Discussion
👨🏻This candidate is the Zohran Mamdani of [city]!
👨🏿Oh! They're Indian?
👨🏻No...
👨🏿They're Muslim?
👨🏻Also no.
👨🏿An immigrant?
👨🏻No.
👨🏿They were born in Africa?
👨🏻No!
👨🏿African middle name?
👨🏻No!!
👨🏿They hang out with a lot of Black people?
👨🏻No!!!
👨🏿They like Black people?
👨🏻Just vote Blue, OK?!
@mekkaokereke so to call some candidate the Zohran Mamdani of [wherever] to me means the smartest, most compassionate candidate.
It matters most, I feel, more than religion or culture. And your compassion and intelligence is why I follow you.
I wish it were true that the smartest, most compassionate candidate is all that matters! But unfortunately it's not.
I should clarify one big difference between Mamdani and Katie Wilson as candidates. It's a big reason for why Dems fail so often, and why Bernie never had a chance at being president, and never will, why Biden could never win again, and why AOC is much more popular than Bernie even though they say the same things, and why the DSA is so unsuccessful in the US, even though many of their policies are popular.
But I'm such a big tease! We'll get back to that in a second. First, I want to point out some things that Mamdani faced that Katie Wilson didn't: racism, xenophobia, and Islamaphobia. And not from the GOP, from the Dem base, and the major Dem donors. That hate didn't just spring up. It was always there. The constant dispronouncing of his name.
"The name is Mamdani."
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/h7q3EmbSqO0
A lot of fans of the DSA like the "It's not race, it's class" line of thinking that seeks to ignore the racist attacks that Black people and Black candidates face.
Bernie fans get online with their whole government names, and feel completely comfortable cursing Black women out online even more than Trump fans. Bernie bros are the worst. Bernie is the worst. AOC is popular because she basically says what Bernie says, without pissing off Black people, and speaking up for us most of the time.
Mamdani was less apologetic in his defense of African people and immigrants than we've seen before in candidates.
Folks that decry "identity politics" believe that pointing out the difference between Katie Wilson and Mamdani based on where they were born and what they look like, seeks to discredit her ideas. It doesn't. Or that it seeks to boost Mamdani's ideas because he is brown. Again, no.
Mamdani was brilliant in the way that he deflected racist attacks from centrist Dems, and the way that he refused to let Indian and African heritage be something that he was afraid of. He refused to go on defense.
Bock to the point:
DSA fails so often, and Dems fail so often, because they don't acknowledge the latent racism in their base and their platform, that tilts the scale away from Black and brown candidates.
This was me watching how smoothly and easily all the centrist Dems slid into Southern strategy style racism and Islamaphobia to try to get Cuomo the win.
I'm sure that Katie Wilson is a great candidate, and I'm sure that her policies are great. But calling her the "Mamdani of the Medina," does her a disservice, and completely ignores the central issues in Mamdani's victory.
A DSA fan that doesn't understand why so many Black voters don't like Bernie, might think that Mamdani's philosophy is "All I know is make TikTok and tax billionaire!" But it's much deeper than that. Mamdani locked horns with racists in the Democratic party and won. Unapologetically himself.
@mekkaokereke thank you for your perspective. I admit, living in Germany I only get a Birds Eye view, and appreciate how you expand my own sight of things.
@mekkaokereke I will not be surprised when Trump shares an AI music video of himself rapping under the name MC Mango Mamdani.
@mekkaokereke #VoteBlueNoMatterWho is how you get chucklefucks like #Fetterman
@mekkaokereke So, this Seattle woman?
@mekkaokereke they are excruciatingly allergic to authenticity.
@mekkaokereke zohran mamdani is also a DSAer
@mekkaokereke New England be like:
[unremarkable boomer lawyer DINO who peaked as a high school jock and will get every single city employee in the Democratic primary and has been your mayor for at least a decade] is [your city]'s Mamdani.
@mekkaokereke "we don't really get why he's so popular, but we're sure we can channel it!"
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