It’s been one year since America decided to do things the hard way, but last night was an important shift. From New York’s political shake-up to California’s moonlit ballot drops, this post is a mix of gratitude, analysis, and straight talk about where we stand, and what’s waking us up.
Below is a loose transcript of the video above, recorded in my car this morning because I got feelings about the 2025 election results and miss sharing them with you! Inside
Cuomo Loses Twice!
Mamdani is not the real socialist in America right now
My favorite ballot is the Prop 50 ballot in Cali
A reminder of who we are.
Opening
Good morning after.
I just want to say I feel good about many of the choices. I take all the choices that the United States of America made on this election night one year later to choose the people over fascism and destruction and military invasion of our cities. I just wanted to put something out there to say, thanks. Let’s keep moving. Let’s keep going. And here’s some observations.
I watched some of the coverage last night. I voted myself and dropped off my ballot in California. That was a party. That was fun. As a former New Yorker, I got thoughts about Mamdani. But just spoiler alert, it’s good. We had a good night. I think we needed this reminder of who else we are. Where we keep feeling this tug of well this is just what the country is now the country is just like nazis and racists and fascists and militarists and there’s always been that in in these united states these dis united states and there’s decent people and there’s folks who stand with working people and there’s folks who stand for humanity so that’s the headline.
New York City
New York City. Let’s start with my former city. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. That’s great. To defeat. Like, I think the headline for me is Mario Cuomo loses twice. I really would love to see more of that in writing because that’s what happened. And it’s got to be embarrassing. I don’t know what you do from there. So wish him the best.
Love Mamdani being like, this is the last time you’re going to hear me say this man’s name. His victory speech had what one might call swagger in it. And I think it’s deserved. I think someone who was polling at 1% less than a year ago to clear 50% and beat a former two-term governor and son of a governor. You got to give that man a moment to feel it and the people who supported him a moment to feel it. That’s just wonderful.
And I think, you know, he’s charming and he’s articulate, but he’s also focused. And really the core thing is that he’s in alignment with the people. And I think if you look at his position, as you look at the polling, he’s much more in touch with where the people are than, say, someone like Chuck Schumer. So Mamdani reveals more of who New York City is.
I heard a comment on one of these cable news joints last night, which was like, oh, the Republicans are across the country going to have a field day running against Mamdani in the midterms. Mom Johnny’s not running in the midterm elections, so good luck with that. I think if your midterm reelection in North Carolina or Pennsylvania depends on you running against the mayor of New York City, you’d have already lost. And it’s a pretty easy deflect for the people, for any of their opponents to be like, look at me. Like you’re in a contest with me, not the mayor of New York City. So whatever state we’re in, whatever congressional district we’re in, New York made their choice. It’s time for us to make ours.
On Socialism
I’ve heard, you know, a lot of claims of socialism as a negative thing. And that’s rich. It’s like literally rich when it comes to criticizing Mom Downey, because I’m just I’m confused about the types of socialism that we find acceptable. You know, the socialism of bailing out banks. Cool. That’s old news. But what about the socialism of the U.S. federal government taking a stake in non-government owned companies. Like just, I want a percentage of all your sales. That kind of socialism, that Donald Trump socialism, that MAGA socialism. So again, good luck running against socialism. So long as the people you’re running against remember that we’re doing some crazy levels of socialism in the United States right now, the likes of which a Democrat has that proposed. So it’s pretty exciting times.
Other Results
All right, you got governor’s races, yay for women, yay for decency in New Jersey, Virginia. Supreme Court victories in Pennsylvania is also very good. Maine elections, good.
California
So that brings me home for my recent home of California. I wanted to drop off my ballot in purpose and in person. Yes, that was a flub, but it also kind of works because I did drop it off in purpose and in person. Toward the end of the day, the moon was rising. It was like a full moon rising. And we were out there, y’all. There was a line to drop off the ballot for people voting, not even just doing the drop off. I was able to slide on by because I pre-filled out my joint. And most importantly, got my sticker, which is really why we do this. We’re all just five-year-olds who want a star of liberty, not fascism.
