Who Is Eric Adams?
 Expand John Minchillo/AP Photo New York Democratic mayoral primary winner Eric Adams attends a parade honoring essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, July 7, 2021, in New York. To begin with Adams himself, his decades of shape-shifting doubtless contributed both to his victory and to the difficulty in characterizing him politically. At times, and in the case of The New York Times, in the same story, the media has painted him as both the establishment and anti-establishment candidate, police critic and police defender, Reagan-era Republican and Biden-era Democrat, working-class tribune and the go-to guy for the real estate lobby. Each of these characterizations has some merit, though some have a lot more merit than others. Im partial to one that Adams himself offered, when asked about his ties to the citys powerful (actually, hegemonic) real estate industry. I am real estate, Adams answered. That could mean he owns property himself. It could mean hes receptive to the industrys requests. It could mean hes signaling he can be bought and sold, just like, well, real estate. More from Harold Meyerson  My fear is that the third option rings the bell. Throughout his career as an elected official, Adams has been eager to do Big Real Estates bidding and has received Big Real Estates big money for his campaigns, most especially his current mayoral bid. But one semi-distinctive identity that Adams carved for himself during the campaign was the Democratic version of a Republican trope: that liberal cultural and economic elites were seeking to impose their politics on working-class voters who didnt share them. He focused, as Republicans do, on the defund the police battle cry that, in actuality, very few Democratic elected officials espouse. To explain the resonance this attack had with Adamss mostly working-class voters, a look at who occupies New Yorks public spaces, and who doesnt, may prove helpful. Its disproportionately the working class who ride the subways and live in neighborhoods where crime is more of a threat. Its disproportionately the working-class elderly who fear being trapped in these spaces and unable to flee. Adams was sufficiently politically adept to exploit these fears, highlighting the kind of identity politics that would most appeal to such voters. He was the Black cop on the beat, a neighborhood fixture who presumably wouldnt threaten Blacks because they were Black. He didnt particularly highlight economic issues, because his status as a Democrat had that sufficiently covered with all but the most progressive voters, whom he wasnt targeting anyway. And hed been in the public eye long enough so that his core voters believed he was a known quantity, though the various deals hed been involved innone of which had really been subjected to widespread media scrutinysuggested that there was a lot about him his core voters (and not just his core voters) didnt know. In a sense, Adams reminds me of a long-vanished species of New York pol: a Tammany guy. In a sense, Adams reminds me of a long-vanished species of New York pol: a Tammany guy. Not that hes part of a machine that is supported by graft and employs and rewards its supporters; such machines vanished in the middle of the last century. But like Adams, Tammanys elected officials were devoid of discernable ideology. They based their appeal not just on that of Tammany itself, but also on ethnic solidarity, on working-class resentment of good-government elites, and on being established figures in their respective communities, though they generally had to be prodded by non-Tammany progressives to support economic policies that actually benefited those communities. (The greatest of Tammany bosses, Charles Murphy, had to be persuaded by a young reformer named Frances Perkinswho would later become FDRs labor secretarythat supporting wage and hour legislation would actually help the organizations electoral prospects. She was right; it did.) Keep this site free and open for all to read... SUPPORT THE PROSPECT  Adams hasnt been alone in bringing Republican-sounding attacks on progressives into the Democrats discourse. South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn has periodically excoriated the Squad and others of his Democratic congressional colleagues for being wedded to theory rather than the hard realities that are part of Black working-class lives, even though those Black working-class lives would be literally and figuratively enriched by the far-reaching economic reforms progressives are proposing (see: Charles Murphy and Frances Perkins, or for that matter, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders). Given his susceptibility to the lure of the realtors and other mega-monied interests, its by no means clear that Adams will embrace progressive economic policies as Biden has. Securing such an embrace will require constant pressure from the citys progressives, from its more liberal unions; groups like Make the Road, the Working Families Party, and DSA; perhaps the Times editorial pages (progressive on policies though not always on candidates); the left wing of the city council; and the two other citywide elected officials, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and newly elected Comptroller Brad Lander, who repeatedly showed during his tenure on the council that hes the smartest and most strategic progressive in any American city government. The fact that both Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer mounted credible candidacies until Stringers imploded meant that key progressive leaders (like AOC) and institutions (like the WFP) didnt give full-throated support to Wiley until very late in the game. The young, upstart democratic socialists who won elections throughout the citys five boroughs were likely too young and too upstart to mount a mayoral campaign at this time. Looking at Americas three mega-citiesNew York, Los Angeles, and Chicagoits clear that todays left can win numerous council seats and sub-mayoral citywide positions, but not yet the mayors office. That office may remain out of reach until the left can convince more unions and more working-class voters that its economic policies would really improve their lives, and that its other policies wouldnt threaten them. Convincing workers, and not just in cities, that a conversion to a green economy can actually be beneficial will require formulating and publicizing detailed economic-transition policies that still need a great deal of work. Convincing working-class voters that policing can be transformed, though not abolished, will require a great deal more thought within the left as to what, exactly, that actually means, and what a critical mass of working-class voters of all races will actually support. Until progressives have figured this out, we may see more latter-day Tammany Dems like Adams in mayors offices.