Of all the democratic socialists who piled into a Manhattan church on Wednesday evening, none had the cachet of the man handed a microphone toward the meeting’s close.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani offered some pleasantries — “Hello friends, Zohran, he/him, Queens D.S.A.” — before launching into his mission: torpedoing the candidacy of a left-leaning ally, Councilman Chi Ossé, who is attempting to unseat Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat.
The remarkable scene was both a reflection of the tricky political calculuses Mr. Mamdani confronts as he prepares to take office next year and the egalitarian nature of a group that served as the grass-roots organizing machine of his political success.
It’s a vote over resources and the the fact that Chi is an opportunist.
DSA does not have infinite time and money and volunteers. They need to pick and choose what they support and where they spend their energy. Chi only re-joined because he saw them win with Mamdani, after having joined and quit 2 years ago, with rumours about him talking shit about DSA.
Mamdani should not be endorsing Jeffries, he should be doing what Jeffries did and be talking about “having conversations”. But that doesn’t mean DSA needs to back Osse.
Chi is a DSA member. If the DSA let him join then they should have screened him. Also Chi has a pretty good track record.
Funny how joining the DSA is “opportunistic” now. As if Chi is a literal top AIPAC recipient with a track record of selling our and corruption.
No wait that would be Jeffries.
Mamdani shutting up would be one thing but he actively works for Jeffries against the DSA and Chi Osse.
Again, Chi literally already joined and quit 2 years ago, and has literally stated he only re-joined because he thought they could win. Do you think as DSA gets wins like Mamdani there wouldn’t be opportunists looking to benefit off the back of DSA helping a campaign? It’s already happened. There have been people that got into office off of the work of DSA then shit on them in office. People need to prove themselves. not just just join an org then immediately expect everyone to get on board on their personal campaign straight away. Do you understand how building trust works, especially when you’ve already broken that trust previously?
He left 5 years ago, shortly after joining and not quite knowing what he was getting into. That’s quite some time, especially given his acquaintance and involvement with Mamdani and his campaign before rejoining. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the DSA was, five years ago, different than what we know now and Mamdani promoted
https://socialisttribune.substack.com/p/why-we-should-not-endorse-chi-osse
“Not knowing what he was getting into” is absolute horseshit.
Having connections higher up is not a good basis for endorsing and devoting resources to someone who only rejoined for explicitly opportunist purposes (free labour for my personal campaign).
It’s no different, and Mamdani was a member and active part of DSA five years ago, and remained such, hence why he was able to get far more backing.
But it’s wild to use Mamdani as reason to back Osse whilst criticising and attacking Mamdani, who has more of a background working in and with DSA than Osse, who has literally rejoined for opportunist purposes by his own admission.
I don’t see how your quote contradicts “not knowing what he was getting into”. Leaving so soon after joining for non-alignment sounds like he thought the DSA was something that aligned when he first joined.
Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I meant more “life experiences that influence beliefs at a personal level”.
That could either mean what you’re inferring or that the DSA allows quality pluralism in its members’ beliefs. Mamdani back then did not have the influence within the DSA he has now.
You would notice from my other reply that I only hold one of these contrary beliefs.
There is no screening to join the DSA. As long as you pay the membership dues, you’re a member. I think it’s fair that they solicit all the monetary contributions they can in the Citizens United climate that is US campaigning. IIRC, in the US you cannot expel someone’s party registration, only deny them from the ballot line. Though “DSA is not a political party, but a non-profit activist organization.”, this seems emblematic of how in general party discipline is lax in the United States, perhaps due to the shadow of Tammany Hall.
I definitely agree on Osse having a good track record, though. He
is a friend of Mamdani anddoes not seem like an opportunist even if the timing is indeed suspect. Still, I feel like any replacement for Jeffries as Minority Leader would be much worse than he is.Edit: I swear I saw somewhere that he was a friend of Mamdani. I can’t find that info anymore.
I’m not entirely against his campaign but he is most definitely an opportunist. He was elected into city council from the profile he built from BLM protests where he used social media to broadcast videos.
A lot of change happened under BLM.