It\u2019s bizarre that a terrorist-loving, America-hating Florida grad student is a top contender for a New York City House seat, but Darializa Avila Chevalier\u2019s success exposes how flabby, complacent and value-free the mainstream local Democratic Party has grown in its uncompetitive echo chamber.<\/p>\n
Why is Rep. Adriano Espaillat\u2019s campaign floundering, when by usual measures he\u2019s done everything right?<\/p>\n
A reliable progressive and go-along pol, one who smoothly plays the game of urban ethnopolitics, usually has no trouble holding on to his seat for decades.<\/p>\n
Instead, Espaillat may lose to a woman who believes Hamas did nothing<\/a> wrong on Oct. 7, who brags of using the American flag to wipe herself with and who curses black or Arab men who \u201cfetishize ugly colonizer women,\u201d meaning white ones.<\/p>\n The problem is that Espaillat is a classic Democratic \u201cmachine\u201d operative when the Democrats long ago gave up true machine politics in the sense of appealing to and providing for a base of popular support.<\/p>\n Instead, urban Dems chose an easier path, become the tools of public sector unions and government-funded nonprofits.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n They shovel public money at these interests and bend government power to their benefit; in exchange, those machines provide the endorsements and support that wins election after election. <\/p>\n But mercenaries have no loyalty: These interests will play ball with whoever\u2019s in power. <\/p>\n Which leaves the modern Dem machine no loyalists at all beyond the much-diminished ranks of clubhouse hacks.<\/p>\n