Zohran Mamdani, in his meeting with Trump, got a tour, and requested a photo in front of the portrait of FDR. He announced the first appointments to his cabinet at Roosevelt House near Central Park. This was intentional. Mamdani’s politics and those of Roosevelt have a lot in common. First on the list is pragmatism, ahead of all the similarities of political philosophy.
Let’s briefly look at Roosevelt’s program.
New Deal economics was by far the most effective economics of all time. It repaired the damage done by the Great Crash, employed million in drawing the US out of the Great Depression, organized the mobilization of industry that was the determining advantage of the Allies in WW2, stabilized Europe after the war with the Marshall Plan, delivered housing with the VA home loan and education with the GI Bill, and led the postwar economy into full employment and unprecedented financial stability. The war produced federal debt to GDP at levels nearly as high as today, but the New Dealers reduced that debt load rapidly, and it declined until turned around with the anti-New Deal presidency of Ronald Reagan. A form of the New Deal is practiced in the successful economies of Europe and Scandinavia. It is not just simple old-fashioned Keynesianism, and in fact took off well before Keynes’ seminal work the General Theory, published in 1936.
Getting things done effectively was the stock in trade of Roosevelt’s New Deal economics. Mamdani is showing all the signs, and from a tactical economics point of view, that needs to be where we start.
Specific and Pragmatic
If he has to use one word for his program, Mamdani will choose “affordability.” Though that word has been coopted by every politician in the country now, and he may have to find a new one if it is to have meaning. But if not limited to a single word, he expresses it:
- Implement a freeze on rent increases for all rent-stabilized apartments.
- Fund the building of 200,000 units of union-built, subsidized housing through city borrowing.
- Raise the minimum wage from the current $16.50 to $30 per hour by 2030.
- Create city-run grocery stores to sell food items at lower prices.
- Implement free, high-quality childcare for all children aged 6 weeks to 5 years, potentially funded by taxes on the highest earners.
- Make all city buses fare-free.
Mamdani is specific, not general or abstract. This is the way it should be done. This is not the easy way. Specifics are easy to attack and sometimes complicated to defend. That means they have to be sturdy, built on a coherent and practical foundations. But defense of them is excellent space for discussing philosophy and drawing contrasts. Voters liked the top line, but they also liked the details, especially the detail that it would be paid for by taxing the rich. And the more you drill down on these proposals, the more you see the pragmatic, people-first, coherent thinking behind them.
This is a lesson for progressives. Don’t lead with the general or abstract. People are with progressives on the progressive agenda, so just make it as concrete as possible. With success in delivering on them, the political capital will be immense.
Fiorello La Guardia
Interestingly, one former NYC mayor Mamdani admires is a Republican, Fiorello La Guardia, who first took office in 1934 and was admittedly aided substantially by FDR, who moved from governor of New York into the White House in 1932. Of course, La Guardia Republicans no longer exist.
From Wikipedia:
La Guardia came to office in January 1934 with five main goals:
• Restore the financial health of the city and break free from the bankers' control
• Expand the federally funded work-relief program for the unemployed
• End corruption in government and racketeering in key sectors of the economy
• Replace patronage with a merit-based civil service, with high prestige
• Modernize the infrastructure, especially transportation and parks
La Guardia achieved most of the first four goals in his first hundred days, as FDR gave him 20% of the entire national CWA budget for work relief. La Guardia then collaborated closely with Robert Moses, with support from the governor, Democrat Herbert Lehman, to upgrade the decaying infrastructure. The city was favored by the New Deal in terms of funding for public works projects.
Obviously La Guardia was not a Republican as we know the term today. He was backed by labor and the Socialist Party, for example.
Democrat or Democratic Socialist? Both!
Forcing the debate to the specific, and then delivering on the specific is the way to win elections and build trust. Mamdani identifies himself as a Democratic and a democratic socialist (capitalization is intentional). The official Democratic Socialist Party (DSA) is on the right track, too, when they bypass economic and political sophistry to go directly to a “Bill of Rights.”
• Everyone has the right to a living wage job
• Everyone has the right to a sufficient amount of nutritious and safe food
• Everyone has the right to affordable and safe housing
• Everyone has a right to preventive, acute and long term health care
• Everyone has a right to free, high quality public education
• Everyone has the right to give and receive care
• Everyone has the right to income security throughout their life
• Everyone has the right to leisure time
• Everyone has the right to a healthy environment
• Everyone has the right to associate in whatever organizational form they choose
Specific, pragmatic, well constructed, people first.
