The rate of political change is accelerating. Dynasties collapse not within a generation but in a decade. Politicians go from the heroes to the hated even faster. It wasn’t all that long ago that Bill de Blasio was a progressive hero. And even less time since Cuomosexuality was a thing. Now the only one who will accept their endorsement is Andrew Yang.
And Andrew Yang would accept my endorsement or the endorsement of Balki from Perfect Strangers with equal enthusiasm.
New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang broke with other contenders during a heated debate on Wednesday night, acknowledging that he would welcome support from embattled current Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the city’s upcoming Democratic primary.
A debate moderator asked the eight candidates on stage at the live debate to raise their hands if they wanted an endorsement from de Blasio and Cuomo, Democratic leaders who have faced bipartisan criticism over their leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. In both cases, Yang was the only candidate to raise his hand.
Yang is not exactly a New York Democrat. He’s a Democrat and occasionally lives in New York, but he’s not part of the Democrat machine. No one on that stage who was would admit to wanting Cuomo or De Blasio’s support. That says almost as much about their reading of New Yorkers as about the downfall of the two most powerful men in New York who aren’t federal regulators.
Both Cuomo and De Blasio have been thoroughly discredited. But that’s not all.
The only reason Andrew Yang is a serious contender in a race that would have previously gone to someone like Garcia or Wiley without barely needing an election is that most of the Democrat machine has been thoroughly discredited. The city is a broken mess and even as the media struggles to convince voters to back Wiley or Garcia, the voters are trying to send a message.
Yang isn’t the messenger. He’s the message. And the message is, as Michael Moore once wrote about President Trump, “Trump’s election is going to be the biggest f___ you ever recorded in human history and it will feel good.”
Andrew Yang’s style is worlds apart from Trump’s. But the message that the voters are sending to the establishment isn’t too different.
Democrats running away from Cuomo or De Blasio isn’t going to fix the reasons why so many New Yorkers are turning on them.
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