Who Is the Problem Now? Me or the Establishment: Mamdani Proves It Isn’t Me
- john raymond
- Jun 29
- 3 min read
I’ve always supported the Democratic candidate when the choice is between a Democrat and a Republican. Always. Even when it meant holding my nose. Even when the candidate barely reflected the values I actually hold. Even when they voted for war, or deregulation, or quietly took money from the very corporations hollowing out the public sphere. I still showed up, still cast the ballot, still defended democracy from what I believe to be a far worse alternative. That hasn’t changed.
What has changed is that every time I speak honestly—every time I criticize the Democratic Party’s establishment for what it actually is: cowardly, donor-driven, morally compromised—I get treated like I’m the problem.
It is as if naming what’s rotten somehow makes me the enemy. As if demanding better candidates, stronger values, and actual justice is some kind of betrayal. But now they’ve lost the plot completely. They’ve come after Zohran Mamdani—the Democratic nominee. And in doing so, they’ve exposed themselves. Because this time, I’m supporting the party’s candidate—and they’re not.
So who’s the problem now?
If you think I’m overstating this, let’s be clear. Mamdani won his primary.
He earned the support of voters. He did it not with corporate money, not with backroom deals, not with glossy mailers mailed in from a third party PAC, but with people—organizing, door-knocking, showing up.
He’s speaking to real concerns: housing justice, transit, healthcare, racial equity. He’s doing what Democrats are supposed to do. And yet the establishment has turned on him—swiftly, predictably, and without shame.
The moment a smear campaign could be fabricated around the phrase “globalize the intifada,” they seized it—not to protect the party, not to protect Jewish communities, but to discipline an independent voice.
This is the same playbook they used on Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, Nina Turner. The names change, but the message is the same: don’t challenge the party’s donors. Don’t say anything that could discomfort those in power. And above all, never show solidarity with Palestinians—not unless it’s tightly controlled, sanitized, and stripped of any real political consequence.
But Mamdani didn’t flinch. And now they want to make an example of him. They want to punish him for refusing to apologize for standing against a regime whose leader has been formally charged by the International Criminal Court. That’s the part no one wants to say aloud. This whole scandal isn’t about a chant. It’s about the fact that Zohran Mamdani had the courage to say no to a tyrant, and the establishment had neither the courage nor the moral compass to stand beside him when he did.
And let’s talk a little bit more about Eric Swalwell, since he decided to add his voice to the pile-on. Instead of backing the nominee of his own party, he chose to suggest that Mamdani somehow doesn’t speak for all New Yorkers. As if the problem is Mamdani, not Netanyahu. As if the problem is how you talk about justice, not the actual crimes being committed with U.S. weapons and diplomatic cover.
Swalwell should have said one thing and one thing only: “I’m sure Mamdani will govern for the benefit of all New Yorkers.” That’s it. That’s the bar. That’s the job of a party leader in a moment of media frenzy and weaponized hysteria: to protect the party from self-immolation, not join the mob with a pitchfork.
Instead, Swalwell chose appeasement. He chose cowardice. And in doing so, he sided with the same tired, donor-aligned, consultant-driven wing of the party that always shows up when there’s a progressive to crush and disappears when democracy is actually under threat.
Where was Swalwell’s outrage when Andrew Cuomo was abusing his staff? When Eric Adams was suppressing protests? When Trump was praising Putin from the White House lawn? Silence.
But Mamdani resists apartheid, and suddenly it's a bridge too far.
I’m done being told that people like me are the problem. I’m not the one backing down from fascism. I’m not the one betraying the party’s nominee. I’m not the one afraid to say that a just foreign policy includes justice for Palestinians.
I support the Democratic candidate. They don’t. I stand for the base. They stand for the donor class. So again I ask—who is the problem now?
It isn’t me.
And Zohran Mamdani more than proves that.
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