{"id":3691,"date":"2021-04-25T01:13:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T05:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/?p=3691"},"modified":"2021-04-25T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T17:10:00","slug":"endorsement-caban-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/?p=3691","title":{"rendered":"Endorsement: CAB\u00c1N FEVER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, recipient of the 2019 Risk Taker Award at the Mazals, the annual gala of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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By Sheldon Ranz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all of my adult life as a left political activist in New York City, I\u2019ve had more than my share of high hopes \u2013 and shattered dreams. As a leader of Jewish Americans for Jackson 1988, I felt the high hopes of the 1988 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign that catapulted David Dinkins to Gracie Mansion to become NYC\u2019s first African American mayor in 1989, only to have him serve one mediocre term and be succeeded by the horrific Rudy Giuliani; I felt the high hopes of a 1997 mayoral run by democratic socialist Ruth Messinger, a campaign betrayed by corrupt, sexist union bosses who succeeded in getting Giuliani re-elected.  What preserved my sanity was getting married and raising a family in the \u2018burbs. You could say I took a time-out. As my children blossomed into adulthood, I started to notice that Manhattan was still floating on the Hudson. So, I gradually began to renew my previously-abandoned pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with all things on the Left lately, that renewal really took off with Bernie Sanders and his 2016 run for the White House. No longer did we socialists have to hide our political identity behind euphemisms like \u2018economic democracy\u2019. Bernie made it OK to be out as socialists and this part of the Cold War was now over. Then came the twin bombshells of the 2018 New York midterm elections: AOC upsetting Joe Crowley for Congress and Julia Salazar upsetting Martin Dilan for the North Brooklyn State Senate. Progressive laws have been enacted that we on the Left used to only dream about.  But those changes have emanated from the federal and state levels of government.  What about from the municipal level?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This June 22 offers the best chance the Big Apple has this year to serve as the site for a comparable city-wide transformation . Due to term limits and the official debut of city-wide ranked-choice voting, seats on the New York City Council are up for grabs like never before. A slew of progressives and open socialists are running, but the most impressive candidate is Tiffany Cab\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cab\u00e1n, an openly queer Latinx woman, first drew national attention in 2019 when she nearly upset the Democratic Establishment\u2019s pick for Queens District Attorney, Melinda Katz, finishing just 55 votes short after a recount.\u00a0 By trade, she is a public defender. She was part of a wave of reform-minded DA candidates that have won in Philadelphia and San Francisco; her outspoken stances on carceral reform, support for marijuana legalization and sex work decriminalization earned her the endorsement of both Berne Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Rumors put her on the short list for US Attorney General in a Sanders administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of letting her close loss in 2019 get her down, she picked herself up and went to work as a national political organizer for the Working Families Party, making it a more effective asset of the Democratic Left. Last fall, she declared her candidacy for the City Council representing the 22nd<\/sup> Council district (Astoria, Queens).\u00a0 She is the only real progressive running for that seat.\u00a0 Her basic platform is the same – with a strong emphasis on defunding the police – and is needed more than ever.\u00a0(cabanforqueens.com<\/a><\/em>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the current crop of City\nCouncil candidates overall, she is the one who best exudes leadership and a\ntalent for coalition-building, on the one hand; and a fierce willingness to\nchallenge the new mayor from the Council chamber, on the other hand. Of course,\nno one person, no matter how gifted, can do it all. It takes a movement, and\nfew know that better than Tiffany Cab\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheldon Ranz is the editor of\nSocialist Currents and SD USA\u2019s Director of Special Projects.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sheldon Ranz For all of my adult life as a left political activist in New York City, I\u2019ve had more than my share of high hopes \u2013 and shattered dreams. As a leader of Jewish Americans for Jackson 1988, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3691"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3707,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions\/3707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}