🗣️ 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖 ✍️ (from @left_voice) #OpEd Mamdani’s Honeymoon Is Coming to an End for Many on the Left by James Dennis Hoff “Increasing taxes on the rich is widely popular among huge swaths of New Yorkers, and, thanks in large part to the movement for Palestine, Israel is more reviled than ever. In fact, Mamdani still remains popular across the city precisely because he continues to espouse these positions. However, a growing sector on the Left, including many of those who helped bring Mamdani to power and many in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is increasingly fed up with the mayor for a whole host of other very legitimate reasons. These include backroom deals with establishment democrats like Kathy Hochul and Hakeem Jeffries, public appearances with President Trump, New York City’s new anti-semtism bill, his deployment of the NYPD against protesters, and his continued refusal to get rid of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch or to disband the NYPD’s hated Strategic Response Group (SRG). These criticisms became even more pronounced earlier this month when Mamdani’s NYPD was deployed to protect and aid ICE agents who had shot a Bronx man with his five year old son in the car. In the press conference after the shooting, Mamdani stood by, without a word of criticism, as Commissioner Tisch rattled off a list of the victim’s previous convictions, as if that justified ICE’s use of force. That shooting came just days after the mayor had been met with jeers by hundreds of demonstrators who called him a “traitor” and a “sell-out” for attending an October 7 memorial service and for allowing the NYPD to arrest pro-Palestinian activists who protested Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance at the United Nations. Despite all of his bravado that Netanyahu should be arrested, Mamdani neither attended nor encouraged others to attend those protests. Mamdani’s critics — including those from the pro-Palestine movement, the YDSA, and several DSA caucuses — have a point. By seeking to win favor with the powers that be, the mayor has betrayed many of the principles that brought him to office. And those backroom deals failed to produce a first budget able to deliver any meaningful relief to New Yorkers. So, with little to show but compromise and cooptation, it is unsurprising that Mamdani’s critics on the Left and many of his former supporters are becoming more vocal. But there is a fundamental problem with such criticism. It is largely focused on Mamdani as an individual representative and grounded in the assumption that criticizing the mayor is an effective way to move him to the left.” 🛠️⬇️ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ⬇️🛠️