If that The left wing of the Democratic Party, hoping to wield power and bend the national party to its will, may want to tame its egotism and learn a different lesson from the defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman. In the primary elections earlier this week, the soon-to-be former congressman from New York received less than 42 percent of the vote, 17 points behind the winner, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
Bowman has been strangely unreflective about his various mistakes, especially his decision to focus his attacks on areas with large numbers of liberal Jewish voters who are deeply sympathetic to Israel. Last November, he spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally and claimed there was “no evidence” that Hamas attackers raped Israeli women. He said it was Israel’s “lie.” It was a remarkable moment, especially since there is ample evidence of sexual assault by Hamas. Many voters, including quite a few who voted for him in previous elections, may have been offended by this rhetoric. Seven months later, and only after falling behind in the polls last week, Bowman finally issued a brief apology for those comments.
In Yonkers on Election Night, Bowman used his concession speech to rail against the clearly sinister interference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and related groups. new york timesAbout $15 million was spent opposing him. He never mentioned Latimer's name. “Our opponent might have won here,” he said. “We should be outraged… when a dark money super PAC can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing things that aren’t true.”
The possibility that some voters honestly disagreed with Bowman’s views or rhetoric barely registered with him or the left-wing groups that supported his candidacy. After his lopsided defeat, a spokesperson for the Justice Democratic group declared: “Jamaal Bowman is not a warning, but a model of what political leadership can look like.”
Too many on the left of American politics have become accustomed to the effects of heated rhetoric and theatrical displays of loyalty to group norms. This approach to politics promises more pain than hope for a Democrat who has a lot to worry about this election season: voter anxiety, high food and housing prices, and an older candidate whose weak debate performance has sent the party into a panic.
Bowman's supporters sought easy explanations for his defeat, including that redistricting shifted his district from most of the Bronx north to Westchester. But Bowman actually did well in predominantly Democratic suburban counties in the 2020 and 2022 campaigns.
Meanwhile, claims that massive spending by pro-Israel groups were responsible for Bowman's defeat are skeptical. This fits a narrative that pleases both AIPAC and the left. AIPAC can take national credit for defeating pesky lawmakers, and the left can take solace in the argument that it takes the combined oppressive powers of billionaires, the Republican Party, and the Israel lobby to bring down their own lawmakers. But as author Alexis Grenell points out in teathat nationWhile Bowman's rhetoric was undisciplined and inflammatory, Latimer was a popular local politician whose internal polls showed him with a double-digit lead before AIPAC began spending.
For weeks, prominent left-wing organizers on social media have accused Latimer, a centrist liberal, of being a reactionary white man backed by billionaires. The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Bowman, accused Latimer of being a racist who had been recruited by AIPAC and bribed by MAGA.
In most countries, except in left-wing areas, there is great debate over the claim that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, as opposed to aggressively waging a war that Hamas started and has the power to end. But if we use the term genocide It has become a requirement for candidates seeking endorsements from the DSA and Justice Democratic Party, and Bowman has repeatedly obliged.
Bowman also had a penchant for performative and self-righteous politics, which was widely shared on the anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist left. In 1964, the American historian Richard Hofstadter wrote a famous essay: Harper's Magazine It's called “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” A contemporary left-wing update might be titled “The Infantile Style of American Politics.” Because conspiracy theories are mixed with stubbornness and bravado.
A few days before the election, Bowman held a rally in the South Bronx. Media attention was guaranteed when Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up. When it was her turn, Ocasio-Cortez, a typically smart, image-conscious politician, appeared to have had too much caffeine, jumping around on stage, waving her arms and declaring that she was “ready to fight. I'm so happy!” declared. She was outraged that “our brother Jamal Bowman” would face a primary driven by racism, greed, and the corruption of American politics. This was a strange claim to political privilege. Ocasio-Cortez won her seat in 2018, beating a Democratic incumbent. After Bowman did the same in 2020, these two seemed like signs of a new day for the left.
At the rally, Bowman, a former college linebacker, jumped on stage, picked up a chair and waved it at the audience. “We will show Fuck AIPAC power of Damn South Bronx,” he shouted. “What should I do? You are after me, you are after me, you are after my family?” He said, “We are telling them who what the hell are we!”
Bowman lives in Yonkers and does not represent the South Bronx.
The Bronx rally also provided a glimpse into the sectarianism that plagues the left. Pro-Palestinian protesters from Within Our Lifetime showed up and did their best to disrupt the proceedings, banging drums and chanting slogans throughout the rally. They accused Bowman, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders of being “Zionists” who supported “Genocide Joe” for president. Protesters reached an impressively hyperbolic peak with chants of “AOC, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.” After the rally, protesters attacked the candidates' buses and defaced their sides with stickers and handwritten slogans.
In recent yearsThe progressive movement has made impressive progress within the national Democratic Party, which has shifted significantly to the left. In New York, left-wing politicians supported by the DSA and the Working Families Party have won victories on issues such as rent control, affordable housing, and bail reform.
But these victories coexist with many on the left's increasingly sharp insistence on and insistence on political purity. So, longtime liberal Democratic politicians are accused of supporting genocide because they support Israel and Biden's stance on the Gaza conflict. Just two years ago—an episode largely forgotten during the recent election cycle—DSA's political committee voted to fund Iron Dome, a defense system that would allow Israel to shoot down rockets from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran before they hit civilian homes. They debated whether to expel Bowman for his treacherous actions.
The DSA did not expel him. Bowman told the press at the time that he had resigned from the group. He has since maintained that he has continued to pay his DSA dues and apologized for his heresy.
Many mainstream Democrats seem to be growing increasingly impatient with the activist left. House Minority Leader and future Speaker Hakeem Jeffries won't talk about the martyrdom of Bowman's camp at all. He often tangled with the DSA and Justice Democrats and agreed to record a single robocall for the embattled Bowman. Jeffries took a noticeably removed and sober view of the loss. “The results speak for themselves. “The voters have spoken,” he said, sounding undisturbed. A senior adviser to Jeffries later noted on social media that the minority leader had endorsed six candidates challenged by DSA and that his candidates had won all six races.
A very open question is whether this will reflect on the left wing of the party. Later in Bowman's concession speech, he expressed some regret for the ugly language he used that day at St. Mary's Park. “I want to apologise. I want to apologise publicly. As you know, I have used ugly language at times. I am sorry,” he said.
He paused for a moment at those words. “but.” He stopped again. “but… “We must not adapt well to a sick society.”
We will not adapt to a sick society It falls short of being a timeless campaign slogan. But in its theatrical extravagance, it shows something some on the left overlook: Politicians and movements are most successful when they try to persuade people, and when they fail, they change course, rather than chastising voters for being brainwashed.