congrats, nyc
The Democratic Party is sad tonight. Their candidate won. Their pet Islamabophic fascist billionaire war criminal is dead, and no longer available for endorsements.
Today was a huge loss for American Islamophobia. After two years of continuous Islamophobia in corporate US media, led by the New York TImes, a Democrat has proven they can become that city’s Mayor while being Muslim. And while calling what Netanyahu is doing in Palestine exactly what it is: a genocide. If Mamdani is allowed to be a popular and successful politician, it will completely invalidate the assertion that Democrats must make concessions to Islamophobia or take AIPAC bribes in order to achieve real power. And of course one of history’s most barbaric Islamophobes is now no longer with us.
Dick Cheney’s invasion of Iraq was based on lies. His wars in West Asia displaced 48 million people. They killed close to 5 million people. And counting. His goal while in office was to make the executive branch above the law. Understandably. Attempts by the media and Democrats to rehabilitate his image are evidence of a profound racism, disregard for democracy, and disregard for human life.
Every time I read about the Third Reich, I’m struck by the same thought. All that killing starts to seem weirdly rational, as long as you’re willing to accept that Jews aren’t people. As long as you’re willing to make the decision that certain lives don’t have value, and if you can harden your heart just enough to tolerate their extermination, all kinds of enjoyable fantasies become possible. The very same logic was at play with Bush and Cheney. The very same logic was at play with Biden and Harris. The very same logic is at play with Trump and Vance.
National Democratic leaders could not bring themselves to get behind Mamdani. What does that tell us? They are Islamophobic. They are socialism-phobic. The party has become a joke. A spoiler party for those who oppose the world-destroying trends currently being helmed by Trump. They prefer fascism to socialism.
Billionaires and Islamophobes in NYC will now officially start their campaign to sabotage Mamdani’s every attempt to make NYC more affordable. The Democratic Party will assist them. Because if Mamdani is allowed to succeed, it will be proof that democratic socialism and anti-bigotry can actually work in the US. This they cannot abide.
If democratic socialism is allowed to succeed in New York City, the tired script of the Democratic Party will evaporate. Every Democratic operative repeating like a broken record that defeating Trump means moving the party to the right will be out of a job. Everyone who has been dissenting against that script, pointing out that the actual way to defeat Trump is to improve the material conditions of voters, will be vindicated. Expect Democrats to find clever ways to undermine and discredit Mamdani, and other socialist politicians.
Corporate socialism is fine. But do not expect capitalists to tolerate democratic socialism in the capital of capitalism. The Democratic Party might be too weak and confused to call for a general strike, but the billionaire class isn’t. They will go on strike. They will pull their business from New York City, in an attempt to crush residents’ dreams of fairness. To repudiate the possibility that socialism for anyone but the very rich could ever “work” in the US.
Almost no one I know is still ignorant enough to think that capitalism is “natural,” “inevitable,” “logical,” “fair,” “sustainable,” or even “fun.” The few who do are either in their 80s, or happen to have a lot of capital themselves. The question is not whether the human race can be convinced to dislike capitalism, with its oligarchs, its corruption, its greed, its inequalities, and its tyrannies. The question is whether the human race will actively challenge the capitalists who have declared war on them.
It’s not that the human race is too stupid to think of any system that doesn’t end in its own destruction. Most economies that humans have created over the hundreds of thousands of years that our species has walked the earth have not resembled capitalism. Many of these societies existed for much longer than the 500 years capitalism has reigned. The question is whether the human race is clever enough to figure out how to actually dismantle capitalism, and save themselves.
A trillion-dollar enterprise that includes both major political parties and corporate media has been carefully crafted to see that this never happens. An industry of hopelessness and defeatism, meant to convince you that while you personally may agree with democratic socialist policies, your neighbors don’t. To convince you that to vote for a candidate whose beliefs you share is to “waste your vote.” Mamdani’s landslide annihilates that canard.
Billionaires and racists may have bought the leadership of both major US political parties. But this election result is a loud message to everyone that billionaires and racists are not actually invincible. In fact they have glaring weaknesses. In fact the public is less than dazzled by billionaires’ vision of profitable genocides, profitable environmental destruction, profitable mass deportation and detention, profitable AI-assisted militarized policing, and ever-increasing luxury and comfort for themselves.
What do billionaires do with all that money? Just purchase yachts, mansions and weddings? No. They are trying to purchase the entire economy. Every musician can easily see it, because they are living through the result. If you want to be a musician and participate in the music business, you simply have no choice but to go through one or more of a tiny handful of near-monopolies, no matter how sinister their owners.
Though touted as job creators, billionaires can increasingly only be described as job destroyers. They are invested in AI to replace their own workers. They create AI so that other companies can also replace their workers. They are increasingly invested in AI-assisted disinformation, surveillance, chaos, conflict. These are the only ways to keep “growing the economy” once the population can no longer afford their goods and services.
Bringing billionaires down will not come from rehabilitating their image. Courting their donations. Appealing to their sense of right and wrong. Bringing Dick Cheney and other nice war criminals out on stage to endorse you. It also obviously won’t come simply from electing people like Mamdani. He will be deliberately sabotaged every step of the way, by the billionaires, and by both capitalist parties. That is, unless the public sticks to their values, and continually makes an issue of it.
NYC activists and canvassers should be so proud tonight. Not only did they score a major victory in the battle against Islamophobia and billionaire capitalism, but they showed the rest of the country what a mobilized population can do for themselves if they are fearless and energetic. They showed us how to never give in to the defeatist narrative peddled by mainstream media and political discourse.