(ThyBlackMan.com) From day one of his New York City mayoral bid, Zohran Mamdani did two things that told why he could be New York City’s mayor, but only New York City’s mayor. He emphatically made clear that he would not shout “defund the police’ in any way shape, or form. He just as emphatically made clear that he would almost exclusively zero in on bread and butter working class issues and concerns and purge any hint of an embrace of “identity politics.”
This politically safe approach did not stop the relentless all out near hysterical fear mongering, neo–Red Scare wallop of his campaign by the Trump/Fox News/MAGA Nation/ Conservative Democratic Party crowd.
However, it did send the clear signal that he is a mayor who fat cat realtors, corporations, and the NYPD could do business with. Meanwhile progressives in their ecstasy over Mamdani’s Bonafide progressive stance and credentials just as relentlessly exulted that his victory was smashing proof of what they had been exhorting for years.
That is that the Democratic Party shot callers should finally heed the Bernie Sanders’s and Elizabeth Warrens and dump their cozy, corporate, centrist, deal making Beltway fetish and become a true populist, progressive party that places working class, minorities, and the poor needs first. And in the process wage an all-out assault on wealth inequality.
Mamdani showed that this is exactly the prescription that can win in New York city. There are loads of college educated, progressive to die hard ultra liberals, young and minority voters there. All of whom are staunch Democratic voters.
But that’s only east of the Hudson. Once you cross that river it’s an entirely different story, and an entirely different America. Other than in a few mostly urban pockets of the country. the number of voters who fit the NYC vote demographic thin out fast.
Put bluntly, Mamdani’s message of progressive, populist politics would fall on deaf ears. He would be regarded as yet another radical fringe candidate. He and his campaign would be shamelessly Trump and MAGA Nation baited and then ignored.
Mamdani’s victory then is a win for New York city but only New York city. It will not move the Democratic party’s cautious, centrist, at times infuriating kowtow to Trump leadership’s one inch to the left. And most importantly, it will not signal any real breakthrough for progressive politics in Iowa, let alone Alabama, or the proverbial Kansas.
Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
One can find more info about Mr. Hutchinson over at the following site; TheHutchinson Report.
Also feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchins
He is also an associate editor of New America Media. His forthcoming book is From King to Obama: Witness to a Turbulent History (Middle Passage Press).
