Wu is the inventor of the term "net neutrality" and the author of the essential book on the history of communications and democracy in the United States which I discussed here.
Lieutenant Governor isn't much of an office and it is very unlikely that Wu will win the Democratic primary against Gov. Andrew Cuomo's hand-picked conservative running mate, Kathy Hochul.
Still the endorsement says a lot about how politics proceeds in one-party Democratic states -- all the large, urban ones. Within the Democratic party, you have the money party -- our very own rich people. And then there are the more populist Democratic constituencies -- various, not always compatible, communities of color, most single women of many communal identities, and the educated young, regardless of race or gender. In one-party states, these groups duke it out for control of the party and political positions. The money party often has more unity than the contending populist fragments, but when the latter get together, they have the votes.
In one-party Democratic states, if this contest isn't happening, democracy is in trouble. Political pulling and hauling -- that maligned "partisanship" -- never goes away. It just changes shape.
1 comment:
Good observations. Thinking about the similarities and differences between New York and Hawaii's politics,but they may be too different.
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