The Big Zohran Mamdani Question

 THE BIG QUESTION right now regarding Zohran Mamdani is when he'll sign a big book contract with a "Big Five" conglomerate publishing outfit, following the lead of so many other prominent "leftist" figures, from Malcolm Harris to Bhaskar Sunkara to the gang at n +1 who cashed in with big advances as quickly as possible.

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED

These characters are anti-capitalist-- sure they are-- but take no chances the capitalist system won't vanish anytime soon, so are taking their slice of the pie now, up front. After all, it might take time for "late stage capitalism" to play out. Could be twenty years. Or 100. Or longer.

Needless to say, they're closer to being Kerenskys than Lenins. The irony is Curtis Sliwa is way more a Lenin type, forming his own tough-minded vanguard group from the ground up while working outside the system.

The jury of course is still out on Zohran Mamdani. It remains to be seen what path he will take. This blog will keep you informed!

American Myth

WHAT'S FUNNY TO ME is how most New Yorkers don't realize what they have in Curtis Sliwa. A legitimate American folk hero, like Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, and Woody Guthrie. Someone from the people and of the people, about whom myriad tales have been told, some true, others maybe not. The Kris Kristofferson quote: "part fact, part fiction, a walking contradiction." He even survived a "hit" from the mob!

Missing from conversation about this year's New York City mayoral election is any appreciation for, or acknowledgement of, those who operate outside accepted channels. DIYers who color outside the lines. Uncredentialed, uncertified, unregulated. Yet this is where the authentic voice of America is always to be found, via those who've seen this society from every possible angle; upside down and sideways.

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In the literary realm, the authors who've interested me are those who wrote beneath or outside official channels, because that's where you'll find the raw unpolished reality of this madly chaotic country. Expat Robert McAlmon for instance, escaping from cowboy country into the Lost Generation of the 1920's. Aben Kandel, writing about the flood of immigrants into New York City in the early decades of the 20th century-- or writing about gamblers in early 1960's Las Vegas-- in-between crafting screenplays for low-budget direct-to-drive-ins monster movies. Or perhaps the rawest voice of them all, Erskine Caldwell, whose rough, often brutal, sometimes hilarious stories from the underclasses of the Deep South during the Great Depression were banned far and wide. Not just from libraries! These three men are definitely not in today's literary canon-- which is why people should read them. 

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In a true democracy, the nation's underclasses must get a voice of their own once in a while. Shouldn't they?

Why Curtis Sliwa Can't Win: A Rant

 LIVING IN CLASS-BASED AMERICA

I SHOULDN'T CARE about the New York City mayoral contest, but observing it from a distance has set off my alarm bells about why America never fulfilled its potential and why the American Dream today is a fraud. 

What do I know of New York? I never lived there-- tried to once-- but when I was promoting the Underground Literary Alliance in the 2000's I went up there from Philadelphia via the Chinatown Bus nearly every week. Before and after 9-11. I promoted a number of events (crashed more) there-- one at historic CBGB's-- and attended countless readings, open mics, parties, you name it. I knew a lot of writers who lived in NYC, from varied backgrounds, and I caught at least part of the New York vibe.

What triggered this rant is noise from the usual suspects about the various other candidates, with Curtis Sliwa usually dismissed as "kind of a loon." As any ambitious person not from the elite class, or inside an approved institution, is viewed.

Liberal-left intellectuals, of whom there are many in New York City, are backing Zohran Mamdani, whose parents are themselves intellectuals: his father a Columbia University professor; his mother an award-winning filmmaker. Likely they see themselves, or elite versions of themselves, in him. Curtis Sliwa is an actual working class guy, but leftist intellectuals, who claim to speak for the working class, don't trust him to know his city and its people. Who has traveled New York City's streets more than Curtis Sliwa? There was even once a mob hit put on him! He should be, and for many is, a folk hero.

But no, Sliwa doesn't fit the standard pre-packaged ideological solution which has never worked any time, any place. They'll keep trying to pound the square peg into a round hole because it's what they've been institutionally taught: the most conditioned persons on the planet from the time their yuppie parents dropped them into their first pre-pre-pre-school at age two.

Differences between the candidates are huge. Only one is not from a conforming institution, but from the streets, the grass roots.