Fixing Los Angeles Can Wait, Party Explains
LOS ANGELES, California — Los Angeles has a housing crisis, a homelessness crisis, and a municipal government that can turn repairing a sidewalk into a three-part documentary. The Democratic Socialists of America has identified the emergency that demands immediate attention: somebody forgot to ask a mayoral candidate the correct question about Israel.
On Monday, the DSA’s national political committee voted 14-13 against revoking its endorsement of City Council member Nithya Raman, one day before the Los Angeles mayoral election. The dispute centered on her position regarding the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, and a party rule requiring local chapters to inquire about it.
Los Angeles nearly lost a socialist endorsement because its socialists neglected to perform the proper socialism.
First Fix the Middle East, Then Maybe the Potholes
For ordinary Angelenos, mayoral priorities include housing costs, public safety, garbage collection and figuring out why a studio apartment costs more than a modest South American republic.
For DSA headquarters, the pressing question was whether a candidate running for an office in California had sufficiently detailed opinions about a country approximately 7,500 miles away.
Nobody disputes that foreign policy matters. But the mayor of Los Angeles cannot negotiate a Middle East peace treaty. The mayor can, theoretically, get a broken traffic light repaired before the next Olympics.
Imagine the campaign literature: “Vote Raman. She may not fix the freeway, but the international committee has provisionally certified her position on a boycott.”
The local chapter had already endorsed Raman by 937 votes to 484. Volunteers were knocking on doors. Voters were making decisions. Then national officials discovered the questionnaire had omitted the BDS question, a violation of an internal resolution called R22.
R22 sounds less like a political principle than the part number for the broken machine that prints government permits.
Minutes from the committee call, reviewed for this report, show the discussion ran long and never once reached the subject of Los Angeles. Under Other Business, one member asked whether anybody had the actual duties of the mayor in front of them. The item was noted and carried over to the next meeting.
A 14-13 Vote to Permit Independent Thought
Raman has said boycotts can be legitimate peaceful protest, while declining to make BDS part of her mayoral platform. She has also previously affirmed Israel’s right to exist.
Apparently, that combination left some comrades in the uncomfortable position of considering a candidate who might distinguish between criticizing a government and deleting a country.
The 14-13 committee decision was a triumph of tolerance, provided tolerance is defined as surviving an internal disciplinary hearing by one vote.
“It’s the oldest routine in organized politics,” said Gordon Pell, a lecturer in political science who studies how left-wing parties discipline themselves. “You build the coalition, you inspect the coalition, and then you ask the coalition to explain itself. That usually takes until spring, and by then the election is over.”
Had one member changed sides, the organization might have spent Election Day explaining why it was campaigning against the campaign it had spent months campaigning for.
A normal political party tries to win elections, then argues about policy. The DSA has pioneered a more efficient system: argue about policy until there is no election left to win.
Affordable Housing, Free Healthcare, and Electoral Self-Destruction
DSA members rightly complain that working people cannot afford Los Angeles. Rent consumes paychecks, homelessness remains visible, and basic city services can feel like subscription benefits nobody remembers purchasing.
Yet the organization nearly made its own candidate politically radioactive over an overseas-policy loyalty test.
A poll of 112 residents outside a Silver Lake laundromat found that 109 could not name the committee, two had strong feelings about R22, and one wanted to know whether the machines took cards.
This is the special genius of purity politics: construct a coalition, check whether everyone agrees on everything, then dismantle the coalition before anybody can accomplish anything.
If the DSA ran a fire department, firefighters would arrive at a burning apartment building and first debate whether the hose manufacturer had issued an adequate statement on foreign affairs.
One vote saved Raman’s endorsement. Los Angeles still has its problems. But at least the socialists can rest easy knowing they came within a whisker of defeating themselves without requiring any assistance from capitalism.
Reporting references: Los Angeles Times coverage of the DSA endorsement vote and The Forward’s reporting on Raman’s Israel positions.
Five Observations on Socialists Nearly Defeating Themselves
- Fourteen to thirteen. That’s not a vote, that’s a coin flip with a parliamentarian. You’d get a bigger margin picking a restaurant with four friends and no phone signal.
- They almost pulled an endorsement over a missing question on a questionnaire. I’ve lost plenty over a missing box on a form. A rental car. A gym membership. Never an entire political movement.
- Seven thousand five hundred miles away. You know what’s seven thousand five hundred miles from Los Angeles? Nothing the city council can fix. Meanwhile there’s a pothole on Sunset with its own zip code.
- R22. That’s a resolution? That sounds like the seat on the plane where nobody tells you the tray table is broken until you’ve already ordered the soup.
- One vote. In my family, one vote decides whether we’re going to Olive Garden, and it still ends with somebody crying in the parking lot. These people were deciding a mayoral race.