A Tale of Two Cities: New York and Seattle |
Katie Wilson, mayor-elect of Seattle. Screenshot of a video posted to Youtube.
“It was the best of times” – two democratic socialists elected mayors of New York and Seattle – “it was the worst of times” – Donald Trump is still president and opposition has failed to materialize nationally. Yet the elections of Zohran Mamdani in New York and Katie Wilson in Seattle suggest that something positive may be emerging. Is progressive politics starting to take hold and the Democratic Party’s old guard fading? Or are the two elections simply bicoastal phenomena limited to the local rather than the national?
Every day I receive emails like this: “Good morning, fellow Democrats. Please don’t click away from this brief message. We’d like to share a few updates with you: We’re getting closer and closer to the midterms — our chance to take back Congress and check Trump’s power. With that in mind, we’re asking you to contribute $7 to the DNC today to help us elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”
All the messages do is to ask for money and lambast Trump. Where are the ideas? Where is a vision that reflects the Mamdani and Wilson victories?
Fintan O’Toole proposes a new vision in his passionate review of Kamala Harris’ 107 Days in The New York Review of Books. He begins with the obvious, “the Democrats do not need reruns of the disaster movie but a sharp and urgent understanding of why they failed and how they can fight back.” The above DNC request is an obvious example of the lack of a “sharp........