Is the Progressive Project Over? New York City Mayor's Race Indicates It Could Be

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Democrats are just figuring out their woke agenda driven by the progressive radicals in their party is not popular. Additionally, they are shocked to find out that treating various racial groups as a monolith is not a winning strategy. According to a new report advising the party for 2022, the Democrats risk losing ground with minority voters. South Florida Democrat Debbie  Mucarsel-Powell,  who lost re-election in 2020, said:

Advertisement

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has in some ways lost touch with our electorate… There is this assumption that of course people of color, or the working class, are going to vote for Democrats. We can never assume anything.

Does she mean that assuming anyone other than woke college-educated white people think using the term Lantix is a good idea? Or that broad shares of working-class and minority voters are all in on the radical transgender agenda? Maybe they aren’t fond of energy policies that make the prices of everything they buy more expensive. One might even assume the all-out war on law enforcement is making them feel less secure.

Alex Burns, writing in The New York Times, blames these impressions on Republicans pointing out the results of these policies, not the policies themselves. He seems oblivious to the fact that the radical-left progressives drive the administration’s policies, and the so-called moderates vote with it in lockstep when Speaker Nancy Pelosi cracks her whip.

The navel-gazing is severe, and it is pretty apparent Mucarsel-Powell is onto something:

Yet the review by Third Way, the Collective PAC and the Latino Victory Fund goes further in diagnosing the party’s messaging as deficient in ways that may have cost Democrats more than a dozen seats in the House. Its report offers a blunt assessment that in 2020, Republicans succeeded in misleading voters about the Democratic Party’s agenda and that Democrats had erred by speaking to voters of color as though they are a monolithic, left-leaning group.

Advertisement

This assertion requires some detail. What part of Republican messaging regarding the Democrat agenda, specifically, has been misleading? Crime rates are going up all over the country. The president is proposing $6 trillion in new spending amid inflation not seen since the financial crisis of 2008. His proposed environmental tax policies are causing sluggish job growth. And every speech a Democrat makes treats people of all colors like a monolith.

Sort of like when Biden said black entrepreneurs have a hard time finding accountants and lawyers. They can’t even hear themselves and don’t realize that the only reason we have an octogenarian who is a disaster when he goes off script in the White House is that every other candidate in the primary was too far left to win the general.

However, the New York City mayor’s race may be a barometer. This city’s current mayor is essentially a communist and not shy about it. Citizens of New York City elected him twice. For their trouble, they now have a skyrocketing crime rate and increasing homelessness. They’ve lived through over a year of draconian lockdowns, and some children there have missed over a year of in-person school.

In an age of “defund the police,” where the current mayor obliged, former law-enforcement officer Eric Adams has a six-point lead in the mayoral race over Andrew Yang, who is in second place. Both have plans to reinvigorate law enforcement and reduce crime. Kathryn Garcia is gaining after receiving endorsements from The New York Times and New York Daily News but is still seven points behind Adams, who has shot up nine points since April. Garcia relies a lot on green policies but does not advocate reducing policing. The primary is 15 days away.

Advertisement

Democrat Twitter star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez returned home to bequeath her endorsement. Her chosen candidate, who is of the Democrat Socialist ilk, is Maya Wiley, who received a whopping two-point bump following the fanfare. Maybe because of tweets like this:

The 10-year-old was shot when an unknown assailant targeted a home and shot through the window. Mayor de Blasio disbanded the plainclothes NYPD unit that took illegal guns off the streets last July. The already rising rate of violence skyrocketed. Perhaps Wiley thinks police officers are mind-readers? A curfew in Washington Park had been requested by residents tired of naked people doing drugs, prostitution, and general mayhem in the park. Police arrested 22 people, many of whom got violent when asked to leave.

Wiley now sits at 9% with 15 days to go and really doesn’t have a prayer. If AOC and her radical star can’t make a difference there, she can’t make a difference anywhere. Yet, Democrat leaders in Washington, D.C., still cave to her and her far-left colleagues. New York City is one of the most progressive cities in the country, and even the more moderate candidates use some progressive buzzwords, such as “equity.” But the ambassador for the progressive cause is struggling to influence a critical race there.

Advertisement

Do they just have bad political instincts, or is there a waning appeal for the priorities the Biden administration has embraced? The New York City mayoral primary may give us a sign.

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member