Los Angeles voters are staring down a mayoral choice that offers little hope to residents who still believe in law, order, and basic competence in government.
The citys current leader, Mayor Karen Bass, has presided over a deepening crisis, from the entrenched homeless catastrophe to her widely criticized handling of the January 2025 wildfires that obliterated entire neighborhoods. According to RedState, the situation has become so dire that federal authorities were forced to intervene in downtowns infamous Skid Row on Thursday, stepping in where Bass and other California officials have repeatedly failed to act. The federal cleanup effort underscored what many Angelenos already suspect: local leadership is either unwilling or unable to restore order and dignity to a city that once symbolized opportunity.
Yet the alternative on the November ballot hardly inspires confidence. After voters declined to advance fire victim and former reality television personality Spencer Pratt to the general election, the race has effectively narrowed to Bass and Democratic socialist Councilwoman Nithya Raman of District 4. Raman has built a reputation as a hard-left ideologue who appears hostile to law enforcement, indifferent to public safety, and unbothered by homeless encampments spilling into residential neighborhoods.
That record is now colliding with a heated social media skirmish that has laid bare the ideological gulf between City Hall and those tasked with keeping the streets safe. The battle for L.A. mayor is heating up on social media. Mayor Karen Bass campaign is targeting Councilmember Nithya Raman over a now-deleted Instagram video in which Raman repeats the phrase fascist liars.
Bass campaign says the video appeared to target the mayor and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, while Ramans team says the comment was directed at ICE officers and that Raman asked for the post to be removed. The latest clash comes with less than a month until the election. Video provided to Los Angeles Magazine by Bass Campaign team.
The controversy traces back to Ramans long-standing hostility toward immigration enforcement and the Los Angeles Police Department. In a resurfaced interview, she berated LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell for not doing more to obstruct ICE operations in the city and for cracking down on protesters who, despite her insistence that they were merely exercising their First Amendment rights, repeatedly turned violent in June 2025. She all but called him a fascist liar. Bass was quick to pounce.
Raman went further, making clear that McDonnells job would be on the line if she wins the mayors office. I don't believe that Chief McDonnell has met this moment, and I will make sure that we are appointing a police chief who can really respond to the needs that immigrant Angelenos have and that every resident of Los Angeles has. The clip ended with her and her interviewer pointing to the camera, chanting, Only you can stop fascist liars."
For a city already struggling with crime, open-air drug markets, and waves of illegal immigration, the prospect of a mayor eager to purge the police leadership for enforcing the law should alarm anyone who values public safety. McDonnell, for his part, did not remain silent as the attacks mounted. McDonnell was none too pleased to hear the comments, and on Thursday, he fired back.
The chiefs comments came after the California Post revealed Raman spent hours sipping drinks at a trendy Silver Lake restaurant while riots erupted in downtown Los Angeles on June 6, 2025 I was out there, McDonnell told The Post in a pointed reference to Ramans happy hour drinks session as the city burned. I dont know that people who are criticizing us were anywhere near there.
Pressed about Ramans fascist rhetoric, McDonnell said he typically tries to ignore political sniping to stay focused on his duties. Its very disappointing to me that we have to deal with that, he said. In the second-largest city in America, we expect more than that.
Raman has tried to frame the 2025 unrest as a peaceful exercise of Constitutional rights, but the facts on the ground tell a different story. Although Raman falsely claimed that the protesters were only exercising their Constitutional Right, the reality is that no one has the right to drop concrete chunks directed at law enforcement from overpasses. McDonnell: They were being assaulted by commercial-grade fireworks, which can kill you. Those can be lethal, he said.
We were in a position where we had no choice but to defend ourselves, and we always try and use the least amount of force possible. That is the voice of a law enforcement leader grappling with real violence, not the caricature of fascist liars pushed by activists and their political allies. Yet in todays Los Angeles, it is the police chief, not the radicals hurling incendiary accusations, who finds himself on the defensive.
For conservatives and anyone else who believes a city cannot thrive without order, accountability, and respect for the rule of law, the BassRaman matchup is a study in grim options. Both Raman and Bass have proved to be terrible politicians that is, if you care about law and order, safety, mass illegal immigration, and the other problems plaguing the once-destination city but Raman is, if anything, more extreme and more determined to destroy LA even further with failed progressive policies. Sometimes there simply isnt a good ending to a story; theres only bad or worse.
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