There is a hunger for bold, transformative politics in the United States right now. Zohran Mamdani shows how the Left can run on a principled, disciplined message that speaks to voters’ lived concerns — and win.
I get the hesitation since in US politics they often get conflated and I can’t say I’ve followed him very closely but someone else shared this. I know he’s also advocating for city owned grocery stores.
Quite a lot of red states have state owned liquor stores,[0] so city owned grocery stores doesn’t sound that radical. Apparently, Atlanta is doing it.[1] I hadn’t heard of this idea before, but web search shows it is a thing. I’d consider it socialism if he also wants to close down the privately run grocery stores. He doesn’t seem to be doing that
I’m an Atlantan and this is the first I’m hearing of it. Neat!
Reading the article, though, it’s really just that the city is subsidizing a private business (and in one of the two cases, acting as its landlord) in order to create an incentive to open in a food desert, not actually getting into the business of operating a grocery store directly itself.
I mean, I got a loan from Invest Atlanta to help with the down payment on my house, but that doesn’t mean the city owns my house or that it’s some kind of ‘government housing.’
I see. Question then is whether the store operator gets to set the prices. Donald Trump of course lives in government housing right now, so that’s ok too.
That’s a fair criticism. Usually with public-private partnerships there’s requirements they have to meet though. I’m curious what those are planned to look like. It could be something as lax as “continue operating at this location” or it could be “prices cannot exceed this value, and employees must have these things, etc.”
It could be a good start to actual state operated grocery stores, but starting from scratch and setting up the logistics is an insane barrier, and it’s also part of the issue. It’s too hard to compete with existing companies, so they can do whatever they want and no one else can reasonably enter the market to compete with them.
I mean, I got a loan from Invest Atlanta to help with the down payment on my house, but that doesn’t mean the city owns my house or that it’s some kind of ‘government housing.’
That really depends on who you ask these days doesn’t it.
Well, they sent me a letter a few years back saying the loan had been forgiven since I’d owner-occupied the home for a decade, so now the only other entity that might claim to own it is the creditor for my regular first mortgage. And the state (in the sense that my title is ‘fee simple’ and not ‘allodial’ so I’m still subject to things like taxes and eminent domain), I guess.
The government running public alternatives isn’t socialism. Socialism is specifically about control of the means of production. The only people who think socialism is when the government does stuff are Bernie bros who think Sweden is socialist and MAGA who also think Sweden is socialist. Basically, if someone think that Sweden is socialist then they have no idea what they’re talking about.
I’m OK with it because maybe when they realize he’s just a guy making decisions to help his community, it will remove a smidge of the ZOMG SOCIALISM reaction to folks like not only him, but also Bernie, and maybe others who might like to call themselves social democrats instead of democrats.
If Bernie and AOC start the social democrat party tomorrow with Mamdani and others, I’m registering before the ink is dry.
That kind of depends. Bernie claims to be a Democratic Socialist, but Europeans have said that his stated beliefs align more with Social Democracy. This may be another case of us Americans having a different definition than the rest of the world (like with liberal).
Social Democracy is not the same as Socialism. But, I wasn’t following the race, maybe he does want the public to own the means of production.
I get the hesitation since in US politics they often get conflated and I can’t say I’ve followed him very closely but someone else shared this. I know he’s also advocating for city owned grocery stores.
Quite a lot of red states have state owned liquor stores,[0] so city owned grocery stores doesn’t sound that radical. Apparently, Atlanta is doing it.[1] I hadn’t heard of this idea before, but web search shows it is a thing. I’d consider it socialism if he also wants to close down the privately run grocery stores. He doesn’t seem to be doing that
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_state
[1] https://thefern.org/2025/03/are-government-owned-grocery-stores-the-answer-to-americas-food-desert-problem/
I’m an Atlantan and this is the first I’m hearing of it. Neat!
Reading the article, though, it’s really just that the city is subsidizing a private business (and in one of the two cases, acting as its landlord) in order to create an incentive to open in a food desert, not actually getting into the business of operating a grocery store directly itself.
I mean, I got a loan from Invest Atlanta to help with the down payment on my house, but that doesn’t mean the city owns my house or that it’s some kind of ‘government housing.’
I see. Question then is whether the store operator gets to set the prices. Donald Trump of course lives in government housing right now, so that’s ok too.
That’s a fair criticism. Usually with public-private partnerships there’s requirements they have to meet though. I’m curious what those are planned to look like. It could be something as lax as “continue operating at this location” or it could be “prices cannot exceed this value, and employees must have these things, etc.”
It could be a good start to actual state operated grocery stores, but starting from scratch and setting up the logistics is an insane barrier, and it’s also part of the issue. It’s too hard to compete with existing companies, so they can do whatever they want and no one else can reasonably enter the market to compete with them.
That really depends on who you ask these days doesn’t it.
Well, they sent me a letter a few years back saying the loan had been forgiven since I’d owner-occupied the home for a decade, so now the only other entity that might claim to own it is the creditor for my regular first mortgage. And the state (in the sense that my title is ‘fee simple’ and not ‘allodial’ so I’m still subject to things like taxes and eminent domain), I guess.
The government running public alternatives isn’t socialism. Socialism is specifically about control of the means of production. The only people who think socialism is when the government does stuff are Bernie bros who think Sweden is socialist and MAGA who also think Sweden is socialist. Basically, if someone think that Sweden is socialist then they have no idea what they’re talking about.
so he is a socialist?
From everything I’ve seen, yes, he’s an actual socialist.
The word gets used so often as a pejorative it’s weird to see it used accurately by that crowd.
Don’t worry, Fox was quoting Trump calling him a communist today.
They say that about everyone to their left. We shouldn’t let them dictate our policy, but we keep doing it.
I’m OK with it because maybe when they realize he’s just a guy making decisions to help his community, it will remove a smidge of the ZOMG SOCIALISM reaction to folks like not only him, but also Bernie, and maybe others who might like to call themselves social democrats instead of democrats.
If Bernie and AOC start the social democrat party tomorrow with Mamdani and others, I’m registering before the ink is dry.
Also Democratic Socialism (Mamdani’s beliefs) are not the same as Social Democracy. They are slightly different.
That kind of depends. Bernie claims to be a Democratic Socialist, but Europeans have said that his stated beliefs align more with Social Democracy. This may be another case of us Americans having a different definition than the rest of the world (like with liberal).
Real “Judean people’s front” vibes with that one
also the red underlined section of this post: https://lemmy.ml/post/32229216