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WHY AM I EVEN AWARE OF ONE OF YOUR (NOT EVEN) MAYORS?? WAS RATBOY NOT ENOUGH??
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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chapotraphouse
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those "falling for it" = the large number of (well-intentioned) socialists who are now saying "wow we need to do Mamdani style campaigns everywhere!" and insisting that organisations that could be doing better work with their manpower throw themselves into stupid electoralism because of this
and of course we can't ignore that his politics might breathe new life into a Democratic party that was looking to be on its last legs
basically it's not particularly good to have socialist organising be redirected towards electoralism as the primary field of political struggle, and the hyper-focus on Mamdani and candidates like him achieves that. if he was a candidate running under the name of an actual independent party which could hold him to certain lines and not just have him end up being a new flavour of Democrat, that would be different.
Zohran Mamdani represents something in political energy and discourse that socialists would be foolish to write off as bourgeois electoralism. It's possible to engage with that energy to productive ends, even without believing that his tactics are ultimately going to be successful.
As socialists, it's our duty to understand every twist and turn of the history of struggle in our country. Like it or not, Zohran Mamdani is now a relevant part of that history.
yeah and my point is that this phase of his career is now over. now the game is to point out his issues, point out the deficiencies in the "democratic" structure that make it impossible for him to actually be the figure people wanted him to be. push further left and push for strengthening independent socialist organisations rather than subjugating them to the Democratic apparatus. people who want to keep backing him at this point will end up in the same dustbin as those who still back Bernie and AOC.
Why should we do this prior to him winning? If our whole point is to point out the contradictions in electoralism, wouldn’t it make more sense to get him to office and then point out and say “see? You can win as a socialist and the system will still prevent you from affecting change.”
I’m anti-electoralism but I don’t get this position. Doesn’t Lenin write that we should participate in it to highlight its contradictions?