New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, 33, is the latest young politician to be criticized for being too young and inexperienced for a complex job that requires knowledge of how government works. Perhaps, given the institutional corruption seen with the current incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, someone who does not know how to engage in graft and sell out the people might be an improvement.
Young and Inexperienced
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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You leave out a critical point. Wealth. And its twin siblings, prevarication and weak media.
For instance, one HuffPost article is practically schizoid about his money. It bounces back and forth between, a “Well, he isn’t SUPER rich” vibe and an “Actually, according to these smart highly paid people who talk about this a lot, he’s not rich at all. There’s a difference between income and wealth” kind of scratches head, looks at notes vibe.
But they don’t simply look at the numbers and say, “Look, he makes about $125K a year as a politician and his parents are worth about $2 million to $10 million. This guy doesn’t know what it means to go to the grocery store, load up the cart, and sweat as the total creeps closer and closer to $37.32, which is exactly how much is left in checking until Friday. By all the real-world concepts, this guy’s rich, and he’s doing the whole dilettante thing. A rent freeze? The rent’s already too much. Take a look at the ads for ‘affordable housing.’ The minimum amount for qualifying? Something like $61,000. Got that? If you can’t afford your rent, you need to make at least $61K to get into consideration for a place with lower rent. That’s what we have right now. That or the projects.”
The left better start having some very blunt, very frank conversations about all this. Or Mamdani’s support, much like the proverbial fart in a high wind, is just going to disappear.