Eric Adams was a dishwasher and a policeman. Now the African-American vegan has been elected mayor in New York. His recipe for success: the captivating narrator lets people dream with his own story.

From the east to the west coast of America, the Democrats struggled in regional and local elections last week. They were often lost to their Republican challengers.

In New York, however, Eric Adams triumphed with a huge 67 percent of the vote. His victory speech alone revealed why. With an eloquence reminiscent of Barack Obama, a poignant pathos and a beaming laugh, he conquered his audience: “My story is your story and I did not just want new yorkers to hear my story. I wanted them to feel my story. I wanted them to know. I am you.”

The half-hour speech was like the final scene of a maudlin Hollywood flick, in which the hero speaks again to his comrades-in-arms after the happy ending: Tonight is the proof “that the forgotten can be the future,” said Adams.

After all, he was also one of those forgotten people who can hardly afford a roof over their heads. He and his five siblings would have carried a garbage bag with clothes to school every day because they had to expect to be thrown out of their apartment at any time.

“My mother cleaned houses. I washed dishes. I was beaten by the police. Now I will be the person in charge.”

Like a rapper, Adams also summarized these thoughts in a pithy “punchline”: “Where you are is not who you are.”

From police victim to police officer

Adams describes the brief arrest as a 15-year-old as a personal turning point. He and his brother into the apartment of a stripper who allegedly broke allegedly owed them money for errands. The police officers repeatedly kicked them in the groin, which caused the urination of blood for almost seven days, Adams said in an interview in 2016.

But instead of developing a hatred of the police, Adams decided to become a police officer himself in order to change the institution from within. After the painful encounter with the law enforcement officers, he relived these moments every time he saw a police car or heard a siren. That is why he entered the service with such an aggressive idea of ​​reform.

In 1995, Adams founded the organization “100 Blacks In Law Enforcement Who Care”, which criticized the grievances within the police with regular press conferences, but also held workshops on correct behavior during a police check. At the same time, Adams took evening classes to get a college degree in criminal law. With this episode in his life, too, the poor student encouraged in his victory speech the disadvantaged: “There may be a young person out there who doesn’t think he’s smart enough to study at a university. I had such doubts too. But I overcame my learning disabilities and, as mayor, I will now be responsible for the entire education authority.”

Adams retired after 22 years in the police force, successfully running for the New York State Senate in 2006, and becoming the first African American to be elected district chief in Brooklyn – his birthplace – in 2013. For years he had been quite immodest and announced that he was striving for the office of mayor. Now he ended his victory speech with the words: “Tonight I have accomplished my dream and with all my heart, I’m going to remove the barriers, that are preventing you from accomplishing yours.”

The new face of the Democrats?

With his story, Adams makes people dream. That is his most important recipe for success. But not the only thing: During the election campaign, he described himself as “the face of the new Democratic Party”. If his party fails to realize what he and his team have achieved in New York, it will have a problem in the mid-term elections for Congress in 2022 and the next presidential election, Adams warned. And he’s probably not wrong about that.

Adams is a nightmare for left-wing democrats who fight police violence against African Americans with a reduction in police budgets and who want to win back the voices of the working class with an expansion of the welfare state and tax increases for the rich. In the summer, the former police captain criticized on a late-night show “the demonization of public security and people with high incomes” . 65,000 New Yorkers would pay 51 percent of income taxes. “If we lose them, we will lose the teachers, the firefighters and the municipal cleaning staff.”

Given strong rising homicide rates in US cities fell Adams’ message on fertile ground. His left-wing critics, however, did not succeed in caricaturing him merely as a right-wing law-and-order fanatic. Adams not only wants to invest in safety, but also in education: starting with state care for toddlers and providing greater support for students with learning difficulties to the introduction of meditation in the classroom. “If you don’t train people, you have to lock them up later,” Adams is convinced.

Healthier lunches at schools are also important to the new mayor. Ultimately, Adams is convinced that he was only able to cure a diabetes illness diagnosed in 2016 and impending blindness thanks to a vegan diet. He published a book about it – “Finally healthy” – with recipes from celebrities and health experts.

“I am perfectly imperfect”

There are, however, doubts about whether Adams can really make the dreams of his constituents possible that he has nurtured. Because as masterfully as he tells his story and knits, there are also unsightly stains in it. In his first year in the New York Senate, he called MPs’ compensation a “joke” and asked for more money. According to research by “New York Magazine”, his temporary change of party to the Republicans was primarily due to material reasons: As the head of a committee, he received more wages, a larger office and access to party donors.

In the election campaign, badly declared rental income from residential property, trips to China, Azerbaijan and Turkey allegedly paid for by the host countries, his preference for exclusive nightclubs and doubts as to whether Adams even lives in New York made headlines. Ultimately, however, that bad news wasn’t enough to tarnish his Hollywood-mature history. Regarding the question of his place of residence, it turned out that he often slept on a sofa in his office, filled the refrigerator with vegetables, exercised on exercise machines and meditated to oriental music.

Eric Adams wants to be many things at once and to prove that these are not mutually exclusive, writes the “New York Times”. And this is exactly what makes him so difficult to attack for his opponents. He will find it difficult to meet the high expectations that he arouses with his immodest goals and promises. That is why he sprinkled humble and self-deprecating words in his victory speech: “I am perfectly imperfect.”

In the end, he is only human like all New Yorkers.

“Sometimes folks we’re going to succeed, sometimes we’re going to try and we’re going to fail. But damn it, we’re not going to fail that trying.”

Image Credit: Getty

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