TLP Weekend Edition (March 22-23, 2025)

What we're reading and checking out.

Osaka Castle has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. The castle is the center of attention in the great television series, Shōgun, based on James Clavell’s book about 1600’s intrigue for control of the Japanese realm and featured in this weekend’s edition. (Author photo, February 2025)

📖 “Zo-mentum: Breaking down the most exciting campaign in New York City,” by Michael Lange. Michael Lange provides an incredibly detailed assessment of the rising candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, democratic socialist, for the Democratic mayoral nomination in New York City. Lange is clearly a booster of Mamdani but his analysis of the potential class base on Mamdani's candidacy is fascinating:

As traditional political networks have atrophied, culminating in the slow-death of “machine” politics, many New Yorkers have embraced the anti-establishment, class-conscious, progressive politics popularized by Bernie Sanders. This development, spurred by the increased migration of early-career professionals—increasingly priced out of Manhattan—into Brooklyn and Western Queens, has not only toppled ethnic fiefdoms and seized power, but reshaped the political character of several neighborhoods. Masses of volunteers, the foot soldiers necessary to prevail in low-turnout Democratic Primary elections, no longer come from the union hall or the Democratic club, but from ideological-based networks, like the Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party.

Astoria, once a predominantly Greek and Mediterranean enclave in Northwest Queens, is emblematic of this shift. Mamdani, elected to represent the neighborhood in the state legislature five years ago, defeated incumbent Aravella Simotas, an ally of the once-powerful Queens County Democratic Party, long the de-facto broker that hand-picked winners, and buried losers. Voters took kindly to his disavowal of donations from real estate developers and police unions (his opponent, did not); while embracing Mamdani, not as another run-of-the-mill “progressive,” but an unabashed democratic socialist. Symbolically, Zohran launched his campaign the same day Bernie Sanders hosted a rally with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Queensbridge Park. Mamdani’s victory was aided by both the micro: a steady increase in left-leaning residents, some of whom successfully organized (for multiple years) while the local, nascent political machine crumbled; and macro: the near-term apex of both progressive popularity and civic engagement, social forces catalyzed by George Floyd’s murder, the upcoming Presidential Election, and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

While the political landscape shifted under President Joe Biden, the micro-conditions that underwrote the left’s burgeoning political power showed few signs of abating. Already, in a Democratic Primary, there were more votes to be had in places like Astoria than several of the outer borough, working-class neighborhoods that once forecasted victory in a citywide election. Indeed, the political evolution of these left-leaning, lively neighborhoods into a political bloc—spanning Alphabet City, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, South Slope, Prospect Heights, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Long Island City, Sunnyside—capable of not only seizing political power in individual neighborhoods, but serving as the coalition bedrock for a top-tier Mayoral candidate, would have been inconceivable even ten years ago.

Here, where greater than half of the Democratic electorate is under the age of forty-five, the “generational aspect” of Mamdani’s campaign shines through. Indeed, to exit the subway during rush-hour on Jefferson Street in Bushwick or Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, is to be surrounded by hundreds of people of every race and religion—all of whom appear to be younger than 40.

For generations, outer borough neighborhoods across New York City were split between immigrants (born outside of the United States) and natives (born in New York State). Today, there is a growing contingent of “transplants,” those born in the United States, but outside of New York. The vast majority have a college-education and make their living in white-collar industries; many of the latter left the offices in March of 2020, never to return. The spectrum of their class composition is considerable: the most fortunate own their apartments, having ridden the stock market back from the recession’s nadir, either in recently developed pseudo-luxury buildings or rehabilitated co-ops with surprisingly low maintenance fees; however, for the vast majority, homeownership remains out-of-reach, at least in close proximity to their current habitat. They value the authenticity of an outer borough neighborhood, a feeling they wouldn’t get in the sterile urban core, but nonetheless appreciate the amenities that come with the influx of young urban professionals. With time, many from their personal networks (college friends, work colleagues, dating circles) have moved there too. Rent, always rising in enclaves where demand far exceeds supply, remains a top-concern; whereas Crime, relatively low and rarely surpassing petty theft, is not.

Is this a good or bad thing? You decide.

📰 “Why MAGA America has the left at a loss,” by Eduardo Porter. In his Washington Post column, Porter reflects on how despite being a staple of the American left for decades, economic populism is increasingly becoming synonymous with MAGA. He argues in favor of the left getting back to its roots as representing the economically disenfranchised:

The American left is in a…complicated spot. Having ceded much of its working-class agenda to the MAGA movement, it lost an important glue provided by its historical core. It is now ideologically adrift, herding a collection of disparate causes that often do not see eye to eye.

To counter the authoritarian populism taking hold of Trump’s America, the left will have to find its way back to representing the oppressed, dispossessed and marginalized struggling to live in dignity. If it doesn’t, both America and the world are in for a rough ride.

🎧 The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth, narrated by David Rintoul. You may have seen the recent remake of this famous thriller from the 1970’s (recommended by TLP a few months ago) but the original tale in audiobook also makes an excellent companion for a weekend walkabout. Forsyth’s character development and masterful plotting of an attempted assassination of the French president, General Charles de Gaulle, in 1963 is as suspenseful and tense as ever. Enjoy hours of The Jackal’s meticulous planning for his lone wolf attack on the president as well as detective Claude Lebel’s mild-mannered yet shrewd effort to catch the mysterious man.

📺 Shōgun, on Disney+. Speaking of historical fiction, this ten episode series interpreting James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name is a feast for the eyes and mind. Set in the early 1600’s, the story revolves around five appointed Japanese regents and their vassals, Portuguese Catholics, and an English Protestant sailor trying to survive in a hostile yet beautiful land, battling it out for control of the realm after the death of the Taikō. British Columbia makes for a nice stand in for feudal Japan while the Japanese acting is superb (particularly Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga).

🎶 Yo La Tengo & Sun Ra Arkestra—One Cosmic Night, at The Howard Theater. TLP will be in D.C. this Saturday evening to see these two giants join forces for a special night of unique songs and live performance. Expect a mix of guitars, keyboards, and horns with skronky stuff and sweet melodies all around. Here’s YLT covering Sun Ra and The Cosmic Ray’s classic, “Somebody’s In Love.” Enjoy the weekend!