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.
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.