This is where one of my cousins with whom I often differ politically stands, though he claims to be "libertarian." He used to live in NYC, but now lives in rural PA. He's freaking out about Mamdani, and going to the fallback of "Dems are too extreme, they're going to make it seem like all Dems are like Mamdami/AOC/the Squad. Here's what I told him:
"Maybe the NY Republicans should try to figure out how they let it get this bad? How their party became so out of touch with the voters as to make the state effectively a one party state that then runs amuck with policies that push voters further to the left. Maybe they need some introspection and to figure out where they have gone wrong to allow this democratic socialist to get elected."
Which was fun to say. At the same time, he's not wrong - the Republicans are very good at taking an anecdote and extrapolating it (extremely, I may add) to the entirety of all Dems everywhere. It's what's got them hunting us in MN.