Here's A Wild Thought

HERE'S A WILD THOUGHT EPISODE 11: MAGA Meets It's Match In Minnesota, Plus Mamdani's First Month

In this episode, the continued fall [https://nickrafter.substack.com/p/its-maybe-the-end-of-maga-as-we-know?r=62nik] of MAGA and Trump faces his Waterloo in Minneapolis. I analyze the shift in immigration politics back to the Democrats and how they can best navigate the issue, knowing that there’s still some support for Trump’s mass-deportation ideas and that the politics have shifted against them before. What is the best way to message a plan to get rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the agency no longer has the credibility to continue to exist? Also, I look at the first month of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s term, and how he managed to successfully manage a snowstorm, something that has befallen predecessors, and the even bigger crisis he now faces that could jeopardize his ambitious agenda. Get full access to Nick Rafter Writes at nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe [https://nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

HERE'S A WILD THOUGHT EP. 10: 2025 Election Preview And Thoughts On Ending The Filibuster

Election Day is tomorrow, and I have predictions! In this episode of Here’s A Wild Thought, I outline my predictions for the premier races of this off-year election, including Mayor of New York City and select competitive City Council races; New Jersey Governor; Virginia Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General and Proposition 50 in California, which would allow the state to redraw their Congressional lines to eliminate several Republican districts in retaliation for mid-decade redistricting targeting Democrats in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina. I also lay out my reasoning as to why Republicans need to get rid of the filibuster. It just needs to go, and it’s better they do it than the Democrats. Also, if you aren’t a paid subscriber to Nick Rafter Writes, November is a great time to subscribe! In celebration of reaching 100 paid subscribers, I am offering a 20 percent discount to all new subscribers until November 30. You can click here [https://nickrafter.substack.com/onehundredsubscriber.] to redeem your subscription now. Don’t forget, my debut novel LOWER THAN THE ANGELS is on sale now at Amazon.com. You can get it here [https://a.co/d/eFqIXZh]. Nick Rafter Writes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Nick Rafter Writes at nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe [https://nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Here's A Wild Though Ep 9: Democrats Got Snared In A NIMBY Trap They Set

This weekend, New York Times reporter Ezra Klein published an op-ed video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwjxVRfUV_4]identifying one of the significant problems Democrats face nationwide—their reputation for being unable to effectively govern the parts of the country where they have control, the “blue states.” He points to housing and infrastructure as the top issues and the inability of blue states to build infrastructure on time and at cost and manage the housing and affordability crisis. Klein details issues like environmental views and regulations aimed at protecting or empowering poor communities and communities of color and how they lead to delays, cost overruns, or nothing being built. There has been a lot of discussion about why cities like my own, New York, can’t or won’t build housing. The truth is we don’t build housing because nobody wants it, and in a democracy, when there’s a consensus among the public, the government follows. Liberals don’t want to build housing, and conservatives don’t want to build housing. They each have their own “don’t build housing” solutions to the crisis, which they explore but go nowhere with. The right wants to end rent control or deport immigrants to reduce demand and increase supply. The Left wants to build only social housing to take power away from landlords whom they claim, without much concrete evidence, are artificially reducing supply to keep prices up (No one asks why they only do this here and not in, say, Texas, where this isn’t an issue). In this video, I explore the ugly truth about our inability to build infrastructure and housing and why we were able to last century. I also detail why places like New York City are so bad at building housing and why there is probably no democratic answer to this problem. It will have to be done despite not having the general public's support. Take a look. Nick Rafter Writes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Nick Rafter Writes at nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe [https://nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Here's A Wild Though, Episode 8: "There's Not Going To Be A 2017-Style Resistance You..."

It’s week three of Trump 2.0, and he and his shadow president, Elon Musk, are taking a hatchet to the federal government, causing chaos, uncertainty, and unease. Democrats and liberals, still reeling over November’s loss to Trump, are wondering why we aren’t seeing the massive marches and, rallies and organized opposition that we saw in 2017 in the opening weeks of Trump’s first term. In this episode of Here’s A Wild Thought, I break down why this time is different, why we won’t see a 2017-style resistance, and why 2005 is probably a more apt comparison to the current dynamic. Nick Rafter Writes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Nick Rafter Writes at nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe [https://nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Here's A Wild Though Episode 7: The NYC Media's War On Transit Policy

Congestion pricing is in effect in New York City, and no one in the city is more upset about it than the New York City media industrial complex led by the lead s**t-stirrer, the New York Post. In this episode, I discuss the media’s long history of fighting progressive transit policies and my role as a foot soldier of the press in biased fights against policies like bus lanes on Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens. I explain why progressives need to be ready for the hurdles ahead if they hope to keep the policy from being repealed by a future Republican governor and why I doubt progressives understand what they’re up against. DON’T MISS: My former colleague Ross Barkan, on the power of The New York Post [https://rosselliotbarkan.com/p/how-the-new-york-post-wins?r=62nik&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false], echoed similar points that I made last spring [https://nickrafter.substack.com/p/its-the-posts-city-we-just-live-in?r=62nik]. He expands on it, diving deeper into how other media outlets allowed the Post to become the dominant voice in town. My good friend Dhaaruni Sreenivas joined the Brogressive Podcast  [https://open.spotify.com/episode/32QfHl5Ecq1jyE5fWLR1Sg?si=7l80Xe1kTlKpEa-M6AMMiw&nd=1&dlsi=8c230ce3cc27405c]with Max Levin and Ben Bartlett to discuss her role as a delegate in the DNC chair race. She made some interesting points about gender politics and how men who feel isolated from women due to #MeToo can, well, get over it.  Matt Yglesias hosts Cartoons Hate Her [https://substack.com/@cartoonshateher], who offers a reality check [https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-90s-werent-that-great?r=62nik&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false] to Gen Z about a heralded time before they were born and asks something I’ve been asking myself recently as I have developed some nostalgia for my childhood. Were the 1990s really that great? Get full access to Nick Rafter Writes at nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe [https://nickrafter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]