Well, you see what they are doing to Mamdani. Bipartisan, fully backed by the oligarchy and increasingly hysterical mainstream media.
Cant have anyone up for election that isnt approved by the ruling class. We will see if Mamdani even survives until the election or of he gets assassinated before.
Bipartisan, fully backed by the oligarchy and increasingly hysterical mainstream media.
I mean, other than the usual suspects (Fox, CNN), not really sure I’d call the coverage of Mamdani hysterical. Nor would I really call the opposition to Mamdani bipartisan - at most, I’d say that most of the neoliberal ghouls of the Dem old guard are keeping him at arm’s length at the moment, which, considering he’s literally the Dem candidate for one of the most important cities in the country, is unfuckingconsciable, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also not joining arms with the panicked drumbeating of the GOP. Which, tbh, has been absolutely hilarious to watch so far.
Cant have anyone up for election that isnt approved by the ruling class. We will see if Mamdani even survives until the election or of he gets assassinated before.
I think you both overestimate the willingness of the current spineless (for once in our favor) political class to resort to outright political murder, and the importance of the position of mayor of a single city, no matter how important. Even in moderately authoritarian regimes outright enemies of the regime can manage to win important municipal elections. The current vile behavior of the fascists in government is still, at the moment, predicated on deniability and limited adherence to established procedures (particularly, the use of government officials - ICE - to perform their unlawful detainments) which lend the regime legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate.
Authoritarian regimes can be very funny about this (not ha-ha funny, unfortunately); in the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, for example, you could have your fingernails torn out, or be outright tortured to death (illegally, according to the laws of the Soviet Union), but without a written and signed confession, even one literally flecked with blood, the criminal trial against a Soviet citizen very often would not be able to go forward. The line between “I told the NKVD to go fuck themselves long enough that they did” and “I told the NKVD to go fuck themselves long enough that they put a bullet in my head” is thin, but the uncertainty inherent in authoritarian regimes works against them - no one knows when someone is going to be made a scapegoat for PR reasons, so no one wants to be the one who interrupts demonstrable, documented, or public procedure, even if they don’t actually give a single good goddamn about the law as a principle.
Now, Mamdani being stripped of his citizenship and disqualified from running? That is, bizarrely and concerningly, a very real threat, even if one I still think is overall unlikely at the moment.
Well, you see what they are doing to Mamdani. Bipartisan, fully backed by the oligarchy and increasingly hysterical mainstream media.
Cant have anyone up for election that isnt approved by the ruling class. We will see if Mamdani even survives until the election or of he gets assassinated before.
Bitching about him?
I mean, other than the usual suspects (Fox, CNN), not really sure I’d call the coverage of Mamdani hysterical. Nor would I really call the opposition to Mamdani bipartisan - at most, I’d say that most of the neoliberal ghouls of the Dem old guard are keeping him at arm’s length at the moment, which, considering he’s literally the Dem candidate for one of the most important cities in the country, is unfuckingconsciable, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also not joining arms with the panicked drumbeating of the GOP. Which, tbh, has been absolutely hilarious to watch so far.
I think you both overestimate the willingness of the current spineless (for once in our favor) political class to resort to outright political murder, and the importance of the position of mayor of a single city, no matter how important. Even in moderately authoritarian regimes outright enemies of the regime can manage to win important municipal elections. The current vile behavior of the fascists in government is still, at the moment, predicated on deniability and limited adherence to established procedures (particularly, the use of government officials - ICE - to perform their unlawful detainments) which lend the regime legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate.
Authoritarian regimes can be very funny about this (not ha-ha funny, unfortunately); in the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, for example, you could have your fingernails torn out, or be outright tortured to death (illegally, according to the laws of the Soviet Union), but without a written and signed confession, even one literally flecked with blood, the criminal trial against a Soviet citizen very often would not be able to go forward. The line between “I told the NKVD to go fuck themselves long enough that they did” and “I told the NKVD to go fuck themselves long enough that they put a bullet in my head” is thin, but the uncertainty inherent in authoritarian regimes works against them - no one knows when someone is going to be made a scapegoat for PR reasons, so no one wants to be the one who interrupts demonstrable, documented, or public procedure, even if they don’t actually give a single good goddamn about the law as a principle.
Now, Mamdani being stripped of his citizenship and disqualified from running? That is, bizarrely and concerningly, a very real threat, even if one I still think is overall unlikely at the moment.