Mamdani Versus The Fear Mongers

In the immediate aftermath of the Z-man’s victory, I was basking in a good-vibe glow, feeling optimistic about the future.

A fairly rare, almost unrecognizable feeling these day. For all the obvious reasons.

Then my dear friend Mick Dumke--aka, the good-vibe buster--brought me down to earth with the following text...

“Will Adams do what Epton couldn’t?”

I knew exactly what Mick was getting at. But for the rest of you, here’s a fast annotation…

The Z-man is what I've been affectionately calling Zohran Mamdani, since it became apparent to me he could actually beat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary for mayor of New York City.

As he did last Tuesday. Hence, the good-vibe glow.

Adams is Eric Adams, the current mayor of New York, who will be among the candidates running against Mamdani in November’s general election.

Epton is Bernard Epton, the Republican candidate for mayor of Chicago. He came within a whisker of beating Harold Washington in 1983 by scaring white Democrats into doing something they’d never done before–vote Republican.

Mick was asking whether Adams could pull an Epton to beat Mandami. That is, scare New Yorkers into voting against the Democratic candidate.

Specifically, Adams would be looking to scare Jewish New Yorkers--though I'm sure he'd take the vote of any frightened voter he could get. 

Mayor Harold Washington and friend...

I can almost hear his campaign slogan: Adams–before it’s too late.  An update of the line Epton used against Washington.

Classic backlash politics--been fighting it my whole adult life.

Fire up the fears. Once people are scared, they're easier to control. Get them to do stupid things they may later regret.

As many white Chicagoans actually did. At least, there was a time in the ‘90s when I had a hard time finding anyone who admitted they voted for Epton over Washington. Mostly, they said they couldn't remember.

Funny how memory can come and go. 

If Adams scares enough voters, he can win. Thus re-electing a mayor who was indicted on federal bribery charges. Which the feds dropped after that mayor started kissing Trump’s big old bootie.

Though Adams and Trump say there’s no correlation between the charge dropping and the bootie kissing. Just a coincidence, I guess.

There’s a lot of material for the fear mongers to work with in the New York election.

Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist. He is a Muslim. He supports Palestinian rights. 

I can already see the mongers revving up their hate machines. Will they succeed?

I'm not a good person to ask. As a lifelong lefty, I have an inferiority complex. A sinking suspicion that anyone I support will automatically lose. Just cause people like me support them.

I know--it's a lousy outlook for life. My recommendation to myself is to change--before it's too late.

On the other hand...

With this election, the mongers will be a disadvantage cause it it looks like Cuomo will stay in the race, running as an independent.

Meaning you’d have two fear mongers splitting up the mongered vote. Three–if you count Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate.

They'll all try to out do each other into scaring the shit out of New Yorkers.

Beware, my friends. It’s gonna get ugly.