Eileen Higgins’s win has reset the city’s political landscape in some ways not seen in 28 years, and in others not at all

Miami’s new mayor, Eileen Higgins, hailed it as “a new day” for the city after the Democrat ended three decades of Republican rule on Tuesday night in a stunning election triumph.

In reality, the result is more of a seismic shifting of sands given the magnitude of her victory over the Donald Trump-backed Republican candidate, Emilio González, in the most populous city in Miami-Dade county, which the president won in 2024 by 12%.

Higgins won the run-off with almost 60% of the vote, according to preliminary results reported Wednesday by the Miami Herald. More than just further evidence of a growing national backlash against Trump’s policies on the national stage, particularly immigration, her win has reset Miami’s political landscape in a manner not seen in some ways in 28 years, and in others not at all.

    • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      I think you overestimate the class consciousness of the average American voter. Biden didn’t get “pathetic votes”, he got the most votes of any president ever. Even just proportionately, all the presidents in the last century with a clear majority win have been neolib types.

      People don’t want to eat the rich, people wanna eat hamburgers and play video games. You and your little online message board friends (myself included) want to eat the rich, and if you spend all your time here you might fool yourself into thinking the average American has a somewhat elevated class consciousness. They do not.

      My work brings me in contact with all sorts of people across all strata of life. The average person just kinda muddles through life, they don’t really spend any particular length of time thinking about anything really, whatever their favorite diversion is perhaps (games, sports, TV, movies, etc.).

      I personally talked to a surprising number of people who, after the election, thought Biden was the candidate in 2024. People genuinely just do not care. They have basically no media literacy, no knowledge of current events, no general practice of critical thinking.

      We’re not gonna get a progressive president before the general class consciousness shifts significantly. What we can get is an FDR type who will at least talk to the progressives at the table, and then get progressive to the table.

      Slow and steady, comrade snail.

      • quick_snail@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        I think you underestimate the class consciousness of the average US American.

        Most people who can vote, don’t vote. Give them a progressive candidate, not some obvious corporate puppet, and people will elect them.

          • quick_snail@feddit.nl
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            22 hours ago

            Because Bernie isn’t a democrat. He’s a progressive.

            Democrats want people that are corrupt and favor policy for rich people and big businesses

            • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              19 hours ago

              Yes, he’s a progressive, that’s my point. When the people were presented a neolib and a progressive, the neolib doubled the progressive’s votes. Primaries are decided by voters.

              • quick_snail@feddit.nl
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 hours ago

                My point is that the only people who voted in that primary were Democrats, which is not a party of progressives, nor do they represent the average US American

                • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  7 hours ago

                  And my point is that your assessment of the average American is not supported by evidence. I would certainly wish that the average American would be in support of a progressive candidate, but there are no facts to support it. We can’t direct strategy with wishful speculation. We have to suit our strategies to the actual conditions of the environment in which we live.