This week, it would seem, the rest of America suddenly became acquainted with Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh, the apparent front-runner in the Minneapolis mayoral election this year.
His sudden prominence is due, no doubt, to the similarities between his campaign and the campaign of Zorhan Mamdani, running for mayor of New York City.
The similarities can only go so far, with New York City being over 400 years old, America’s largest city, and the world’s financial capital. Minneapolis has a lot of lakes. Some of them are very nice.
Fateh and Mamdani share the following:
- Both men are in their mid-30’s
- Both are current state legislators
- Both are running as both Democrats and Democratic Socialists
- Both are running against incumbent Democrats with lots of baggage (Eric Adams, Jacob Frey)
- Both are running in multi-candidate races in November
They both describe themselves as African-American, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s more important is that they share similar political platforms, that if enacted, would destroy both cities.
You may be tempted to say, “So what?” We have seen in the recent past how the collapse of big cities–Detroit (MI), Oakland (CA), Baltimore (MD)–cannot be contained within their city limits.
The collateral damage spreads throughout what I refer to as “the blast radius.” Although the damage diminishes with the square of the distance, it can’t be escaped entirely.
You have a dog in these fights, whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not.
