I Spy with My Little Eye...the Next Obama!

He's both Ugandan and Indian, with impeccable progressive credentials

Meet Zohran Kwame Mamdani, the next Great Progressive Hope you are supposed to fall in love with.

I’m in Ohio, not New York, so I had never heard of this guy before my favorite New York Jews of

Due Dissidence

pointed him out. I must say he’s the perfect stealth corporatist candidate.

A glance at Wikipedia shows why. Born to Indian parents in Uganda(does anyone hear a bell or two?), his father a professor at Columbia University and his mother an Indian-American filmmaker. They moved to New York City when Zohran was seven.

Zohran graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, the same school from which Union Civil War General Joshua Chamberlain and later Governor of Maine(one of my heroes) attended, in 2014. He worked as a “foreclosure prevention” specialist, helping “people of color” fend off evictions. He joined the Democratic Socialists of America(big orange flag, at least, since DSA is as infiltrated by the FBI as a rotten log is with termites), and somehow got elected to the New York State Assembly.

He loves hip-hop and even helped to create a song that got published. How perfect is that, and why am I thinking of Bill Clinton with a saxophone?

Even more perfect, Mamdani has been a consistent opponent of Israel and supporter of Palestinian rights. Now, he is running for Mayor of New York on a very progressive platform of divesting NYC from all things Israel to public grocery stores to building low-cost public housing on City-owned vacant lots, of which there are many in New York.

Sounds great if you’re anywhere on the left side of the political spectrum, don’t it? Even the socialist skeptics at Due Dissidence felt compelled to endorse him against the execrable Mario Cuomo, though I know damned well they have their doubts, which I hope I am about to feed.

First, AOC endorsed him. Then Bernie Sanders did. For me, who was suckered by Sanders not once, but twice, that’s a

It’s also a brilliantly cynical political ploy if I’m right, and Mamdani himself may not even be aware of what the Democrats have planned for him yet. He may honestly believe in his socialistic principles. He might even make a great mayor for New York.

I mean, New Yorkers could certainly use really affordable housing and farmer’s market-style grocery stores. In Cleveland, we have the West Side Market, which had been city-owned since 1913, and it was great before the city sold out to “non-profits” in one of those infamous public-private partnership things Democrats love so much.

The brilliantly cynical part is the fact that Mamdani is anti-Zionist and thinks New York City should divest from Israel. If he is actually elected Mayor, in New York with its large, politically active Jewish population, that will indicate a sea change in American public opinion that even Benjamin Netanyahu cannot deny.

Surely a good thing. It’s what comes later I’m worried about. A fresh new face who can rightfully claim to be anti-Zionist, and therefore anti-genocide, before it was cool to the DNC. An impeccable progressive who really believes. A candidate for higher office in a few years, either for the US Senate or Governor of New York, with whom Democratic voters can fall in love.

By no later than next year, to be a Zionist in American politics will be the next best thing to the Kiss of Death, and there’s somebody in the DNC or the deep state who knows that. As Obama positioned himself as the anti-imperial war candidate once upon a time—remember that first trip to Egypt and the Nobel Peace Prize?—Mamdani can position himself as the foresighted man with principle who bravely challenged the supporters of genocide and defeated them, because it will be true.

HOWEVER, neither AOC nor Bernie Sanders would have endorsed him without permission from the DNC. Their cowardice and hypocrisy have been well-documented, so keep that in mind. They, or their superiors, think that they can buy off Mamdani somehow, some way, so that if and when he obtains higher office he will be no threat to their power or that of their corporate sponsors.

That is, if he hasn’t been bought off already. I have no way of knowing that, and no evidence of it other than the fact his dad taught at Columbia, which so happens to be one of Obama’s alma maters, but that is in no way conclusive.

It really doesn’t matter much now. What matters is that the oligarchy can rig our elections when it really wants to, and that it is almost impossible for anyone to get elected to higher office in this country without substantial backing from the ruling capitalist class.

I will not presume to tell New Yorkers who to vote for, and I definitely don’t blame Due Dissidence or anyone else for endorsing and voting for him over the known swamp creatures of “Send the Covid patients to nursing homes” Cuomo and Republican cum Democrat cum oozy Trumpian “independent” Adams. Next to them, Mamdani looks like the proverbial knight in shining armor.

I do strongly recommend that New Yorkers, and all Americans who want to see fundamental anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist change, keep a jaundiced eye upon him. Don’t be like I was with Bernie. Don’t believe the surface image without independent and empirical verification.

Don’t forget to follow the money once it appears in the form of campaign contributions.

Especially if Mamdani wins this race.

Thank you for reading, good day or night, and good luck.

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