Del Beccaro: Left, lefter and leftist: Democrats could be defined by radical, big city mayors
Democrat Karen Bass is the mayor of Los Angeles who praised Castro upon his death. Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson, of Chicago, recently had a 6.6% approval rating. Now, an avowed socialist, Zohran Mamdani, is likely to be mayor of New York City.
Combined, one in 25 Americans will be “governed” or “ruled” by those three mayors, depending on your point of view. Perhaps, more importantly, will be their combined effect on national politics. In 2026 and 2028, it likely will be said that so goes the cities of LA, Chicago and New York, so goes the Democrat Party. With that dynamic, Americans, overall, might well shift more to the right.
In 2024, according to even the embattled NPR, “Most of the country shifted right in the 2024 presidential election.” According to the Economic Innovation Group, “Trump received a larger share of the vote, relative to his 2020 performance, in nine out of every 10 counties. And the shift in his direction was most common in the large urban counties that typically favor Democrats.”
Even so, today, America’s largest cities remain nearly unbreakable political Democrat strongholds. Of the 30 largest cities in America, 27 are run by Democrats. The lone exceptions are Dallas, Texas (where the Democrat mayor switched parties in 2023), Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
For the last eight months, in the wake of the 2024 election, the Democrats have been undergoing a very public debate about the soul of their party. The now venerable James Carville has called for the most left among the Democrats, including Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Democrat National Committee vice-chair David Hogg, to split off from the Democrats.
Meanwhile, TV host Bill Maher, a thought-leader of the left, regularly eviscerates the unrelenting march to the left of modern Democrats. Joining him is the ever-thoughtful former Bill Clinton adviser Democrat Doug Schoen.
So, what’s a Democrat Party to do?
Photo Credit: Fox/(REUTERS/Bing Guan)
