Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté Full episode: Why Trump Threatened to DEPORT Zohran Mamdani
Episode webpage: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-episode-why-trump-threatened
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté Full episode: Why Trump Threatened to DEPORT Zohran Mamdani
Episode webpage: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-episode-why-trump-threatened
Since commenting I listened to the podcast (the truncated version from their RSS feed). Something I would like to know more about: they mentioned that at some point, he said he would only continue his run if he was endorsed by the DSA. It sounded like endorsement wasn’t a certainty. He wasn’t sure if they would approve him. There was also some discussion about how nobody thought a leftist could win such a big prize, that it would just be embarrassing to suffer yet another loss. So some people in DSA were at least against it for that reason; they wanted to focus on smaller and more obtainable goals.
As I understood it, he got going, then approached DSA for an endorsement. Rather than being “sent” by DSA which is sort of how I had heard it before. I don’t know if his candidacy being contingent on DSA endorsement was due to a political conviction about organization, or needing logistical backing. How responsible was DSA for these 40k canvassers? I assume they were not just in a position to muster a force like that off the bat. But it could be that they were key in recruitment/training. Training 40k people to not make total assess of themselves is very impressive.
Sometimes politicians are members of all sorts of groups, more like a paper membership to show affiliation. I think in this case it’s more active. Is there any mechanism of accountability in place here? If Mamdani is elected mayor and he does something totally contrary to the DSA, what do they do about it? Does he plan to consult them when he’s in power? Will they have any influence?
Also what’s it like to be in the NY DSA right now? Does everyone in NYC know about DSA and that he is an active member? is DSA recruiting from the 40k canvassers? Are new people showing up to their meetings? And how many of them are spies sent by Bill Ackman?
It’s nice to think of the Overton window as something other than a euphemism for normalizing fascism.
There’s no way NYC-DSA wasn’t recruiting from the volunteer pool and seeing an increase in meeting turnout during the campaign. Idk how many and how much of a priority it was though.
I’d assume NYC-DSA already has spies running surveillance for the NYPD already. Its only wreckers/saboteurs trying to get into leadership positions that you have to worry about.
In the Jacobin podcast interview with DSA they briefly said their signups were increased but the way they said the numbers was a bit unclear to me. Maybe it doubled? Fair to assume many/most of those people joined because they were involved in political activity, already had experience, and are looking for more. On the other hand they might also be fairweather joining due to a specific successful project.
But I didn’t get the impression that recruitment was a big motivation. Not that emphasizing it would have been a good idea to whatever extent it was the case.
I think it’s a genuine movement. I want to believe the fascist right can’t win forever, that people will rise up and chant def 2 da eye dee eff. We absolutely need to organize unionize and strike FAM that is the only way