Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary in New York because he identified issues that voters are concerned about and has a plan to address them. He won because his was the only plan, not because his plan was any good.
Trump does a good job of identifying the issues that concern voters. And then often has a terrible plan for addressing those issues.
Zohran Mamdani has done the same thing on the Left.
Trump and Mamdani are bookends for politicians who accurately identify voter issues and then come up with a terrible plan to address them. As I wrote before, a neighboring farmer said last month:
“If my choice is cruel, experienced, and with a plan on the right, and inept, inexperienced, and no plan on the left, I have to go with cruel and with a plan.”
Does anyone really think that farmers are thrilled with the president’s tariffs and budget cuts? No – but at least he has a plan.
I think the same thing is going on with Mamdani. He has a detailed, actionable plan:
Expensive housing? Freeze rents. Build 200,000 rent-stabilized housing units.
Landlord slow on repairs? The city will do the repair and bill the landlord.
Not enough grocery stores? Put in city-run stores.
Is subway crime too high? Deploy social workers in 100 crucial subway stations. (And yes, after I stopped laughing, I had to admit that the idea was fresh, it was specific, and indeed was a plan.)
Transportation costs too high? Make buses free.
Struggling with childcare? Provide no-cost child care.
Too much hate violence? Increase funding for hate violence programs by 800%.
Not earning enough? Raise the minimum wage to $30/hour.
He is also very clear on the taxes he would impose to pay for all of this.
Andrew Cuomo’s top issue on his campaign site today is a “6-Point Plan in Response to Trump’s Deployment of Federal Troops to Los Angeles.”
Huh? I haven’t lived in New York for some time, but I’m pretty sure the local bodega owner doesn’t have this on his list of priorities.
Persuadable voters don’t want to hear how much Democrats dislike Trump. They want to hear about Democrats’ plans.
I have been interviewing candidates for Congress, and after hearing how they are going to really, really resist Trump, and that they are going to work hard to protect Medicaid, protect Social Security, protect Trans rights, etc., I ask my first question:
“If you are in charge and can pass one economic bill that will improve our economy, what would that bill be?”
The answers run along the lines of “That’s a great question. I haven’t really thought about it. I’ll have to get back to you.”
That’s a problem.
Issues rural voters love
At the end of a speech I gave last week to a rural Democratic Party on farming issues, I threw up a page of suggestions for the Democratic Party:
Give every asylum seeker an automatic agricultural work permit.
This is a win for the farmer, the economy, and the immigrant. Many of us already have housing for immigrant workers. It also gets them out of the cities. It reduces farm labor costs. (My relatives currently pay $17 to $19 per hour for undocumented labor). The audience loved it. The asylum advocates I talked to also loved it.
Why wasn’t this part of the Biden immigration bill? If you can get farmers on board, your chances of passing the bill increase.
Because there are no farm or rural voices in the Democratic Party. That bill focused on helping immigrants, not the farmers or the economy. It also codified a certain level of illegal immigration. It never had a chance of passing.
Remove sales tax on purchases from your local mom-and-pop store, such as your hardware store.
This helps small businesses, and the audience loved it. It might not work, but at least we are talking about stemming the decline of local businesses.
Talk about ensuring that the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Greenland act as a unified defense block.
Rather than bullying them, acknowledge that the Arctic is a real issue.
Require all U.S. military bases to feed their troops with U.S.-sourced food.
This is Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s idea – if we can’t feed our military during peacetime with U.S.-sourced food, how will we do it during a war? This addresses the economy and national defense.
Eliminate capital gains on the sale of a farm to another farmer.
This preserves agricultural land, and the audience loved it.
Reduce the interest rate on student loans to zero.
Forgiving loans is a non-starter. However, rural voters tend to approve of interest-free loans. Over time, the result is essentially the same.
Teach trades and cooking beginning in middle school.
We used to learn these skills on the family farm. But that is now gone. Let’s teach it beginning at a young age – starting after high school is too late. Democrats have forgotten that work is a form of education. It also boosts self-confidence.
Which is why there has never been a mass shooting by a kid who was raised on a family farm.
Switzerland recognized this and has 75% of its primary education students in work skill programs. We have less than 1% of our students enrolled in the U.S.
Focus on improving our housing stock rather than building more disposable housing.
With a declining population, why are we building more housing units? Rural voters do not want to see even more farm land bulldozed to make way for housing. What we have is a shortage of pristine, ready-to-go housing units. What about all the vacant housing that needs repair?
Maybe we should be building more robust housing.
Maybe we should address the decline in the number of people willing to take on a fixer-upper.
Maybe we should address why lenders can’t lend on a house that needs work.
Let’s reuse and recycle before building more.
Grant periodic stock options in the U.S. economy to every taxpayer.
These would be structured so that no U.S. bonds are issued; it would dilute the U.S. dollar to some extent, just as corporations do. We did this to a certain extent during the COVID-19 pandemic. It certainly would address income inequality without raising taxes. It would hurt the top and benefit the bottom.
At the end of the discussion, the crowd was energized with something to talk about other than how bad the current administration is. And they wanted to know why no one is talking about these things.
The answer is easy – no donor groups are pushing for any of these items.
Democrats need to come up with a good plan
Democrats need to demonstrate that they are considering the economy. Some of the ideas above may not work, but at least they demonstrate that you are thinking about ways to improve the economy.
Democrats need to be wary of falling into the trap of thinking that Mamdani’s plan means that voters generally want to veer significantly to the Left.
I don’t think that is the case. It’s just that he actually had a plan.
Voters want someone who can deliver actionable items on the economy and defense. Only then can you talk about social issues.
