Progessive San Francisco should not look for their own Zohran Mamdani, but they can learn a lot from his approach to rethinking progressive coalitions.
As we watch the Democratic party try to rebrand itself to continue fundraising in the age of Trump, "Abundance" is coming. Gavin Newsom said as much as he eliminated CEQA regulations and said it is time to strip away red tape to build yet more luxury housing in CA that nobody needs. The antidote to this warmed over Reaganism has always been basically economic populism. A laser focus on affordability issues in ways that directly benefit the local population mix. Mamdani is so effective because he goes around the traditional media gatekeepers to bring his relentlessly repetitive message to social media with charm, grace, and humor. The younger generation has abandoned traditional mainstream media. It is time to power up an online fireside chat.
Whatever is left of Progressive San Francisco is overruled by billionaires disguising themselves as progressives. Their marketing teams give their organizations titles like GrowSF and TogetherSF and SFBlueprint. Although, honestly, the last name is exactly what it is, rich people deciding what SF should look like and who quite literally owns the land here.
People still imagine someone can be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, as if money is not power. The public discourse around affordability - affordable housing, education, health care - is shaped to answer respond with the same failing processes again and again. We keep giving money in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, bond issues, and direct cash, to the very people and their private entities who use public money for private profit.
Until we address the vast wealth disparity and the mechanism that create it, we are investing an Modern Feudalism.
As we watch the Democratic party try to rebrand itself to continue fundraising in the age of Trump, "Abundance" is coming. Gavin Newsom said as much as he eliminated CEQA regulations and said it is time to strip away red tape to build yet more luxury housing in CA that nobody needs. The antidote to this warmed over Reaganism has always been basically economic populism. A laser focus on affordability issues in ways that directly benefit the local population mix. Mamdani is so effective because he goes around the traditional media gatekeepers to bring his relentlessly repetitive message to social media with charm, grace, and humor. The younger generation has abandoned traditional mainstream media. It is time to power up an online fireside chat.
Whatever is left of Progressive San Francisco is overruled by billionaires disguising themselves as progressives. Their marketing teams give their organizations titles like GrowSF and TogetherSF and SFBlueprint. Although, honestly, the last name is exactly what it is, rich people deciding what SF should look like and who quite literally owns the land here.
People still imagine someone can be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, as if money is not power. The public discourse around affordability - affordable housing, education, health care - is shaped to answer respond with the same failing processes again and again. We keep giving money in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, bond issues, and direct cash, to the very people and their private entities who use public money for private profit.
Until we address the vast wealth disparity and the mechanism that create it, we are investing an Modern Feudalism.