Occupy Wall Street's Revenge Takes The Big Apple

So long, Eric Adams, too little too late

Well, the fun was bound to end eventually: Eric Adams ended his reelection campaign, at long last, leaving us with all those wonderful memories from his brief tenuse, and giving a boost for Andrew Cuomo, but probably too little too late given Zohran Mamdani’s strong polling. Here’s a look from the WSJ over the weekend on where the Democrat Socialists came from to support the next mayor:

“A lot of the germs for what’s become the resurgent left have come from [2008],” said Tobias, who is now a top strategist for the Democratic Socialists of America, the political home of Mamdani and other progressive stars like N.Y. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “I know a lot of people who work on the left who have personal experience [of the financial crisis].”

Veterans of Occupy Wall Street, the protest movement that sprang up in response to the 2008 crisis, now hold senior roles in groups like the Working Families Party, which gave Mamdani a vital early endorsement, and the Justice Democrats.

“People keep saying, ‘New Yorkers are more conservative than you think. A socialist will never win,’” said Jasmine Gripper, who began her teaching career in the shadow of 2008 and is now co-director of the Working Family Party’s New York branch. “I’m like, ‘A socialist is winning, y’all.’”

The race was jolted on Sunday when New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced he was ending his bid for re-election.

While the mainstream Democratic Party’s popularity has sunk to a 30-year low, according to one poll, and its leadership appears uncertain of how to oppose Trump, the far left seems vigorous—particularly among the young. A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov found that 62% of Americans ages 18 to 29 hold a “favorable view” of socialism—something that would have been unimaginable to Cold War generations.

Some are venturing even further left.

On a recent evening, 15 comrades from the Northwest Philadelphia cell of the Revolutionary Communists of America gathered for their weekly meeting in a classroom at Thomas Jefferson University.

The mostly 20- and 30-somethings had eschewed the Mao caps and Che Guevara T-shirts of previous generations. Soon, though, terms like “ruling class,” “parasitic,” “bourgeoisie” and “dialectic” were bandied about the room as they settled into an earnest discussion of the assigned reading, an article entitled “Morality and the Class Struggle.” References to the 2008 crisis were also plentiful. Several members invoked it when explaining what prompted them to ditch “the milquetoast” left, as one called it…

At times, the meeting felt like a support group—in this case, for people suffering from the modern economy. Communism, they acknowledged, hadn’t worked anywhere in the world it had been attempted—at least not yet.

Still, one of the cell’s veterans urged newer comrades to proudly brandish the hammer and sickle during their fall recruiting drive. “Wherever we go, we must show up and show out,” the comrade said. “We are Revolutionary Communists!”

Thanks, Eric Adams — we’ll always have this video to remind us of better days.