The Socialist Ticket

 Since the main source of national media I consume (the New York Times) doubles periodically as a local rag—I have been forced to think far more than I would ordinarily about the city's explosive mayoral election (in which I cannot vote—seeing as I am not, and have never been, a resident of New York City). 

I had no particular stake in this or preference for the outcome. All I have gathered so far is that there is a young firebrand progressive who's running as a democratic socialist (and who also happens to be the son of a prominent leftist academic who wrote a book about Sudan that I reviewed critically years ago). 

My main position was that it couldn't possibly matter to me whether the firebrand progressive trounces Cuomo in the latter's potential comeback tour. I read this morning that NYC business interests are terrified at the thought of a potential socialist victory—but they shouldn't be. What could he do in practice? 

The powers of a mayor are limited. I don't actually think—for better or worse—he can manage to remake the city in a way substantially less friendly to business. And what can't be done is not worth much energy either calling for or protesting against, regardless of which side of the issue one finds oneself on. 

But John Ganz's paragraph-long endorsement the other day over on his Substack may have won me over. What I liked most about it was its quixotic-ness. Ganz begins by acknowledging that Mamdani probably will not accomplish his various policy goals—they are too ambitious to be achievable (see my above). 

But Ganz decides to back him anyway—on a theory Mamdani himself has already overtly rejected; namely, that it is good to put someone into office who is at least trying in principle to do the right thing; someone who is committed on a theoretical level to change; someone who can be a symbol of progress. 

It may seem odd to vote for a candidate just because they are a hollow and impotent symbol of something good—but recall that that was precisely why Vachel Lindsay said he "voted the socialist ticket"—in a great poem. It's quixotic reasoning, as noted. But the world needs Quixote more than it needs Cuomo.

Perhaps the socialist ticket will fail to realize its goals—because human nature will never allow socialism to succeed. But if so—as Lindsay put it—then, "let us vote against our human nature / Crying to God in all the polling places/ To heal our everlasting sinfulness / And make us sages with transfigured faces.