Good morning and welcome to Broad + Liberty's Weekly Reads.

Stay up to date on all of this and more when you subscribe to our daily email list and get the best of Broad + Liberty delivered straight to your inbox. 

1. These are not serious people

By Guy Ciarrocchi
 

Zohran Mamdani is no more qualified to be Mayor of New York City than I am to run NASDAQ. 

Yet, he won the Democratic nomination to run this fall to become the mayor of the largest city in our nation — a population larger than 40 states and a budget over $112 billion.

And no major Democrat is opposing him.

What has prepared him to manage a $112 billion dollar budget, 280,000 employees and the operations for a city of nearly nine million people, with nearly five million more working there each day?

He is 33 years old. He is currently a state legislator having served four years and five months. He chairs no committees.

Before taking office in January 2021, he was a hip-hop music producer and was a “housing counselor” for a nonprofit in Queens after graduating from college in 2014, with a degree in Africana Studies. Never managed any business or even a department. 

Sadly, he’s the embodiment of 2025 Democrats. Loyalty to the progressive bible and commitment to the left’s causes is how they measure candidate quality.

Why It Matters. That he was taken seriously says a lot about today’s Democratic Party. That state and national figures endorsed him — and no one is opposing him — says even more about today’s Democratic Party. That he was able to win says a lot about the state of today’s Democratic primary electorate.

Experience? Solutions? Common sense? Ha!

Rhetoric is more important than experience. Devotion to the progressive bible of victimhood, genders, “justice,” climate crisis, the teachers union, challenging American greatness, and men in women’s sports is far more important than solutions to actual, kitchen-table problems. 
 

Continue Reading

2. Majority of Philly-area school districts are out of step with Title IX

By Beth Ann Rosica

The Trump administration is waging war against states that refuse to comply with Title IX protections for girls and women. While the key issue is focused on boys competing in girls’ sports, other aspects include keeping boys out of girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.

Pennsylvania has not been targeted by the federal government — yet. However, it seems only a matter of time before it happens.

Despite the federal orders and a subsequent Dear Colleague letter warning states and school districts about potential consequences for violators, Pennsylvania is doubling down. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) continues to provide protections based on “gender identity” despite the federal law, court rulings, and Executive Orders.

Why It Matters. The PHRC regulations are in direct conflict with federal law and are providing cover for some school districts in the Commonwealth. Many districts continue to allow students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity as opposed to their biology, citing the PHRC regulations.

Broad + Liberty completed a review of policies for every school district in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. The analysis shows some districts have a specific policy for transgender students, often entitled, “Transgender and Gender Expansive Students.” Districts with this particular policy clearly articulate that students can use the bathroom that most closely aligns with their gender identity. This policy also requires school staff and administration to withhold information from parents. Over 40 percent of districts in the region have this type of policy.

Thirteen of the 62 districts analyzed (21 percent) continue to recognize “gender identity” as a protection under their Title IX Nondiscrimination policy, despite the federal law saying otherwise.

Continue Reading

3. Lightning Round

• Manion + Grigalonis: SEPTA is not just a Philly issue — all of Pennsylvania has a stake in mass transit

• David Sanko: Why public information must be free and accessible

• Christine Flowers: It could have been worse

• Richard Vaughn: A dream revived, a river revived

4. What NYC Shake-Up Means for Pittsburgh Area Dems 

5. What we're reading

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is working its way through Congress as this newsletter goes to press. By the time you read this, it may have become law. But even if that bill is a feather in President Trump’s cap, it is also a reminder that Congress — and especially the budgeting process — is not working as intended. And it hasn’t worked for some time. Yuval Levin wrote this week at National Review about how the relentlessly partisan polarization in Congress (and the nation) is driving bad outcomes from the legislative branch. 

Both parties, he writes, are “pushing against the logic of the Constitution” in passing narrow, party-line bills, “but this tends to leave them frustrated with the Constitution rather than open to the possibility that the Constitution is trying to teach them how to get out of the frustrating and thoroughly unproductive rut in which they’ve been stuck for a generation.”