Is Nithya Raman plucking daisy petals, or running for mayor?
They direct me, they direct me not … Which is it? She won’t say.
Raman evaded questions from the California Post on whether or not as mayor she’d advance looney Democratic Socialists of America policies — including expropriating private property. Meanwhile, in a recent interview with LA media, Raman equivocated.
Asked if she’d “co-govern” with DSA-LA — as per that group’s expectation of her — Raman said yes. But also, she said, she’d co-govern with all the groups — “with everyone.”
Huh?
Raman needs to cut the gobbledygook, and level with the public: She’s running to unseat Mayor Karen Bass on Nov. 3. Would she peddle DSA-LA policies from the mayor’s seat, or not?
Simple question. No straight answer.
This much is clear: Nithya Raman is proudly endorsed by DSA-LA. She’s been a member of the City Council’s nutty socialist faction for years — and voted accordingly. DSA-LA does, after all, expect DSA-endorsed elected officials to advance what it calls “our program.” That program includes seizing private property, defunding the police, and ending restrictions on homeless “camping.”
It also calls for funding “safe” drug-injection sites; using taxpayer money to run grocery stores, restaurants and internet service; and letting noncitizens vote in LA elections. (Raman & Co. pushed for the latter just this summer.)
This is a group that Raman says she’d “co-govern” with as mayor. So: Would she use mayoral power to push some or all of the DSA’s looney-tunes program? The California Post asked specifically about 16 planks of the socialists’ platform. Raman wouldn’t address a single one.
Raman’s lack of clarity — and refusal to renounce extreme politics — should ring alarm bells citywide. And her bit about co-governing not just with the DSA but with “everyone”? Laughable.
How would such omnigovernance work, exactly? If running the city is just a big co-governing lovefest, then why elect a mayor at all?
We have a guess, and it’s straight out of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: All (co-governing) groups are equal, but some groups are more equal than others.
Perhaps the least equal of all? The law and order crowd.
For years, Raman and her council colleagues have badly botched local government’s most fundamental responsibility: public safety. The councilwoman — along with her DSA pals on the council — has voted to shrink police funding, shift resources away from policing and ease restrictions on squalid homeless “camping” in LA.
The California Post reported in April that the council’s lunatic DSA faction had even plotted to take over and run the LAPD themselves. Yikes.
So it’s no wonder that the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents 8,700 LAPD officers, opposes Raman’s mayoral bid.
The union’s leading a push to help voters understand what the DSA is, what it really represents (hint: it’s not about helping working people) and how close it is with Raman.
Of course, by ducking the DSA question, Raman — unwittingly, perhaps — insults the same voters she courts. Her evasions make her look weak, shifty and irresolute.
The bottom-line question is this: Is Nithya Raman running for mayor to represent the people of Los Angeles? Or is she running to represent a small group of fringe socialists who want to cement control over City Hall?
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The post Who is Nithya Raman *really* running to represent? appeared first on New York Post.
