New Jersey‘s special election on Thursday night to replace Governor Sherrill’s District 11 seat did not go as planned. Analilia Mejia a late entry, but well known in labor and organizing circles emerged as a formidable candidate and as of this writing still holds a scalpel edge over Tom Malinowski.
Going through social media and the news, and once again, the politics of disaster patriarchy have again surfaced, this time in an attempt to caricature congressional candidate Analilia Mejia as anti-Israel. This characterization is not only inaccurate but a deliberate misrepresentation of her platform. Mejia campaigned on middle-class values, values which, in the American ideal, are fundamentally rooted in justice.
Mejia’s campaign is built on a material critique of corporate hegemony and a dedication to collective security. Her platform is built on rooting out extractive capitalism policies:
•A moratorium on data centers until we have a process that is fair to our current generation and our future.
•Universal healthcare because we shouldn’t go bankrupt because we get sick.
•An exciting public housing initiative and a ban on hedge-fund ownership. Housing does need to be de-commodified
•On infrastructure, she frames investment in projects like the Gateway Tunnel not as pork but as a necessary reclaiming of public goods—essential for family time, safety, and dignity.
•Strengthening the PRO Act to penalize union-busting and rebuild working-class power against decades of corporate assault, because we shouldn’t need a Superman to have access to good jobs.
That is a JUST middle class platform.
There have always been two Americas: a fascist one living alongside a just one. The just America is the one I believe in. It stands for justice, strives to include everyone, admits its mistakes and corrects them, and acts with fundamental kindness. Cynicism like conservatism is a form of selfish individualism.
Mejia’s positions internationally, reflects a conviction held by many: that leaders such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump exploit fear for political gain, often at the expense of vulnerable populations. This critique is not singularly directed at Israel. Instead, it identifies a pattern visible in nations including Egypt, China, Myanmar, Iran, Nigeria, India, and the United States—societies where legal and social systems routinely privilege some groups over others.
Like many of her supporters, Mejia affirms that Israel, like the United States, “possesses both a right and a responsibility to exist as a just democracy.” This distinction is crucial.
The conduct of certain media actors is poisonous, particularly the New Jersey press and political groups, which uplifts both sexism and racism for what in the past just seemed like for clicks and prizes, but now I see as a style of stochastic terrorism. Through insinuation and provocative framing, they are indirectly inciting political attacks against Mejia and, to a lesser degree, Governor Mikie Sherrill. In effect, they are goading Trump and aligned oligarchs to assault both politicians and OUR communities for stances and tones that neither has adopted.
People are afraid, and the dishonest New Jersey press is literally begging Trump to come here and put these women in their places, so a man can save us.
