Severely shad*w banned yet again. Please interact if you see this.

One of the most endearing things that told me a lot about his character was rather than jumping on the hate-fuelled bandwagon for restricting/ shutting down Ridgeway Plaza, he conveyed the intrinsic importance of third spaces for immigrant communities; protecting it and reimagining it so that it continues to serve as a thriving cultural space as opposed to being seen in this negative, xenophobic light as the narrative was being constructed online in recent times about the noise or garbage.

Precisely. It started with Clinton; this idea that classical liberals had to abandon their liberalism in order to remain appealing to the public, as opposed to standing firm on their positions or radicalizing them further. That this was the only way. This thinking being a counteraction against the tide of sweeping neoliberalism ushered in with Reagan's socio-economic warfare during the 1980s. For years now Democrats like Obama/ Biden/ Harris consistently pushed centrist-at-best policies and the same old wall street corporate agendas, while presenting themselves as radicals who were working for popular wellbeing. Bernie and AOC are stark reminders of this too; and what Zohran will be forced to do as well. The Democratic Party anywhere else would be seen as center-Right anywhere else; not even liberal. Aligning or attempting to work within their confines will only force you to adopt their interests, as opposed to the opposite happening. They're disproportionately corporatist in every way. They are the party of Wallstreet dressed up in feel-good identity politics and a progressivism that is only about optics. Over the last 15 years, they realized that they could use the fervor of radicalism, especially after the Occupy Movement to their advantage. That there was a young angry base which could be lured in to support them if they merely adopted their aesthetic, not necessarily their demands. They only adopt the language and veneer of socialism to lure in young voters; to misdirect and then stifle any inkling of true radical, revolutionary potential from taking hold or threatening the corporatist Democratic establishment. They will never do anything to actually threaten or overthrow the structures that devastate and sow misery in the lives of Americans. They cosplay as radical and use all the right words, but it's purely theatrical— never substantive in actual policy. They show concern and offer compassion, they wear the mask of solidarity well. Yet they only offer meager concessions to appease the wave of demand or anger; to stop them right there from continuing towards achieving the ultimate end goal that would ensure actual, meaningful, material change. From ever addressing the root causes. Obama at the forefront of this political phenomena in turn pushed conservatives further to the Right than they already were, to differentiate themselves from these neoliberal centrists. And so, as everyone in the political establishment keeps pushing further to the Right within the spectrum— that's how fascism is normalized and emboldened. Not to mention that the issues people need addressed, never are. Only leaving them disillusioned with the false hopes and lies liberals peddle; further pushing them to find solace in populist and the cultist pull of the far-right as we see with MAGA.