{"id":96763,"date":"2026-11-02T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T07:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=96763"},"modified":"2026-11-02T07:47:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T07:47:00","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-creates-possibility-and-the-establishment-is-frightened-of-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/11\/02\/abdul-el-sayed-creates-possibility-and-the-establishment-is-frightened-of-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed creates possibility – and the Establishment is frightened of that"},"content":{"rendered":"

As The Guardian noted<\/a> in an article posted overnight:<\/p>\n

\n

Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, in an extraordinary rebuke of her party\u2019s nominee on the eve of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Her endorsement came in a video posted to X after she attended an event with Rogers at the predominantly Black Perfecting church in Detroit on Sunday. Stevens\u2019s endorsement was the culmination of an escalating feud between the former primary rivals \u2013 primarily over support for Israel \u2013 that has roiled one of the most fiercely contested Senate contests of the cycle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The story is highly significant.<\/p>\n

Firstly, there is the racism involved. Abdul El-Sayed has been viciously attacked on racist grounds by Republicans, including by Donald Trump, who casually calls him Mohammed, which is not his name, which name is being used by Trump as a form of abuse at multiple levels.<\/p>\n

Secondly, there is the role of Israel and its power to divide, in the creation of which division Israel is an active participant. No state might ever have gained as much influence over the politics of other countries without having occupied them as Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu now does. And I stress, this is a comment about politics, the particular role of the current Israeli government, and nothing else.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, there is neoliberalism. Abdul El-Sayed challenges it. Haley Stevens is so in favour of it that she is willing to cross party lines and endorse a Republican, and by implication Trump, in what I hope will be a vain attempt to stop a democratic socialist being elected in Michigan, giving rise to an increased level of opposition to the pernicious influence of neoliberalism within the US Senate.<\/p>\n

Fourth, there is then the role of the single transferable party, which is a phenomenon we see in the UK when the economic policies of the Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats and maybe other parties are virtually interchangeable, but which exists just as strongly in the USA, where many Democrats and Republicans share a very clear ideology on most economic issues.<\/p>\n

But most of all, and fifth, what is apparent is the dislike of the \u2018other\u2019 and the threat that a person who does not represent the established view poses to those who think power is theirs by right, even when, as Abdul El-Sayed has, that opponent has won popular support.<\/p>\n

For me, Abdul El-Sayed is a symbol of hope that change is possible. That doesn\u2019t mean I agree with everything he has said, or will say. Politics is never that simple. What he represents is the possibility of change, and when the system we have is rotten to its very core, as protests around the world are proving<\/a>, the need for change is incredibly high, and the fear of it amongst those with power is very apparent.<\/p>\n

That, of course, creates tension. Change would never happen without that.<\/p>\n

It also creates risk. Anyone should appreciate that.<\/p>\n

But it also creates possibility, and that possibility is what the likes of Haley Stevens seek to deny the people of Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As The Guardian noted in an article posted overnight: Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed his Republican
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,204,35,239,16,151,147,224,106,223,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-economics-of-hope","category-ethics","category-ifg8","category-inequality","category-neoliberalism","category-politics","category-politics-of-care","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96765,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763\/revisions\/96765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}