For five years, New York had a man…we won’t say a hero, because what’s a hero? We’re talking about Jimmy McMillan here, the heart and soul of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, the man who made a name for himself since bursting on the scene in 2010 with six simple words: “The rent is too damn high.” Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And we’re sad to tell you today that Jimmy McMillan has decided to throw in the damn towel.
McMillan announced the end of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party in an email to the New York Times yesterday, writing “Rent is too damn high is an international crisis. There are many questions the people should ask themselves. I which them the best — I’m out,” along with taking shots at both Governor Cuomo and Mayor Tall over their failure to bring the rent down around the city. McMillan blamed age and bad health as the main factors for dropping out of the political game, although if anyone out there is interested in buying the trademarks associated with the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, McMillan’s attorney told the Times that he’s interested in selling them.
So, that’s the political obituary of the only candidate for either governor or mayor who’s ever appeared on a sex podcast to give advice on love and talk about his past as a stripper and a man who suffered from a priapism. It figures that the Times would make sure to mention that McMillan’s email was “infused with misspellings and other errors,” committing to the idea that he was a joke candidate, just local version of Vermin Supreme. But for all his weird outbursts about marrying a shoe and his lack of actual policy proposals for lowering the rent, McMillan did a great job as the city’s id, tapping into an anxiety felt by New Yorkers who couldn’t buy their vacation homes in 57th Street luxury skyscrapers. He managed to predict the political future, appearing on the scene before both Occupy and before Bill de Blasio’s progressive agenda banged the drum of income inequality. He also released the hottest goddamn track from a candidate for office that the world has ever seen:
We’ll be playing this all day for you, Jimmy.