The Illusion of Voice in the Bifurcated State
The persistent failure of the city’s political class to represent the interests of the working class, despite demographic diversity, is not an anomaly but a feature of the bifurcated state. Mamdani’s work shows that the political machine is designed to incorporate and neutralize dissent, not amplify it. Politicians, even those from “native” backgrounds, are often absorbed by the settler logic of real estate and finance capital, their identities used as a shield for policies that harm their own communities. This creates an illusion of voice while maintaining the underlying power structure. A Marxist analysis sees this as the subordination of the political sphere to the economic. A feminist perspective demands accountability from those who claim to represent us. The solution is building independent political organizations outside the Democratic machine, grounded in class struggle and accountable directly to the people, not to capital.