So long lines in a special election signify the degree to which folks wanted to be on the record against this record-breaking abuse of power that’s come from the Trump administration, from Stephen Miller, from Darth Vader, the Vought guy who doesn’t believe in voting, ironically, who’s running Office of Management and Budget and disassembling our republic. So California, for me, this election was like, look, if I wanted more Texas representation in the U.S. Congress, I would have moved to Texas like Elon Musk and the rest of them. I live here, so I want my vote here to not be diluted. And what we have, when you have, like, Southern states attempting to dilute the political power of non-Southern states, that’s like low-key civil war. That’s not violent. It’s not armed. But it is a shot, nonetheless, in an attempt to weaken the rest of us.
So California had to do it. And I think the way Newsom did it is actually very responsible. I marvel at how quickly this came together. This was like two to three months of effort. And to see lines on, there was one thing on the ballot. There was one thing on the ballot, which is my favorite type of ballot, by the way. I voted in a lot of different places over time, not because of voter fraud, because I’ve moved. And it can get pretty complicated out here, especially in California. This was like worded for human consumption and interpretation and understanding. It was great.
So I think standing up for our own voting rights, but also using our position as a very large state, to stand up for those of others. It’s essentially, it’s leadership. It’s actually leadership for the people of this state and the leaders of this state to show, to demonstrate by example, this is how you do it. This is how fast you can do it. And then these other states, I watched Newsom’s speech and it’s an open playbook. It’s like an open source approach. And he’s like, all right, let’s go Virginia. Let’s go Pennsylvania. Let’s go New York, Illinois, whatever other democratic leading states I wonder about Minnesota, who have the ability to counteract the attacks on our voting rights by these former Confederate states. Former.
So good on us for that and good on people for wanting to be on the record. I think it’s also really interesting. I heard some analysis talking about, you know, there were folks who were able to vote in this special election who were too young to vote in the last one. I imagine there’s people who were trying to cancel out their vote for Trump with this one. Because the real, real is like we have military occupation of many of our cities by a under-trained, under-qualified, personal army of Donald Trump. And we are seeing effective ways to counter that. We’re seeing mayors in Boston, in Chicago, in Portland, in Evanston, and not just the mayors, but the people. Standing up, forming mutual aid, helping out their neighbors, walking kids to school, providing funds, and keeping a spotlight shined on the dirt.
Donald Trump is less popular now than he was right after January 6th. Yeah, that was actually a breakthrough for me because even I was like, I don’t know, maybe this is just who we are now. And it can take some time. But people are waking up. Becoming well well they’re waking up people are waking up to the truth and we don’t want this. The vast majority of us do not want this. He pulled off an insurrection attempt on January 6th, and now he’s essentially stormed the capitals of multiple states run by Democrats using ICE and Customs and Border Patrol officers and a national card, and in at least one case, the U.S. Marine Corps. Nah, we’re not having it.
Closing
So thank you if you voted. Thank you if you encouraged others to vote because you couldn’t. And if you didn’t, remember that feeling. And it’s not just about voting, but it does matter. It does matter. And let’s remember, there’s more of us who believe in a decent way and a good way than this noise and this nonsense. And we are not through this yet, but we are very much in it.
And we need moments like this 2025 election to remind us that we can position this country differently in a way to be the best of what is possible here, even as we fight the worst of what is also possible at the same damn time.
All right, I’m Baratunde and you can find me on Speakeasy on my substack. I try to tell it like it is and the way it could be. And I think this 2025 election revealed both those things. So my sincere appreciation to everybody who put some effort into these elections and to everybody who every day is putting effort into reminding us of who we can really be. In standing up against, I don’t know, monarchy. Literally like in the founding documents, all this, we’re not supposed to be about this life. We’re supposed to be about life.
