After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign.
His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal child care and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.
But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said Dutch environmentalist and former government advisor Alexander Verbeek in the wake of Tuesday’s election.
Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo café, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal.
My take has always been (regardless of living in Europe or anywhere else) that these type of issues is exactly why we have states and municipalities at all. I.e to help each other solve basic life more efficiently. Of course there’s different takes on best strategies for this but I have a hard time seeing how Mamdanis policies around infrastructure and housing are extreme in any way
It’s almost as if having a central government with deciding power over nearly everything is inefficient and only leads to problems.