Socialist candidate India Walton defeated in the Buffalo elections for mayor thanks to the machinations of Democratic Party centrist leaders

 

Socialist candidate India Walton’s loss in the mayoral elections in Buffalo is another example of the double standards and dishonesty of Democratic Party centrists. Walton beat Byron Brown fair and square in the Democratic Party primaries in June. She lost on Sunday because in addition to a flood of big money supporting Brown in his successful write-in campaign in Sunday’s election, the centrist Democratic Party leadership of the state of New York refrained from providing Walton with meaningful support. The Democratic centrists would prefer to have a traitor win the elections than to have a real progressive triumph.

 

I remember clearly the same thing happening to then progressive anti-war candidate Ned Lamont in CT (who I personally campaigned for, house to house in New Haven and then at the polls) who defeated Joseph Lieberman, who then left the party to run as an independent. The Lamont campaign pleaded with Bill Clinton and Obama to come to CT to campaign for him, but it never happened. As a result the Democrats lost the opportunity to have a much-needed 60-person majority in the Senate.  

 

Compare that with independent Bernie Sanders. In order to run in the primaries in 2016 he had to swear that he would support the winning candidate, that is Hillary Clinton. “Do as I say, not as I do” is the identifying slogan of Democratic centrist leaders.