Breakthrough?

New York state assemblyman and DSA member Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for NYC mayor, defeating Andrew Cuomo. The disgraced former governor was supported by Wall Street and assholes like Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. Disgraced current mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election as an independent. 

Robert Reich:

You have the Democratic establishment really making a kind of last ditch effort to do everything they possibly could for [Cuomo] and they failed miserably. If there's not a lesson here about people rising up, demanding what they want and what they need, and a new generation of Democrats ... talking to people authentically about what they need, I don't know what the lesson is.

Update (June 30):  From a YouTube comment:

Policy WAS a big part of [Mamdani's] appeal. More and more people are waking up to the ugly oligarchic nature of US politics, as well as the nefarious role ... lobbying groups like AIPAC hold on so many politicians -- both [Republicans and Democrats]. When politicians come along like him and reject corporate money, call out corporate influence on politicians, don't take lobbying money and offer genuinely new ideas ... people listen.

 

Lament for Posterity

I haven't paid attention to the news since the election. One might be forgiven eight years ago that maybe we didn't know exactly what to expect then for the new administration, but after all we know now it is simply unfathomable.

Of course, there are lessons to be learned. And they will almost certainly not be learned. Hopes for the future seem, at best, a cynical fantasy.

There's not much to say. It could be that those of us in the opposition are wrong and this administration's vision for the country will be a success. If, on the other hand, it turns out to be the expected spectacular failure, then we just might have an opportunity to move forward and begin to recover from the damage inflicted. But years will be lost.

May these New Dark Ages become our tragic path to the light.