FLASH
Shkruar nga John Stoehr
Democratic elites are wrong to underestimate Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani is not the future of the Democratic Party.
I know many may say that this is well known, because the same thing was said about Eric Adams.
The outgoing mayor of New York City didn't keep his promises. But the next mayor probably won't keep his promises either. The reason isn't because Mamdani will become as corrupt as Adams became (although who knows?). The reason is because New York is New York.
Yes, it is the largest urban center in the country. Its influence cannot be overstated, but what is good or bad for New York is not necessarily what is good or bad for America. It may no longer be entirely true that all politics is local, but most politics is still local.
Once you accept the truth of this, all other considerations for Mamdani and the rest of the Democratic Party seem rather boring, as he becomes just another politician in a constellation of politicians who figured out how to appeal to a winning majority in their respective constituencies.
After acknowledging that a city is not a metaphor for a country, or for a national party, the talk of how he is dividing Democrats seems a bit silly. Yes, he calls himself a democratic socialist. So what? Will this work in a place like Virginia? Maybe, but maybe not. If it did, someone would have tried it. Since no one has, here is the answer.
Think of it this way. Donald Trump is from New York. His business is based there. He represents the city’s elite. But he has never won there. Three consecutive campaigns made no difference. Would anyone seriously suggest that, in this context, as New York goes, so goes the country (or so goes the Republican Party)? No, because that would be foolish.
Yet somehow, no one seems to think how foolish it is to ask whether Mamdani is the future of the Democrats, because only Democrats, never Republicans, are subject to this kind of question. The reason for this is rooted in the Democratic Party itself, among certain elites who want to prevent it from becoming a fully realized people’s party. And they do this, first and foremost, by accepting as true the premise of the lies told about the Democrats by Trump and the Republicans.
What is he lying about? First, remember that the number of democratic socialists in the Democratic Party (I'm talking about people who choose to call themselves that) is extremely small. Only two have any kind of national profile. (They are U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but Sanders doesn't really count. He's technically an independent.)
This fact means nothing to Donald Trump. He has no enemies on his right. He has nothing but enemies on his left. Does he respect his enemies enough to speak honestly about them?
No, he's lying.
His lies are what some elites within the Democratic Party are paying more attention to. They are not celebrating Mamdani's success. They are not defending him on his merits. They are not standing in truth. They are not even standing in solidarity. What they are focusing on most are the lies that Donald Trump tells, which are magnified by the right-wing media complex, which are echoed by the media.
And what they see is either a battle they believe cannot be won, or an opportunity to defeat a competing faction within the Democratic Party. Either way requires accepting as truth the lies told to their people, making it seem entirely reasonable to wonder whether winning a major election in America’s largest city is good for Democrats.
(Answer: don't be silly. Of course, it is.)
The fact that these certain elites would rather give in to lies than fight them tells us that their disagreement with Mamdani is not about ideology. (It’s not about whether “democratic socialism” or some other school of thought would appeal to voters outside of New York.) It’s about how Mamdani, and specifically the lies about him, complicate messaging efforts in a media landscape that is already heavily skewed in favor of Donald Trump, especially his view of Democrats as all communists.
Those who are concerned about Mamdani's influence on Democrats also take for granted the assertion that voters rejected Kamala Harris for ideological reasons, that her policies were out of touch with voters whose primary concern was good-paying jobs and lower inflation.
They are ignoring the fact that Harris actually campaigned on so-called working-class issues and that few voters could hear her working-class messages over the noise of Trump’s lies about her. The crisis facing Democrats is not an ideological crisis. It is an information crisis. Some elites are claiming otherwise, because it is better for them to do so.
Mamdan's victory is a local issue. That is the lesson for some elites within the party. It is also a lesson for their most vocal critics.
Some progressives, let's call them that, believe that Mamdan's popularity comes from his focus on the working class. They believe that by doing so, he transcended "identity politics" to amass a large enough following to defeat the Democratic establishment.
This ignores the fact that the establishment, in the form of the DNC and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, is supporting him. But more important is again the issue of ideology. Some elites think his ideology will drive voters away from New York. Some progressives think it will unite them. They believe that a class-based ideology is the unifying force that workers across the country have needed. They just can’t see it, they say, because the establishment is holding them back.
But race and class are not easily separated, not in America. For many Americans, the idea of government of, by, and for the people is a perversion of the “natural order.” It flattens hierarchies even within race and class. This belief is deeply ingrained in many of us. It prevents many white Americans from standing in solidarity with nonwhite Americans, even if they face similar hardships.
Above all, such thinking misses the basics. Many New Yorkers are barely making ends meet. Housing is too expensive. Health care is too expensive. Food is too expensive. I believe Mamdani when he says he is a democratic socialist. But I also believe he is not so foolish as to believe that struggle is the same as class consciousness. He identified the problem. He asked voters to give him the power to solve it.
This is not ideology.
This is simply good politics.
/Adapted from "The Pamphlet" by " Raw Story "
Si nuk e kuptoni që socializmi nordik është më human se socializmi komunist dhe lkapitalizmi amerikan
Ķush është më demokat në Amerikë Beni Sanders apo kllouni Tramp (xhol a lolo në gjermanisht)
Ne kohen e Qepes rrena me e madhe ishte kenga "me gezim po shkoj ne pune". Popull tuaf degjoni e mbani vesh. Kurre mos vini ne krye te qytetit e shtetit njerez palaco te deshtuar shume here ne biznes, te deshtuar ne martesa, sharlatane qe lehin pa pike pergjegjesie per moralin shtetin e popullin, perverte e paedofile te zgjebosur nga koka te kembet, imorale qe gjezdisin plazheve nudo, dhjeramane frikacake qe nuk dine se cfare eshte lufta e Atdheu qe hedhin popullin e ndershem e te pafajshem ne llogore per interesat personale, qe lidhin martesa me lloj lloj racash vetem per perfitime e lista nuk mbaron. Larg prej tyre. Ftoj nnje te njohur Englez nje dite te Djele me familjen. Pa nje ushtri me kitarra neper mure e u mahnit. I luan, me tha? Jo jam komplet trap i thashe por i kam bere vete. Wow, qe pergjigja e tij. Pasi sheh ne xhamat e bufese monedha Amerikane e Shqiptare ku ishin $1 George Washinton, Abraham Linkoln te $5, etj, etj. Ishin edhe monedhat me te bukura ne Bote me Skenderbeun Madheshtor, Naim Frasheri, e ca monedha me Mretereshen Elizabet II, Englezi me vervitet per monedhen Amerikane me George Washington duke me thene qe, e urrej kete person. Pse, ia ketheva. Se na shpalli lufte dhe e humbem Ameriken. Mire ua beri ia ketheva. Pse si kujtuat ju kolonite do te ishin vasale te perjetshem tuajet. A e di ti qe ky azgani ketu eshte nga nena Shqiptar nga Dardania e nena tij ishte me fisnike se mbreteresha juaj? You will never ever know what means Eagleland, i thashe. A e di ti pse e ka emrin Britania Britani? Jo me tha. Nga Briti (the Komander Romak) qe vuri kemben ne token tuaj, e sipas ligjit universal trualli mer emrin e tij? I capleu syte e mbeti si i dhjere. Natyrisht kete bisede agresive e bera sepse kishte ardhu edhe here te tjera ne shtepiine time. Me mori ne qafe e vetem tundte koken ne shenje respekti.