Mayor Zohran Mamdani has moved swiftly to reshape City Hall, issuing an executive order that revokes all directives signed by former Mayor Eric Adams after September 26, 2024 — the date of Adams’s indictment.
Mamdani framed the move as a defense of working-class New Yorkers, though he did not provide specific examples of policies affected.
Well that’s the thing about executive orders. If you don’t want it easily undone, then you go through the actual proper channels to meaningfully change the thing.
In theory I 100% agree. But right now our legislatures are typically in gridlock and executive orders are the only way things get done.
If legislative can’t do anything. It shouldn’t be done. Gridlock is no excuse to bypass democratic processes
You assume those processes were ever democratic to begin with. The truth is that they’ve been rigged against the common people since they were first written.
I’m all for following the rules, but we can’t ever put the rules before people’s lives and wellbeing. If the law is unjust, you have a duty to disobey it. This includes legislative gridlock engineered to stifle progress and thwart the will of the people.
The idea that rules are less important than lives is exactly a part of the process that causes things like the war on terror.
Unjust rules should be broken, but rules should not be broken just because lives are at stake.
Basic rights > rules > lives
A whole hell of a lot more democratic than one mayor deciding things. I’m from Chicago, I’m well aware of issues with the process. But I think you’re overstating it to say it’s wholly undemocratic
If it was truly a democratic proces then we wouldn’t even be able to have this conversation, because Adams would have been removed from office as soon as he was found to be corrupt. (Which is a prime example of how the “rules” only apply to the poor - why should we follow them blindly when those in power don’t!?) But the system isn’t working and hasn’t been for decades (If indeed it ever did) and to cling to it now as though the government will save us is foolish.
I care about the rules, this whole conversation started because I said I didn’t like the idea of blanket rescinding of executive orders. It sets a bad precedent. But we can’t cling to “the Rules” as though they are a self-enforcing mandate from some deity.
There are no gods here to save us. Politicians will not save us. The system will not save us.
WE will save us.
We will use the system and the rules when we can and abandon it where we must. But no matter what, we must not put blind faith in anyone or anything, because power corrupts and those in power cannot truly represent our interests because they are not one of us. And that distrust must always also extend to the rules they have written and force us to follow at gunpoint, because they add exceptions for themselves and catch-22s for us.
Of course I don’t want one mayor deciding things. But I also sure as entropy don’t want him sitting on his hands because of some stupid rule like the filibuster or whatever when he has a mandate from the people to represent their interests.
I’m sure he’ll turn out just as spineless as any other politician, but let’s not handcuff him just yet. He might just prove us wrong.