Johnson and his supporters need to grapple with the inexperience and ineffectiveness that quickly undermined his administration's legitimacy. For example, there's nothing progressive about trying to set up a shelter for New Arrivals on a toxic Superfund site.
The issue for Johnson and, likely, Mamdani is partly that the opposition tends to be better organized. But it's also that progressive ideas typically have support of a large minority, not a majority. In other words, the majority of people and interests will oppose a very progressive agenda. Most progressive mayoral candidates end up winning by competing in a multi-candidate field where they can win with a plurality. The biggest mistake is thinking that plurality support in a primary and/or general election will magically translate into majority support when governing.
This underlines Waleed's points: assume the opposition will be well organized and figure out how to compete with them. But the article acts as if the only impediment is opposition communication when it's actually structural: most people oppose these views.
This is what has cemented the desires of the 1% over the needs of the 99%. Now that Trump is busy dismantling government for the sake of the 1% the situation has worsened. Because the 1% has unlimited disposable income, anything can be afforded without diminishing their lifestyle in the least. Short of enlisting members of the 1% on the side of we the people, the primary way to assert the power of the people is through voting. That this is not enough by itself is exactly the point of this essay. Thank you for posting it as an educational piece for all of us who are watching our country being taken away from the many for the few.
What does any of your comment have to do with the fact that Brandon Johnson is currently pulling at 8% popularity and has done some disastrously terrible budget things that might bankrupt Chicago? He’s literally being sued by Black residence of Chicago right now.
Thank you for stating not just the obvious but what the progressive wing locally and nationally will not accept. That in this and in previous progressive leadership in Chicago, the citizens have been conditioned to NOT push for details of policy proposals during campaigns but to get dragged into the "vibe." Then, when the happy horses*#t campaign promises turn out to require changes the voters don't want, they rebel. This is not a conspiracy of some centrist cabal. This is about promising fairy tale results that cannot feasiblly be delivered in a democracy of compromise not between the 1% and the 99% but between interest groups aligned around values, around class, around race, around economics, etc. And those intersect in ways that do not neatly fall in line with the political spectrum. From my vantage point, I think the failure of progressives to be honest in their communications is actually the problem, not the efforts of the opposition. For example, the teen Takeovers downtown. Anyone not horrified by teenagers jumping on top of occupied cars stuck in rush hour traffic - just normal people like your neighbors or your friends - is either in deep denial or is not willing to admit those actions are not teens "not having anywhere to go" but was an actual if unspoken act of protest. My evidence: there has never been an equivalent teen takeover by Hispanic teens. Explain that? When Johnson stood in front of cameras and said no one should shame the teens or parents when hundreds of the former mobilzed downtown, he took a position almost no Chicagoan agreed with. We are proud of our city and attacking innocent people and property anywhere is not justified. Progressives are resolute in "never talking out of school" about such inconvenient truths. That is why Mayor Johnson is at historic low polling. He sold the voters a bill of goods he cannot deliver on and is willing to let Chicagoans suffer in their feelings of economic and personal safety to satisfy a union that thinks they are elected government. If progressives want to enact real change, it requires very basic acts: tell the truth, even when it makes your side look bad; be willing to take half a loaf if that is what is possible as it is way better than nothing; and stop with the conspiracy theories at the heart of this post. It makes all of you no different than MAGA .
Thank you for writing this, too many people are unaware and even if Mamdani is not the bystanders will definitely benefit from realizing how often this is playing out
Johnson and his supporters need to grapple with the inexperience and ineffectiveness that quickly undermined his administration's legitimacy. For example, there's nothing progressive about trying to set up a shelter for New Arrivals on a toxic Superfund site.
The issue for Johnson and, likely, Mamdani is partly that the opposition tends to be better organized. But it's also that progressive ideas typically have support of a large minority, not a majority. In other words, the majority of people and interests will oppose a very progressive agenda. Most progressive mayoral candidates end up winning by competing in a multi-candidate field where they can win with a plurality. The biggest mistake is thinking that plurality support in a primary and/or general election will magically translate into majority support when governing.
This underlines Waleed's points: assume the opposition will be well organized and figure out how to compete with them. But the article acts as if the only impediment is opposition communication when it's actually structural: most people oppose these views.
This is what has cemented the desires of the 1% over the needs of the 99%. Now that Trump is busy dismantling government for the sake of the 1% the situation has worsened. Because the 1% has unlimited disposable income, anything can be afforded without diminishing their lifestyle in the least. Short of enlisting members of the 1% on the side of we the people, the primary way to assert the power of the people is through voting. That this is not enough by itself is exactly the point of this essay. Thank you for posting it as an educational piece for all of us who are watching our country being taken away from the many for the few.
What does any of your comment have to do with the fact that Brandon Johnson is currently pulling at 8% popularity and has done some disastrously terrible budget things that might bankrupt Chicago? He’s literally being sued by Black residence of Chicago right now.
Thank you for stating not just the obvious but what the progressive wing locally and nationally will not accept. That in this and in previous progressive leadership in Chicago, the citizens have been conditioned to NOT push for details of policy proposals during campaigns but to get dragged into the "vibe." Then, when the happy horses*#t campaign promises turn out to require changes the voters don't want, they rebel. This is not a conspiracy of some centrist cabal. This is about promising fairy tale results that cannot feasiblly be delivered in a democracy of compromise not between the 1% and the 99% but between interest groups aligned around values, around class, around race, around economics, etc. And those intersect in ways that do not neatly fall in line with the political spectrum. From my vantage point, I think the failure of progressives to be honest in their communications is actually the problem, not the efforts of the opposition. For example, the teen Takeovers downtown. Anyone not horrified by teenagers jumping on top of occupied cars stuck in rush hour traffic - just normal people like your neighbors or your friends - is either in deep denial or is not willing to admit those actions are not teens "not having anywhere to go" but was an actual if unspoken act of protest. My evidence: there has never been an equivalent teen takeover by Hispanic teens. Explain that? When Johnson stood in front of cameras and said no one should shame the teens or parents when hundreds of the former mobilzed downtown, he took a position almost no Chicagoan agreed with. We are proud of our city and attacking innocent people and property anywhere is not justified. Progressives are resolute in "never talking out of school" about such inconvenient truths. That is why Mayor Johnson is at historic low polling. He sold the voters a bill of goods he cannot deliver on and is willing to let Chicagoans suffer in their feelings of economic and personal safety to satisfy a union that thinks they are elected government. If progressives want to enact real change, it requires very basic acts: tell the truth, even when it makes your side look bad; be willing to take half a loaf if that is what is possible as it is way better than nothing; and stop with the conspiracy theories at the heart of this post. It makes all of you no different than MAGA .
Thank you for writing this, too many people are unaware and even if Mamdani is not the bystanders will definitely benefit from realizing how often this is playing out