Sure but those who wield outsized power are clearly the people being referred to when talking about “The Dems”. It’s silly to be making a big point about how The Party is nothing but the members, but also admit that some members have more say than others. In a party called the Democrats no less
Except, quite clearly, those “some members” don’t have more say (i.e., control), seeing as Mamdani ran as a Dem in the primary & won. See also: Obama winning his national primary to run for President. Referring to a faction w/i the Dem Party as the entire Party makes it difficult to fix things!
It's a very powerful faction, the most powerful in fact.
Agreed. But we can’t grapple with them if we throw the baby out w/ the bathwater, and Mamdani is now gathering considerable power for himself & his faction (DSA & adjacent folks). It is a Good Thing™ that Mamdani is winning, & being clear about how that works is how we can replicate his wins!
I admire your optimism, but why did the Democrats line up in favor of Eric Adams when he won the primary but now they have "concerns" about Mamdani? Not trying to be antagonistic but this is gnawing at me 😊
This is Jamelle’s point, that’s not “the Democrats”, that’s a handful of high-profile members. The Party itself, the local & regional clubs, are endorsing Mamdani, and quite a lot of NYC members of the Dem Party were out pounding the pavement for him! A small set of loud assholes isn’t “The Party”
Sadly, to most people, it is. If they have outsized influence, if they are the loudest voices, then they have the most pressure on them to do the right thing and endorse their nominee. At least to send a signal to national Democratic voters, if not to NYC voters specifically.
Some of my in-laws are registered Dems in NYC, and thus are as much The Party™ as Hochul etc., despite being far less influential b/c they’re not famous electeds. There’s millions of folks like that in NYC. So why are we saying “the Party hates Mamdani” when the votes say otherwise?
Because we are talking about the party establishment. Regular Democratic voters love Mamdani. The problem is that the interests of the establishment differ so much from the interests of their own voting base.
That’s a problem, yes, and being clear-eyed about how said establishment (which is really only 1 faction of said establishment) is the only way we deal with them & reclaim elected positions from assholes like Cuomo & Trump. At the end of the day, you need actual votes from voters to win elections.
It's not just one faction, it is the faction that is in control of the party.
Hey Jeff did you vote for Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate?
I sure did.
That was a trick question. Nobody did. There was no primary.
Yes there was. I cast my vote in it here in MA.
When Biden was running?
What state did you do that in? They didn’t run a primary in my state
You have zeroed in on the one thing the Dem Party _actually_ can control, and I’m with you: not having a primary is bullshit.
Okay so we can drop the pretense that we’re all the party. Thanks Jeff
Thinking that the amount of attention that letter from Paterson got was really telling. I don't think anyone has given Paterson a thought since his career flamed out due to bribery 15 years ago, but he sees either Cuomo or a second Adams administration as a path back to relevance.
Oh for sure. Like many, he’s in it for himself & clearly will happily hitch his wagon to the anti-Mamdani faction if it brings him opportunities & power.
It also in no way surprises me that a lot of the opposition seems to be coming from real estate people and the owner of what sounds like a crappy grocery store chain who are ostensibly Democrats, but not in practice.
I'm glad to see most of the party is supporting Mamdani -- he's a solid candidate, seems to be a good person, people are genuinely excited about him and the voters just made him the nominee by a wide margin, both as their first ballot choice and after RCV worked through its iterations.
Me too, and it would be _really_ great if folks would acknowledge that the majority of the Dem Party, shown by an election, supports him & wants him to win! I deal w/ loud minorities a lot in pro-housing work, this is another version of the same thing. A loud but tiny set of assholes.
So your most serious opinion is that money and influence do not matter in politics? And elections occur in a binary where money and influence can only win or lose you an election rather than close gaps in voting results?
See, the REAL members of the Democratic party aren't the elected politicians and staffers and officials. It's the fair-weather big money donors with no institutional role trying to force the party to do what they want via waving their money around who are the REAL Democrats.
A+ sarcasm, would read again
A number of prominent Republicans denounced Donald Trump in 2016 and yet by any meaningful analysis the Republican Party supported him