Clashing Cross Currents by Al Sikes

Several days ago New York City’s dominant political party—Democrat—selected Zohran Mamdani to be its candidate in the general election for Mayor. Many were startled anticipating the much blemished Andrew Cuomo the likely winner. He, after all, had the support of big wigs including Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg.

Mamdani by most accounts is charismatic. He identifies as a Shia Muslim. He ran as a Socialist. He called for making busses “fast and free”, for a million new housing units and to have the City get into the grocery business so prices would be lower.

Mamdani’s selection followed a week of news about the upcoming marriage of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy. The stories were filled with excess the couple will purchase with millions of dollars.

The selection of Mamdani and the Venice marriage are heavy with cultural dissonance. I can easily imagine quite a few people who voted for Donald Trump being aghast at the wedding extravaganza, while being shocked and dismayed by Mamdani’s victory.

It will be said by strict devotees of capitalism that Bezos earned his right to be extravagant. Certainly Amazon, the company he founded, is enormously successful. So too Berkshire-Hathaway, the company Warren Buffet built. Buffet’s lifestyle is said to be modest and frugal. Is this generational? Or just personal?

Presumably, President Donald Trump’s success is some sort of composite.  His residences: Mar a Lago and the White House (the house George Washington built). And regardless of what he is called—right winger, populist, pragmatist—he is certainly transactional. If you worship at his rhetorical altar, you are a winner.

America can be confusing. And politics often sends conflicting messages. And one of today’s conflicts encircles truth. A quick analysis (today’s preferred format) had Iran’s nuclear work sites we bombed devastated. Interestingly the Pentagon said not so quick—the setback was months not years. I suspect default bias will have Trump supporters choosing his description. History would say give us a few years.

And I suspect more conservative voters will say of Mamdani’s success—“it could only happen in New York”. My take: we have entered a new generation of what the Hollywood scriptwriter’s muse blasted: “I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore.” The movie Network and the muse Howard Beale.

New Yorkers were fed up with Andrew Como and the debilitating cost of living. And joining New Yorkers, most are fed up with the extravagance embedded in the celebrity marriage. And Donald Trump?

America was founded on principles; we should all periodically refresh our memories of the founding documents. Maybe many who attended the “No Kings” rallies were fed up in our departure from the founding principles.

Yet today in Washington and elsewhere transactionalism is dominant. Regardless of the dramatic fiscal chasm Mamdani’s programs would create, he knew how to tap the “mad as hell” voter. And in Washington the President is counting on political transactionalism to deliver the “big beautiful bill”. If you are a Republican member of Congress and vote no Trump will come after you. Fiscal principle: be damned.

A culture shaped by winning regardless of principle produces celebrities not heroes. Recall in an interview Trump said of John McCain, who was a Vietnam war hero: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.”

As commentators frequently say: here is my take. John McCain was a hero. Celebrity billionaires are undermining capitalism. And our lack of fiscal discipline will result and I hope soon, in a voter backlash or, as Donald Trump might say “the biggest backlash ever.” Our excesses will demand it.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.