Lots of ink getting spilled on Mamdani's supposed lack of experience but not as much on how Cuomo's years of experience were a millstone around his neck
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Why does everyone treat this guy like he's a kid? He's 33, not 12. I know things have changed, but when I was his age, people in their 30s were in the thick of their careers. In the law biz, a lot of 33 year olds were partners in huge law firms handling really complex matters.
I think the main issue is that everybody who was in power when you were his age has STAYED in power, and worked their messaging to focus so heavily on not letting new blood in. We have an unreal amount of politicians sitting in elected seats who aren't even able to be mentally present anymore.
it's not even just the politicians either, they're just even more unlikely to retire than your run of the mill boomer (whose 401k's been leveled three times in the last couple decades and CAN'T retire) because they're addicted to the power
horrendous amount of arrested development in our generation
Like most of the issues in our political system, I think the easiest way to remedy it is to repeal Citizens United, get money out of electoral politics, ban stock trading for officials, etc.
It wouldn't be this way if being an elected official wasn't a path towards generational wealth.
Thrity year olds are mellinials and older generations are still mad at us as a group b/c we aren't trending conservative as we age like we are supposed to so they still pretend we just got out of high school.
In the end, the problem wasn't Mamdani's lack of experience, but everyone's actual experience of Cuomo as a politician - that being of a sex pest who killed their grandma with covid.
My wife watched the clip from the debate where he says “yeah, I don’t have experience as a sex pest, cutting Medicare, stealing from the MTA, etc.”(my garbled paraphrase) multiple times and people were sharing it on social media and I think it was really effective
This is how Ds should be treating this. And all other races w execrable candidates. Mamdani is a natural. We need to learn from him, at least the turn-around is fair play part.
He doesn't know who I am but I have a bloodfeud w Andrew Cuomo and there are thousands of us. I found this poster on my turf yesterday. The guy who made didn't want his pic taken. He was not affiliated w any Mayoral candidate he just hated Cuomo!
Our highest political post is held by a man whose "experience" consists entirely of hookers and fraud. Why does anyone still write about experience like it matters?
And yes we should be better, but we ARE, because this guy's experience might be "light" but it's in the direction of his travel.
If you reduce all this down to "how many pages is your CV" then yeah it looks like Mamdani comes up short, but why do that? "Experience" isn't an unambiguous good - you're also building or destroying a reputation and relationships, that's all in there too
You could say Cuomo is "experienced" but you could also say that he is a "well established fuckstick" and the people planning these things should probably consider both of those angles carefully
In Cuomo's case specifically I think there was a pundit tendency to treat the sexual harassment as a kind of personal foible, distinct from his public and professional life, when in reality that behavior totally disqualifies him as a leader of any kind
His experience amounts to abuse of power, petty vendetta settling, screwing over New York City just to get back at rivals, shilling his COVID book while seniors perished in care facilities - a monstrous man whose very "experience" is what makes him such a monster
most of cuomo's pregovernor experience were obvious nepo baby jobs. i mean good for him and you can argue that those gave him experience to be governor, but also ... they were nepo baby jobs
I am excited for the pieces about how he must now reach out to, and pacify, the people who viciously opposed him in obvious bad faith. It's up to them to say when he's done enough.
Experience is great. I’m far enough in my career to know what I’m pretty good at, but to also understand where I’m lacking, and that understanding came through experience and is hugely important.
But most older Dems running on experience have a lot of experience at being useless. That sucks!
Speaking of experience… Look at the current President. Zero relevant experience. The difference between he and Mamdani is the same as with Trump and most people in leadership positions…they aren’t completely stupid and desperately insecure like Trump is.
I feel like these are the people who want five years of experience for an entry level civilian job if the candidate isn’t a “cultural fit” - Pete’s highest elected office was mayor of a small town and people are still trying to draft him for president - funny how that works
Indeed, Bill Clinton had already been governor for a year at his age, but he's certainly too young to suddenly sweep in to become a Senator from Delaware
Not to mention a 2 term incompetent shoot from the hip narcissist in the WH who still after 1 term don't know shit about governing. But Mamdani is the issue; not jazz handing into fascism.
If a dude hasn't learned not to harass his staff during his career I'm not sure there's a length of time long enough for him to learn to be a good mayor.
Exactly. Some how Americans have been mostly swindled into thinking that the man with the record is less a threat than the man you tell me has a potential of a record despite all evidence. GOP Playbook #1.
I said this elsewhere, but even putting aside that Cuomo's experience was being a weird creep who sucked, experience in politics seems like a double edged sword. Experience means you can get entrenched your ways. In this new world of ever changing politics, that can be a genuine hindrance.
Obviously at some base level having done any job before gives you at least some kind of advantage to do it again, but politics is weird. All Cuomo's experience campaigning didn’t stop him from getting his ass kicked.
Oh! My apologies. For some reason, I can’t always tell it is a thread. The post will appear in my timeline, and commenting doesn’t reveal the placement of the post within, or beginning a thread.
The fine moment of being able to say having no record is better than having THAT GUY's record.
There was a time when stealing from your city, being a serial sex pest, and being a bribery corruption magnet were disqualifying. Now they just bring in money from people who don't want to be left out.
Hard to find a demsoc with many years of experience when their own party has spent 10 years fighting tooth and nail against their inclusion. Now we're in this party-vs-people moment where the people are kinda starting to win.
I am less concerned about lack of experience. Everyone starts somewhere. What concerns me are his policies. Taxing dividends is an atrocious policy. For many, many people, dividends are the only hedge against inflation and stagnant wages. And investing is a difficult, taxing relationship in itself.
Taxing dividends is a form of modern jus primae noctis, which was the feudal lord's right to bed a vassal's bride on the latter's wedding night. Rent freezes are merely forcing some people to subsidize the fantastical dreams of others, and will invariably exacerbate the phenomenon they aim to curb.
People can see companies too big to fail or disaster CEOs like David Zaslav fail upwards, what good does experience do in a world like this if it's not examined critically
Just gonna say it, experience is not bad per se of course, but every single job has examples of newbies who are effective and experienced people who are useless, so I see no reason why politics should be different. It's like a, I dunno, 7th-tier consideration maybe.
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It's just not about that.
horrendous amount of arrested development in our generation
It wouldn't be this way if being an elected official wasn't a path towards generational wealth.
And yes we should be better, but we ARE, because this guy's experience might be "light" but it's in the direction of his travel.
"Too old"
But most older Dems running on experience have a lot of experience at being useless. That sucks!
“Yes I’m sorry you seem to have misunderstood, Mr. Cuomo. Experience only matters when it says good things about you.”
He tied his death-float around his neck by abusing power during those years gathering experience. He abused women with his power.
That experience, the one WE had watching our governor resign in disgrace, was the millstone. We tied that!
Glad to read it tho!
There was a time when stealing from your city, being a serial sex pest, and being a bribery corruption magnet were disqualifying. Now they just bring in money from people who don't want to be left out.