Who's Afraid of the Progressive Future?
Guest Post by Mark Burleigh
I took a week off to sell seashells by the seashore and left the Freakshow to a guest poster - my very smart and funny brother Mark. Mark spent several decades in the pits of the Chicago Board of Trade, emerged morally unwarped by capitalism, and now teaches junior high science to kids at a public school in one of the underprivileged Chicago neighborhoods the MAGA right routinely derides as a lost cause. Here’s his take on the Democratic Party Establishment Freakout over New York Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani:
Apparently there has been a communist takeover of New York City. Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist and a Muslim man to boot, has won the Democratic mayoral primary. And people are losing their minds. Multimillionaire New Yorkers, terrified of a two percent tax hike, are shrieking “Pack the Louis Vuittons, Jeebs! We’re relocating to Des Moines!”
One CNBC anchor even compared Mamdani to a Batman villain. If that’s the case, then evil megalomaniacs have really lowered their standards. The Joker plotted to mind-control an entire city with laughing gas while he ran off with all the gold in Fort Knox. Now, the heinous plan is cheap public transportation?
The fear-mongering from the public relations wing of the one percent is no surprise. But the true measure of whether Mamdani is the real deal is how the Democratic establishment reacts. The Democratic establishment freakout suggests Mamdani might actually mean what he says. It seems that some of the powers that be in the DNC will never fail to smear, downplay, and sometimes outright cheat anyone who dares to be an actual progressive.
Remember when the once Democratic rising star and now Trump darling Tulsi Gabbard knocked Kamala Harris out of the race in the first debate with some very uncomfortable truths? The debate threshold goalposts were immediately shifted, and Gabbard was left out of further debates, effectively ending her campaign. And while Gabbard is no progressive and certainly no saint, it bears noting that Democrats chose to fiddle with the rules rather than actually engage with her claims about Harris’s actions as a prosecutor.
The chicanery surrounding both of Bernie Sanders’ campaigns is well known. And last month, school shooting survivor and outspoken progressive David Hogg was elected as DNC vice chair and then promptly recalled and ousted after suggesting Democratic politicians who vote like Republicans be primaried.
How dare he!
Now, it’s Mamdani. First up was Kirsten Gillibrand on NPR painting him as a dangerous Jihadi wannabe. Then came Eric Swalwell with more of the same. When Hakeem Jeffries was asked about an endorsement, he stated he did not know Mamdani personally and so could not give his support at the time. This was the Democratic leader of the House speaking of the Democratic candidate for mayor of the city he represents. As if Jeffries goes golfing and to the movies with every person he has ever endorsed.
Look for resistance coming from some interesting and unlikely places. The DNC spends a lot of time and money keeping progressive candidates or whole progressive parties off ballots. I lived through this when a very forward-thinking local politician had a chance to win the Illinois 5th district. The DNC flew in Rahm Emanuel, galvanized the machine, and sent out an army of old machine door knockers – aldermanic aides, political interns, and a fleet of Streets and Sanitation workers (that’s how we do it in Chicago). Needless to say, the outcome was inevitable.
The same brutal game is behind the nationwide anti-progressive whack-a-mole. The party’s seeming antipathy for progressive ideas coupled with a very cozy relationship with the uber-rich (more billionaires endorsed Harris than Trump) is turning off average voters.
The DNC sidelines progressives and assists incumbents who vote against publicly stated party policies. There are always just enough of these aisle crossers to derail any piece of good legislation that gets near the finish line in Congress.
The progressive caucus in the House has almost 100 members, yet it can’t seem to hold any power. Even The Squad, Fox News hosts’ go-to boogeymen, have repeatedly stated they do not vote as a bloc. This allows for the tried and true “rotating villain” policy: politicians take turns voting against a progressive bill and then voting for the next few in order to get their credibility back.
The sad thing about this is that lifelong liberals praise this strategy. They say it proves the Democrats are independent thinkers and not robots voting in lockstep with the party bosses like the GOP.
Imagine meeting Kyrsten Sinema after her infamous thumbs-down (and middle finger up) vote to kill the minimum wage hike and saying “Well, you screwed over millions of low-wage workers, but I admire your bravery!” That’s the logic we’re working with here.
The Democrat tactic of losing progressive proposals by one or two votes brings to mind a conversation I had some years back. I knew a man who was involved with (illegal at the time) organized gambling. He explained how to go about fixing a boxing match. He said you don’t go to the fighter who you want to win the bout. Instead, you go to the fighter who you want to lose and tell him (or her) to make it look good but go down in the 8th round.
That’s the sad fate of so many pieces of progressive legislation, whether increased minimum wage or tax hikes for corporations. Democrats get this close only to fall one or two votes short.
True progressives expose the false facade of fighting for the people. And that’s why Mr. Mamdani with his “free bus rides for the masses” policy is going to catch a lot of friendly fire in the next few months.
It is beyond shameful to see the number of Democrats who slag Mamdani, who would not appear radical in most developed democracies. And why not back a winner - someone who can beat Cuomo and the others so thoroughly clearly has some momentum that the party sadly needs these days?
The suggestion by Rs (and not very energetically rebutted by Ds) that Mamdani must be a terrorist because he is Muslim is beyond shameful, but the more it is allowed to circulate by people who should be resisting it, the more harm it will do.
One man can't make a revolution anyway. Make him mayor (the country and the world need a breath of fresh air these days) and see what he can do with the council and the state. Well worth a try.
Democrats routinely eat their own. That's one issue with a big tent party: too many factions. The upside of a party with no moral compass is that they vote as a unit. It's only about power. And God. And grievance. If you can tick those boxes, you're in. They don't care who it is.