I figured after a recent thread and seeing some posting about this stuff on a few sites, folks might be interested in the internal takes from NYC DSA folks on not pushing to primary Jeffries.
TL;DR It seems they’re hoping to get a bunch of state assembly seats they think are more likely to win that would help get Zohran’s policy done. And it sounds like the opposition candidate, Ossé, hasn’t made any friends within NYC DSA over the last few years, leading to a lack of trust that he’ll stand with DSA.
As a DSA partisan on Hexbear, you can imagine I’ve had a lot of conflicting opinions over how things are playing out currently. Zohran is ducking right in a lot of his messaging, and NYC DSA is up to all kinds of bullshit lately. But it’s also a very exciting time to be in DSA, and as any American socialist org will tell you, a self-proclaimed socialist winning mayor of NYC with a growing national org behind him is huge.
I guess it’s just nice to read what seems to be a pretty open explanation of what’s going on in NYC DSA, as opposed to the usual radio silence everyone else in the org gets. I obviously still have disagreements with these folks, but at least I have a position that I can argue against.
The argument against primarying Jeffries is straight up incoherent, electing six state assembly members is gonna transform politics, but smashing the leadership of the national centrist democrats isn’t?
The point of electing figures like Zohran isn’t to tail him endlessly and hang on his every word, he’s ducking on challenging Jeffries because he’s still vulnerable until he’s been sworn in, and he thinks signaling that there’s a “right time” to primary the DNC, will create pressure on his adversaries within the dems to tack left, to avoid said primaries
That’s the privilege of besieged leadership and a unique practical play that won’t hold by January, not a permission slip to start trashing candidates who challenge centrist heavyweights, that’s just liberalism pure and simple
We want to create a rupture within the party, to shock the establishment with upset primaries and trigger a proper power struggle, obviously we want this to happen when we’re in a position to actually win that struggle and not end up discredited on the national stage, which is the sole reason behind Zohran’s open-ended refusal
But that is not an invitation to surrender to the DNC, honestly if I didn’t know better I’d assume this article and its author was paid opposition