Allow me to start with a flashback. It was Thanksgiving 2024, just over 12 months back. For the first time, our son Clarke hosted the family Thanksgiving near New York City. It is a sign of our aging when the kids start to step into the role of host and convenor. The occasion was lovely.
Over the course of the weekend, Clarke more than once brought up his excitement about the mayoral candidacy of some seemingly obscure state lawmaker whose name I couldn’t quite understand.
In my best parental form, I nodded, inquired a bit, and did not completely rain on our son’s enthusiasm. All the while, of course, I was privately shaking my head in the other direction and thinking that this young candidate being touted had precisely zero chance of becoming mayor of the Big Apple…