A week after the “political tsunami” in New York City, where three Zohran Mamdani-endorsed DSA candidates won House seats—there’s an election in November, but in blue cities the primary is tantamount to final victory—I’ve little idea what it means for the midterms and presidential race in two years. My suspicion, rooted in history and following politics since 1966, is that the lousy economy will drive voters, but if the “progressive left” blankets TV with incendiary advertising, proposing—demanding—punitive higher taxes, cutting all ties with Israel, abolishing ICE and nationalizing industries, what looked to be a huge Democratic win will be diminished. But that “suspicion” might be as outdated as the thought that Luigi Mangione and Tyler Robinson would be quickly convicted for their assassinations of Brian Thompson and Charlie Kirk. (I’ll add “alleged assassinations,” since almost nothing today is concrete.)
One bet I’d make is that there’s no way—26 years after Joe Lieberman was tapped as Al Gore’s running mate, to wide acclaim (not mine: Lieberman was a censor-happy scold)—Jews like Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro and Georgia’s Sen. Jon Ossoff have zero chance of being on the Democratic presidential ticket. In The Wall Street Journal last week, Matthew Hennessey, in a torturous “sweet science” metaphor, wrote that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) “is the only Democrat who seems to understand the threat [of the DSA].
He writes: “Democrats in Washington have been so busy shadow-boxing with phantom fascism, they left themselves exposed. They misjudged the quality of the challenge from the Democratic Socialists of America. It wasn’t the fight they expected—or trained for… If party stalwarts don’t start counterpunching soon, they won’t go the distance. They’ll be lucky to hear the man count 10.”
I think Hennessey (generally conservative) overestimates the influence of Fetterman, a staunch ally of Israel who’s gained support among some Republicans, even though he says he won’t switch parties. But in this confusing political moment, Fetterman will be laughed off the talk shows by the likes of Mamdani and pro-DSA pundits from The New York Times. In 2022 he defeated the compromised Dr. Oz by a small margin; in 2028, who’d be surprised to see a more “progressive” Democrat challenge him in the primary?
On the other side of the media’s political spectrum, The New York Times’ left-wing columnist Michelle Goldberg, an enthusiastic Mamdani supporter, wrote that she’s not fully on-board with DSA-backed candidates across the country (I don’t really believe her and think that her declaration that “as someone who desperately wants to see Republicans beaten, I’ll admit I’m anxious watching Democrats stake so much on a strategy of left-wing audacity” was cover for Times readers who are less doctrinaire). She writes: “[T]he 2026 midterms could a giant national experiment that tests the populist left’s theory of victory.” (Sidebar: why does every election, at least since Trump won in 2016, have to be called a “giant national experiment?” I see that every week and it just reminds me of messing around with chemistry kits as a kid for science classes and hoping I wouldn’t blow off a finger.)
Goldberg continues, after taking a swipe at the odious Avila Chevalier, “a prison abolitionist” who called Biden a rapist and is militantly anti-Israel, “Many Democratic primary voters, however, are in no mood for defensiveness. As they see it, they’ve been failed by a cautious, compromising establishment, and they’re going to overthrow it. The Democratic version of the Tea Party is here.”
She could’ve had the grace to name some of those Democratic members of the establishment—Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Edward Markey, the Clintons, Tim Kaine, Wes Moore and Amy Klobuchar and the Obamas (happily descending into irrelevance—but Michele From Brooklyn isn’t dignified or gracious, just another NYT pundit who condescends to “regular” readers and two years ago was an official at “Kamp Kamalot.”
Crazier than even Goldberg is Times “contributing Opinion writer” Molly Jong-Fast, who’s petrified that left-wing celebrities are now afraid of speaking up, lest they’re attacked by those polka-dotted meanies on the right. That’s “breaking news” to me, but I’m just a “normie” who isn’t in Jong-Fast’s sphere. She writes: “We look to our cultural figures to show us how to fight back against the pressure to stay silent, to give us the words to say what we’re seeing isn’t normal.”
She attended the June 7th Tony Awards and was distressed that the celebrities, in her view, went mute about politics. Why, even Mark Ballas—I’d never heard of him—of Dancing With the Stars, told Jong-Fast he was “not here to talk about politics.” And there goes “The Resistance”!
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023