https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qMx9!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F244c778c-0a00-4db5-9435-6734d4a41717_1000x1000.png https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qMx9!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F244c778c-0a00-4db5-9435-6734d4a41717_1000x1000.png Jamie Dimon and Zohran Mamdani (Getty Images) Two of the most prominent New Yorkers have released documents outlining their visions of America’s future. On one hand is Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 375-page “Preliminary Racial Equity Plan.” On the other is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s 48-page annual shareholder letter. It’s “hard to believe that the two men are describing the same planet, let alone the same country and city,” writes the Free Beacon’s Ira Stoll: Both men are racing to define America’s past in its 250th anniversary year. For Dimon, a big danger is that Americans lose faith in our country. “While we should acknowledge America’s flaws, they should not be used to pull apart our country. We need to believe in ourselves and get back to work, not tear each other down,” Dimon writes. For Mamdani and his “Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice,” a big danger is overlooking what the report calls “historical harms” and how “New York City’s past is deeply intertwined with the structural racial inequities experienced by its communities of color.” These dueling visions—grievance versus optimism—will likely define the debate about America’s future. As Dimon put it, they aren’t totally mutually exclusive—acknowledging America’s flaws doesn’t prevent celebrating America’s ability to fix its flaws and believing in its continued capacity for self-improvement. Yet Mamdani—the son of a Columbia professor full of criticism of settler colonialism—generates doubts about whether New York City will be at the lead of America’s next 250 years or, instead, will be undermining it. Those of us in the optimism camp have some confidence that, regardless of New York City’s role, America will net out as it has over the past 250 years, as a kind of miracle. READ MORE: Mamdani, Dimon Offer Clashing Visions of New York City—And America at 250