Andrew Lee looks critically at the history of socialist politicians being elected to office. Originally posted to In Struggle.  There’s a lot of understandable jubilation at Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor. Nationally, liberal talking heads have been counseling Democrats to “moderate” their positions to regain power. In practice,...

There’s a good reason for this, and it’s not (just) that their beliefs were insincere. The whole point of thinking about structures like capitalism, patriarchy, or white supremacy is recognizing structural power beyond the intentions or beliefs of any individual actor. The problem with capitalism isn’t that particular business owners are greedy, it’s that the system of private ownership requires exploitation and poverty. The problem with patriarchy isn’t that all men happen to be evil and all non-men happen to be saints. The problem is the system that secures wealth, power, and safety for one gender at the expense of others.

We should think about state power in the same systematic way. It’s true—some politicians are especially terrible, just like some bosses are particularly noxious and some men are exceptionally patriarchal. But there are structural reasons for all men to take advantage of the privileges of patriarchy, whether we’re personally bigoted or not. Similarly, there are structural forces pressuring leftists in elected office to abandon their positions, entirely independent of their degree of personal ideological commitment