"Why I'm Voting for Maya Wiley for Mayor" in The Nation today
Friends, we’re thrilled by the growing momentum behind Maya Wiley's campaign for Mayor of NYC. Deepak published an endorsement in The Nation today. We hope you’ll share it widely and encourage your NYC friends to rank Maya #1. The lede is below. Read the full piece here.
Why I’m Voting for Maya Wiley for Mayor
I write as a lifelong activist, a New Yorker, and a member of The Nation editorial board (the views expressed here are mine). The city is at a crossroads, with vastly different futures possible as we emerge from Covid. The contest for mayor is therefore unusually important. For nearly a year, Andrew Yang, famous for being famous, managed to dominate and trivialize the race, while more accomplished candidates had trouble breaking through. But in these last weeks, the race has begun to clarify the issues and the stakes. Progressives now face familiar dilemmas. Who shares my values? Who can win and govern effectively? And who do I want to make sure loses? Happily for us, for substantive and strategic reasons, there is an obvious choice: Here’s why I urge you to put Maya Wiley as your #1 choice for mayor.
A recent Wiley ad shows footage of a police car ramming peaceful protesters and police officers beating down peaceful protesters at the height of the uprising for racial justice last summer. Wiley pledges to “transform the police and keep New York safe.” She closes by saying, “As mayor, I’ll get it done because it’s time the NYPD sees us as people who deserve to breathe.” She has proposed a bold plan, including real cuts to the police budget, that would do just that.
For New York, this is a time of choosing. Eight years ago, the current mayor talked about a “tale of two cities” and made soaring promises to address racial and economic inequality. He was correct in his initial diagnosis, but hapless in office. After escalating gentrification, an orgy of Wall Street gains for the 1 percent, and growing inequality in the Covid era, the two New Yorks are further apart than ever. And the NYPD budget has risen every year since.
Two futures are now emergent. One scenario is a Bloombergian restoration of plutocratic power and predatory policing. Those who rank Andrew Yang or Eric Adams are voting for stop-and-frisk, more giveaways for the ultra-rich, and more malign neglect of the hardship and struggles of the working-class people who make this city great. The real estate developers, hedge fund managers, and police unions that dominate our politics are on the march, anticipating a return to unchallenged primacy in setting the limits of debate in the city.
The other path would be led by a progressive mayor who takes on the establishment and puts working-class and low-income New Yorkers of color at the center of her vision. Wiley’s positions on the major issues—from affordable housing to education to gun violence to an investment in the care and green economies—are innovative and unapologetically progressive. They are inspired by the bold visions developed and nurtured by insurgent social movements and community groups.
Equally important, Wiley is the progressive who can win. The race has come down to two defenders of a grotesquely unequal New York (Adams and Yang), a technocratic moderate (Garcia), and a tough, proven leader who has devoted her career to social justice (Wiley). Whatever the merits of the other progressive candidates, they are now so hobbled by controversies that there is simply no way for them to win this race. In this crowded field of candidates, Wiley will need all progressives to rally to her side in these closing weeks in order to prevail. At a crucial juncture in the 2020 presidential election, progressives coalesced behind Biden, regardless of whom they had supported in the primary. We need that same kind of united-front sensibility now, but in this case we can unite behind a lifelong progressive without any hard swallows. With the recent endorsements of Wiley by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Working Families Party, and Jamaal Bowman, momentum is building.
Read the rest of the piece here.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/maya-wiley-mayor-primary/