How Bad Is This?
It's not great, Bob!
Three Zohran Mamdani-backed House candidates have won primaries in New York, and are now shoe-ins to become members of Congress. One of those candidates — Darializa Avila Chevalier — is a museum-quality lunatic who will arguably become the craziest member of Congress upon being sworn in. And the other two would be getting more attention as radical oddballs if they weren’t tied at the hip to the Lionel Messi of dumbass lefty claptrap.
So: How bad is this? Is the Democratic Party already captured by crazies, or will it be soon? Or, is this an inconsequential blip in a few districts that are to the left of your typical lesbian-owned vegan bakery? What follows is my attempt at dispassionate analysis; I will try to be neither Cassandra nor Pollyanna, but rather to be a hybrid of the two, a rationalist demigod that I call “Cassandryanna”.
Surely it’s relevant that this happened in three New York districts with an average Democratic lean of 36 points. Drawing lessons about national trends from that sample is a bit like making assumptions about per-capita meth consumption by observing a gathering of the Juggalos. A lot of normie Democrats won races last night without much fanfare, including sane-on-Israel New Yorkers Richie Torres and Micah Lasher. And, as always, there is strong evidence that this so-called workers’ revolution is mostly a movement of rich, white college kids:
It’s also true that the amount of damage that can be done by three ultra-far-left House members is limited. Sure: They’ll each introduce five-to-ten anti-Israel bills per day; there will be bills to denounce Israel and sanction Israel and to use DNA technology to clone Ramesses II and have him put the Israelites back to work. But none of those bills will come anywhere near passing. On votes in the House that actually matter, it’s virtually certain that these three will vote the same way that the left-leaning Democrats they replaced would have voted.
But now for the bad news: These three — especially Chevalier — are a glorious gift to Republican flaks. What Michael Jordan was to Nike, Chevalier is to anyone whose job is to portray Democrats as radical, anti-America lunatics. And that is because she is a radical, anti-America lunatic; I hope normie Democrats loudly denounce her bullshit instead of trying to sanewash it. I would also remind Democrats that considerations about party unity and maintaining a big tent don’t really apply when the core thesis of the person you’re dealing with is that you, personally, are a corrupt monster who is abetting genocide. In fact, you look like a dickless loser when Chevalier calls you a handmaiden of the Epstein class and you respond by saying “I’m more focused on opposing the failed presidency of Donald Trump.”
I also think that this makes the AOC presidential run that I’m dreading like a prostate exam during an earthquake more likely. For starters: Socialists are riding high, they’ll surely want to turn that (real or perceived) mojo into a presidential run. And it’s also probably true that Chevalier is such a freak show that AOC looks downright stateswoman-like in comparison. There is a (maybe true) story that the actress Marlene Dietrich wanted to appear in a scene with a camel because juxtaposing her with a camel would make her look beautiful. I think the same logic applies here; AOC seems sensible when compared to one of the most delusional weirdos our society has ever produced.
And one of the main downsides of an AOC presidential run also just got worse: Democrats will face pressure to take unpopular policy positions. It will be 2020 all over again; we’ll recreate the dynamic of that year’s primary, in which Pete Buttigeig was denounced as a neoliberal monster because he only wanted to create a public health care option (that would not have passed in a zillion parallel universes). The DSA will have a laundry list of terrible ideas, and they’ll push candidates to speak to those ideas, and some candidates will take the bait and make the Democratic brand so toxic that candidates would be better off running as part of the Anal Bleaching For Seniors Party.
Finally, there’s the rather banal belief that our country should not be governed by crazy people. I really am baffled by people who say “This is our Tea Party!” in a positive way!!! The Tea Party was bad! It’s a problem that our government contains so many delusional nincompoops! And that problem got a little worse yesterday. Time will tell just how bad this development turns out to be, but — in the immortal words of Pete Campbell — it’s not great, Bob!
More Evidence Emerges that Lefty Racial Justice is Mostly Just the Weird-Ass Beliefs of Highly-Educated White People
Few people dispute that something happened in the American left in the early-to-mid 2010s. We can debate the causes and precise start dates, but, clearly, something happened. Michael Brown, #MeToo, the Bernie Sanders campaign, the Racial Reckoning — these were
The Bougiest Proletariat Revolution Ever
After Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York Democratic mayoral primary last night, the right and left fringe — as they so often do — competed to have the wrongest take. Here’s Poster Child For Metastasized Resentment Of Male Pattern Baldness Stephen Miller:
On a more serious note, it's kind of depressing how everyone is using the other party's insanity as a reason to keep racing to the bottom instead of taking the opportunity to get the normie centrists by acting like responsible adults.
I am convinced that if either party could put together a slate of candidates running on "keep the crazies, criminals, AND cops in check" while shutting up about social issues they would run away with the midterms.
Oh Darializa, my sweet Muse of fully automated luxury communism, I shall write many an ode to your insanity over the coming years.