The immediate reaction in mainstream media about the huge triumph of DSA candidates Tuesday night was to anoint Zohran Mamdani a "kingmaker."
We know what they mean: the mayor took a big risk by backing socialists in defiance of powerful Democrats in the U.S. Congress as well as several challengers to party incumbents in Albany. Alienating them and then losing would have been costly; instead, DSA candidates swept the board with a single exception, often by double digits.
Personalizing the wins, however, as a remarkable feat of the Magic Mayor is not only hugely misleading, it's an attempt to demobilize us. The power brokers and their propagandists will never acknowledge the relentless, mass-based work by thousands of volunteers as the real force that notched the election night victories, the same mobilization that put Zohran in office in the first place.
This graphic of Brooklyn party boss Antonio Reynosa's endorsements is telling although not the way he intends. What concrete campaign work did all those unions, nonprofits, and paper organizations bring to his camp? DSA and its allies among party clubs, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other groups out-mobilized the whole laundry list.
DSA now has the clear mandate to take a "big swing" at getting the New York Health Act over the stands for the long-awaited home run. Many state legislators sign on to NYHA as a no-cost form of virtue-signaling about single-payer but do little or nothing to get it passed. That way, they can keep advocates happy without alienating the powerful industry players interested in preserving the dysfunctional system.
Our task now is to build on our wins with a vigorous push to finally remove the profiteers and put healthcare where it belongs — in the public sector — thus taking health costs off the bargaining table for workers. This will address a key driver of low wages and economic insecurity — the insane cost of healthcare even for those with insurance.
We have our work cut out for us: we need to educate our own comrades about healthcare unaffordability, the promise of NYHA, and our plan to get it enacted. We need a massive communications campaign in concert with our powerful coalition partners to drum up support throughout the state.
And we need to combat the inevitable propaganda fusillade from the entrenched interests that profit so handsomely from the human suffering generated by a dysfunctional system.
Join us!