American democrats need a Hungarian-style landslide to overwhelm Trump’s attempts to rig November’s midterm elections, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
You bring up Zohran Mamdani. You do realize he won by first running in the democratic primary, instead of running third party? That they did do their worst to stop him, and he still succeeded rather decisively? You do realize, that if Mamdani had run third party instead, New York would have a republican Mayor now?
Yeah, but he was fought against by the Dems. His saving grace was Cuomo being the worst candidate you ever want running for you. And they still sided with Cuomo! Now imagine it was a presidential election and the Dems had a passable candidate. They would’ve done their all to stop Mamdani, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think they’d succeed.
The Dems are not leftists, they’re not progressive. They’re a right wing party that doesn’t give two shits about its people. People think they’re progressive because they don’t mind gay people or minorities within their ranks – for now. And they think they’re somewhat on the left because American politics is so fucked that there is no representation whatsoever for leftist politics.
Just because one person succeeded doesn’t mean that more will. Zohran won because he’s principled, skilled and faced a convicted rapist. So either hope for such odds every time, or start a new party with candidates that dont have an instant -100 in trustworthiness because of the D next to their names.
And whatever advantage is gained by not having a D next to your name (Mamdani certainly won despite having a D next to his name) would be lost by having to compete with both the Democrats and the Republicans.
A third party is not viable compared to coopting an existing party.
You bring up Zohran Mamdani. You do realize he won by first running in the democratic primary, instead of running third party? That they did do their worst to stop him, and he still succeeded rather decisively? You do realize, that if Mamdani had run third party instead, New York would have a republican Mayor now?
Yeah, but he was fought against by the Dems. His saving grace was Cuomo being the worst candidate you ever want running for you. And they still sided with Cuomo! Now imagine it was a presidential election and the Dems had a passable candidate. They would’ve done their all to stop Mamdani, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think they’d succeed.
The Dems are not leftists, they’re not progressive. They’re a right wing party that doesn’t give two shits about its people. People think they’re progressive because they don’t mind gay people or minorities within their ranks – for now. And they think they’re somewhat on the left because American politics is so fucked that there is no representation whatsoever for leftist politics.
Just because one person succeeded doesn’t mean that more will. Zohran won because he’s principled, skilled and faced a convicted rapist. So either hope for such odds every time, or start a new party with candidates that dont have an instant -100 in trustworthiness because of the D next to their names.
And whatever advantage is gained by not having a D next to your name (Mamdani certainly won despite having a D next to his name) would be lost by having to compete with both the Democrats and the Republicans.
A third party is not viable compared to coopting an existing party.