New York has a chance to generate all its electricity from clean energy by 2030 | Ross Barkan

If Democrats act, New Yorkers will begin to get the government they deserve. With climate cataclysms here, the political system can't afford more delays

It has been, for progressives in New York, a trying year.

Major pieces of legislation that were supposed to reshape the state to safeguard the working class have stalled out. A bill to create a statewide single-payer healthcare system is no closer to passage than it was several years ago. A push to guarantee new protections for tenants as rents soar in New York City could not find the votes. And ambitious legislation to combat climate that did have the votes to go through the state legislature was halted by the speaker of the state assembly.

Ross Barkan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York