New York, Washington Eric Adams is different: a former police officer from a poor background, a yogi and vegan. The new New York mayor does not fit any mold, including that of the American Democrats. And that’s why he is – after only two weeks in office – already a beacon of hope for the Democratic Party.
Adams is for vaccinations, testing and masks. But he doesn’t want to close the educational institutions in the largest school district in the USA, because otherwise it would be the socially disadvantaged who would suffer the most. He also announced the fight against escalating crime in the city of nine million.
He also speaks to the police unions, which his predecessor Bill de Blasio avoided and spurned. This sets Adams apart from the mostly white establishment of his party. That is precisely why more and more political observers are already seeing potential in him for the White House.
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“Despite Joe Biden’s mysterious digression to the Sanders-Warren left, we now have two prominent, nationally visible Democrats — Senator Joe Manchin and the Mayor of New York — arguing that the Democrats’ future lies elsewhere,” writes the Wall Street Journal” in a comment. If the dismantling of progressive politics in Washington and around the country continues, then someone has to pick up the pieces. “How does Manchin Adams sound?”
The New York Post also writes that a successful post-Biden future for the Democrats lies more with a New York Mayor Eric Adams than with Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg. As an African-American ex-cop with a difficult childhood, Adams enjoys street cred.
In fact, Adams was not elected by the liberal elite in Manhattan, but in the poorer neighborhoods of the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn – areas hardest hit by gang fighting and the fallout from the Covid pandemic.
More police and safer streets
While the progressive, mostly white Democrats, who also included the last Mayor Bill De Blasio, fundamentally condemn the police as racist and are pushing for their disempowerment, many New Yorkers want the opposite: more police and safer streets.
Even Eric Trump, the son of former US President Donald Trump, likes the new mayor: “It’s so great to have a new mayor in New York who wants to fight crime and keep the schools open. I wish Eric Adams incredible luck!” he tweeted earlier this year.
Adams, who himself was abused in a police basement as a youth and who later campaigned against racism in his own ranks as a police officer, said on his first day in office: “I don’t believe that we can only have justice and not public safety. We will have both.”
Among other things, he wants to reintroduce the controversial civilian police officers, who many progressives see as examples of the brutality and racism of the law enforcement agencies. He also made a clear announcement to the gangs of the city. “Yes, it’s true that I sit down with gang leaders,” he clarified. “But you won’t shoot my city down!”
Adams believes he’s hitting a nerve with his law-and-order policy. Not just in New York, but across the country and, he hopes, soon in his own party. “Look at me and you see the future of the Democratic Party,” he said. “If the Democratic Party doesn’t recognize what we’ve done here in New York, they’re going to have a problem in the coming midterms and they’re going to have a problem with the presidential election,” Adams said.
Above all, he meant his election victory with an election campaign on the subject of crime and a return to life in the city.
“A good feeling for the right balance”
“Adams is a cool, smart guy who has a good sense of balance,” says Ari Ginsberg, an economics professor at the prestigious NYU Stern School of Business. Ginsberg worked with Adams when he was president of Brooklyn — the largest of New York’s five boroughs, with a population of 2.7 million. Adams has turned Brooklyn into a technology hub, praises Ginsberg. “And if he’s successful with New York, then he’ll rise in the Democratic Party, too,” predicts Ginsberg.
Above all, the new mayor wants to bring life back to the city.
(Photo: AP)
Other observers aren’t quite so sure: “Historically, trying to get a New York mayor to become president has never been successful — see Rudy Giuliani, see Michael Bloomberg,” says Isaac Wright, Democratic strategist at polling firm Forward Solution Strategy Group , to consider. “But you shouldn’t underestimate Eric Adams: He’s doing an incredibly great job in an incredibly challenging city,” he admits.
“It’s probably foolish to think that a New York City mayor will make it into a national political figure. But I still think Eric Adams would be in my top five when it comes to who will be the next presidential candidate after Joe Biden,'” data journalism media entrepreneur Nate Silver tweeted.
Adams dismissed recent criticism of his brother Bernard Adams’ appointment as head of security, saying his predecessors also included confidants. “When other mayors hired their legal partners and people they knew from college and who made their careers with them, nobody said anything,” he countered at an appointment in Queens. “But I have the audacity to hire workers. Normal people who were in the union” – and suddenly it would be said: But that’s not possible.
Adams, who took the subway to work day one and biked day two to work, doesn’t just rely on Law and Order. Above all, he wants to bring life back to the city that once never slept. He says to the bank directors, who are sending their employees home again: “We cannot close the city. New York doesn’t work from the home office” and “we have to find ways to live with Covid”.
After all, every bank employee also secures jobs in the city: “He is part of a financial ecosystem: he goes to the laundry. He goes to the restaurant. He brings business travelers. He’s buying a hot dog,” he explains, adding with a smile, “hopefully a vegan one.”
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