Major leaders in the Democratic party – including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and NY Governor Kathy Hochul – have still refused to endorse Democratic nominee for New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, despite him winning the primary fair and square.
In this ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview, Mehdi presses Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, on the matter. Jones admits, “If you were a Democratic leader, it’s hard to not endorse a Democratic nominee.”
“The mayor of New York’s got a whole bunch of folks that he’s got to deal with in order to get New York where he wants it to be,” Jones explains. “And that’s going to take some ability to compromise. If he [Mamdani] does that, he can be successful. So let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Ability to compromise, or willingness to accept bribes? If your platform is people first, which his seems to be, who would the compromise be with, exactly?
Other . . people?
I think it is likely that the implied compromises would be made with the capital class, not the working class. That’s the distinction I was aiming for and deriding. In keeping with that line of thought: if corporations are people, then I suppose yes, other people.
I’m sure he’ll find there’s compromises to be made at any level. Sure, capital class which - for a mayor I guess - would be the high-dollar contractors and consultants the city pays, but also the neighborhood groups and the food service groups and so on. You can piss off some of them but not all the time, and you can’t piss off all of them any time.
I have no issue with that take, and I agree with you there.
I may have an unfairly uncharitable view, but that’s not what I believe he meant. If he did, I would withdraw my smarm.