I am open to the idea that I am the categorically illiterate idiot you are talking about. Can you explain the error this guy is making? Isn't Mamdani a leftist making good things real by way of getting elected into power?

Again, I am clearly missing something obvious.
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Marx, Engels, Luxemburg and Lenin wrote extensively and explicitly that running in elections, seriously, to win, is actually a hard requirement, not optional, not something to be avoided.

There’s “socialist” traditions that oppose participation in existing politics, but none of them are Marxist.
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you participate to demonstrate the illegitimacy of the bourgeois elections, not to win.

you "win" public favor by demonstrating how hard the system will actually fight your ideas, or turn your candidates into corrupt puppets for the system.

this is explicit from all of those people you named.
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