A Socialist is About to Become Mayor of Buffalo, New York.
With everything feeling so bleak, the left needs to remember to embrace the victories.
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As virtually anyone who reads my writing would attest to, whether they agree with me or not, there’s no denying that I have a tendency at times to allow myself to sink into my anger, cynicism, and overall desperate frustration with the state of the country and the bleakness of the future overall. That said, I believe with every fiber of my being that for the sake of our own sanity and the movement in general, those of us on the left have a responsibility to acknowledge and enjoy the victories we see along the way. It just so happens that one of those victories happened to come out of Buffalo, New York, with news spreading that self ascribed socialist India Walton has managed a major upset in the Democratic primary, and thus is all but guaranteed to become the Mayor of Buffalo.
India Walton, a thirty eight year old working mother, union activist, community organizer, and socialist is about to become the Mayor of the second largest city in New York. She is on track to be the first socialist Mayor of a major city in the United States since 1960.
How can we not celebrate?
When asked how she defined her ideology, Walton said:
“That means that we put people first. That means that we prioritize the working class, the marginalized, the often unseen, unheard people over profits, corporations, and developers.”
Of course, Walton didn’t do this on her own, and that’s the best and most important part of all of this. It took organizing. It took community engagement. It took time. It took effort. It took the mobilization of groups like the Buffalo Chapter of DSA as well as the DSA overall to do this. It took all kinds of people who know that change starts from the ground up, and that enacting change in one community can inspire it throughout the state, and country at large. While it’s obviously still incredibly early on, there’s no denying the fact that being the Mayor of Buffalo could potentially be a stepping stone to a bright future in politics…
