Former President Barack Obama told Zohran Mamdani “your campaign has been impressive to watch,” and suggested that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election.
Former President Barack Obama called New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, praising his campaign and offering to be a “sounding board” into the future.
The private, roughly 30-minute phone call, which has not previously been reported, was described by two people who participated or were briefed immediately on what had been said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.
Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said.
Mamdani is what we need to get on the right track. That and dems that have a spine. Hell we probably need a new party for progressives. The 2 party system is messed up
Getting rid of the 2 party system would require a crisis of such magnitude I cannot in good conscience wish for it.
Losing world war 3. A pandemic 10X deadlier than covid, hostile Aliens, something at that level.
Nothing less will do it.
you are probably right… I cannot wish for it either
As someone who doesn’t want to spend the rest of my life being terrorized by MAGA, I prefer an divided American crisis over a fascist certainty.
Nothing is certain.
I don’t think the issue is that kind of crisis. It would take some type of crisis for one of these parties to fail though.
The great recession didn’t touch it. Covid didn’t touch it. Jan 6 didn’t touch it.
Ending the two party system would require changing the way national elections work. That would require a constitutional amendment.
That would require one party taking full control of Congress and more importantly 2 thirds of state legislatures. The most plausible path to that I see currently is trump taking his coup to the next level, interfering in elections nationwide and placing maga in control all over the country.
Then they start passing constitutional amendments changing what it means to be a citizen and who can vote.
“Wait, not like that” you are probably thinking.
That’s why I think there would have to be mass death. The pandemic is probably the next most likely, Democrats seek safety in distance and Republicans cheerfully host parties and deny the threat. The administration blocks efforts by the CDC and other researchers to study the disease. but it’s somehow both deadlier than covid and slower, so by the time hospitals and morgues fill up, way more people are infected than with covid. 120 million Americans die before the crisis stabilizes, 2 thirds of them right leaning and one 3rd left leaning or apolitical.
The next election sweeps democrats into power nationwide, a 50 point swing as so many more right leaning voters have passed and the living turn on the party that refused to address the crisis.
That scenario makes constitutional amendments possible. Maybe not plausible though, they would be rushing to address the crisis, the mass graves, the shattered economy. If the plague somehow hit the billionaire class hard, maybe then.
Things get less likely from there. The US arbitrarily declaring war on the rest of the world, alien invasion, etc.