Eric Adams’s Victory and the Uncertainty of the Biden-Era Democratic Party

No one really knows what Eric Adams’s city would be like. In part, that is Adams’s own fault. As David Schleicher, of Yale Law School, pointed out recently, the nominee’s policy agenda consists of “blog posts and platitudes—an afterthought.” But lately the vision thing has been a national problem for the Democrats, too. In this sense, Adams may be, as he declared himself, the new face of the Democratic Party, somebody whose aims are still a little undefined. The mayoral election underscored the main revelation of the 2020 Presidential primaries: that the constituency for overtly progressive politics is still too small to win major elections, which circumscribes the Party’s reform agenda even though Democratic élites are further to the left than they’ve been in a generation. The potential for greater reform hinges, to a depressing degree, on what can be sold in Washington as “infrastructure”—as merely fixing what’s already there, rather than trying what is ambitious and new. If you are feeling hopeful about Adams’s city, you might focus on his alignment with some business interests and the poorest parts of the city, and imagine a program of development that cools the heat of gentrification and builds the housing and infrastructure that poor neighborhoods need. But Adams didn’t strike those notes as the campaign ended. Instead, he made clear whom he’s with and whom he’s against—he played the tabloid character. Right now, the next mayor has more alignments than plans.