
The man of the hour, Mamdani himself, knows no one succeeds without community:
... And while we cast our ballots alone, we chose hope together. Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair.
• • •
Let's give the last word to Bill McKibben, that climate prophet who has taken up the burden of trying to save humanity from ourselves:
Americans showed that the idea of this country is not dead just yet. We elected Muslims to historic office in the two states targeted on 9/11, we elected climate-conscious candidates to help run Georgia’s massive energy system—but more than that we began the repudiation of Trump and Trumpism.
There is so so much more work to do, but as war leader Winston Churchill said after an early triumph in North Africa, “we have reached the end of the beginning.”
As AOC—for my money perhaps the best political analyst in the country—put it, Americans understood “the assignment of fighting fascism right now. And the assignment is to come together across difference no matter what.”
This little election reminded us that participation in this messy, unjust, yet idealistic country is an unending struggle, but sometimes one that carries a moment.
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