Three Elections That Changed Everything
How Spanberger, Sherrill, and Mamdani showed us the way out of the abyss
Friends,
This morning’s essay by Anne Applebaum, “The Biggest Tent,” prompted me to watch Ezra Klein’s November video commentary in The New York Times. In “This Is the Way You Beat Trump and Trumpism,” Klein distinguishes the original meaning of liberalism from contemporary usage. Drawing on historian Helena Rosenblatt’s “The Lost History of Liberalism,” Klein reminds us that the Romans practiced liberalitas, which meant “a noble and generous way of thinking and acting toward one’s fellow citizens.” This concept, from which “liberal” derives, was fundamentally about civic duty and generosity toward the common good rather than personal liberty alone.
Tuesday’s elections in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City revealed that American voters respond to genuine ideas, practical policies, and authentic personalities rather than partisan labels. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger defeated Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears 57.2% to 42.6%, becoming the state’s first woman governor. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill defeated Jack Ciattarelli by 13.7%, a significantly wider margin than expected. Most remarkably, 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani (MAHM-dah-nee) won New York’s mayoralty with 50.4%, becoming the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, and the first democratic socialist elected in decades.
Each victory embodied what Martin Buber called the I-Thou relationship: treating others as whole human beings worthy of authentic encounter rather than as objects to be used. Buber’s distinction between I-It and I-Thou modes of relating offers crucial insight into what has degraded American politics and how democracy might recover.
The Philosophy of Authentic Encounter
In Buber’s understanding, the I-It relationship reduces others to objects separate from ourselves, bounded by their utility to our purposes. The I-Thou relationship, by contrast, acknowledges the other as a whole being, present and real, worthy of encounter rather than mere experience. As Buber writes, “When Thou is spoken, there is no thing. Thou has no bounds.”
Modern American politics has become dominated by I-It relationships. Voters are reduced to demographic categories, constituents treated as means to electoral victory, citizens valued only for their utility to partisan agendas. Politicians view supporters merely as votes to harvest and opponents as enemies to defeat. This objectification operates across the political spectrum, rendering authentic democratic governance impossible.
The I-Thou relationship demands mutuality, directness, and presence. It requires that leaders encounter citizens not as collections of data or ideological positions but as fellow human beings navigating shared challenges. Such encounter cannot be manufactured or faked. It emerges from genuine commitment to the common good and authentic respect for human dignity. As Buber insists, “the primary word I-Thou can be spoken only with the whole being.”
The Campaign Strategy of Generous Engagement
Spanberger’s Virginia campaign exemplified I-Thou politics. Rather than reducing voters to partisan categories, she addressed Virginians as people facing genuine economic anxiety in an era of federal chaos. Her disciplined focus on affordability and stability spoke to voters’ lived experience, creating a coalition that transcended traditional party lines.
Sherrill’s New Jersey victory followed similar patterns. Despite predictions that Republicans could capitalize on their 2024 strength, her message of pragmatic governance and economic common sense resonated across partisan identifications. Voters responded to a candidate who seemed to see them as whole people with legitimate concerns rather than as demographic targets.
Mamdani’s New York campaign represents the purest expression of this approach. His platform, relentlessly focused on affordability and the concrete struggles of working New Yorkers, addressed constituents as human beings facing real economic challenges. His promises of fare-free buses, universal child care, rent freezes, and higher minimum wages spoke directly to voters’ daily lives. His decisive victory, attracting the highest turnout for a mayoral election since 1969, suggests profound hunger for authentic political engagement.
The contrast with Mamdani’s opponents proves instructive. Andrew Cuomo, running on “experience,” offered voters an I-It transaction: support me because I am useful for specific political purposes. This transactional approach failed to generate enthusiasm even among voters sharing his policy preferences. Voters wanted encounter, not mere experience.
Liberalitas and Democratic Recovery
The ancient Roman virtue of liberalitas combined generous giving with noble thinking and acting toward fellow citizens. It was not charity but a fundamental orientation toward the common good that recognized mutual obligation as the foundation of political freedom. Practicing liberalitas required seeing fellow citizens as worthy of generosity precisely because they shared membership in the political community.
This understanding offers a way forward from our current crisis. Democratic degradation has occurred through the reduction of citizens to objects, means to partisan ends. Recovery requires restoring the capacity to encounter fellow citizens as whole human beings worthy of generous engagement.
Klein’s observation that true liberalism was “built on a virtue we rarely talk about today” points toward necessary recovery. Modern politics has forgotten that freedom requires more than constitutional structures. It demands what Tocqueville called “habits of the heart,” settled dispositions toward generous engagement with fellow citizens that make democratic self-governance possible.
Tuesday’s elections suggest American voters hunger for this recovery. Across three different contests, in states with different political cultures, voters chose candidates offering I-Thou encounter over I-It transaction, practicing something approaching liberalitas rather than mere partisan manipulation.
The Way Forward
At the edge of the abyss, these elections offer solid ground. They demonstrate that American voters remain capable of responding to politicians who treat them as whole human beings rather than objects to be manipulated. The hunger for authentic encounter over transactional exploitation runs deep in the electorate.
Recovery of democracy requires recovering liberalitas and I-Thou encounter. Citizens must be seen and treated as worthy of generous engagement, their concerns addressed with genuine respect, their dignity honored even in disagreement. Only through such authentic encounter can the habits of democratic citizenship be restored and the republic preserved.
Buber reminds us that “all real living is meeting.” The recovery of American democracy depends on recovering this capacity in our political life: the willingness to encounter fellow citizens as whole human beings rather than objects to be used. This is how we keep the republic.
Kind regards… /glc
References:
1. Ezra Klein, “This Is the Way You Beat Trump and Trumpism,” The New York Times, November 2, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/opinion/this-is-the-way-you-beat-trump-and-trumpism.html[1]
Helena Rosenblatt, “The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century” (Princeton University Press, 2018)
2. 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election results:[2]
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2025-elections/virginia-governor-election-results
https://bhfs.com/insights/news/election-2025-virginia-gubernatorial-and-legislative-races
3. 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election results:[3]
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-jersey-governor-election-results-democrat-mikie-sherrill/story
https://www.cnn.com/election/2025/results/new-jersey/governor
4. 2025 New York City mayoral election results:[4]
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/04/mamdani-wins-new-york-city-mayoral-race
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-2025-nyc-mayoral-election
5. Martin Buber, “I and Thou,” translated by Ronald Gregor Smith (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937)[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_and_Thou
6. Martin Buber, “I and Thou,” direct quotations[6]
https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/03/17/martin-buber-i-and-thou/
7. Roman concept of liberalitas as civic virtue:[7]
https://classicworldcoins.ch/liberalitas-roman-goddess-of-generosity/
8. Roman civic virtue and political obligation:[8]
https://ancientarmitage.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/roman-virtue/