Mamdani is a breath of fresh air. He speaks like a human. He gets stuff done (paying people $30/hr to shovel snow is a simple, genius solution to keeping the streets clean). He seems to love his city and his job. A throwback to the optimistic, "Happy Warrior" politicians from ages past. Incredibly, he also seems to be playing Trump like a Stradavarius.
Spot on! One thing the last decade has taught me is that I don’t need my elected officials to be 100% aligned with me on everything. I DO need them to be competent, honest (to the extent that is possible in politicians), and to be acting out of a sincere desire to serve the public. Give me those three things, and we can disagree on 50% of the details, because a) I don’t know everything and b)I believe such a person will ultimately do more good than harm.
Compromise! It used to be the foundation of politics (and really, everything). We didn’t expect our government to accomplish everything we wanted or agree with us on everything. Bills were passed after lots of arguments and give and take: everyone got something. In the last few decades, we’ve moved into an “all or none” mentality in which we all lose. Disagreeing with someone does not make them the Anti-Christ.
I completely agree, Adam. Here on Long Island we're watching him making improvements at light speed to the city we care about. He's smart and must have a crew of talented planners. He talks the talk and walks the walk. He has real empathy for the people and a very long fuse for the naysayers and critics. He's one to watch.
sadly though Long Island is a Repub maga stronghold that blasts 'DSA' Mamdani. Where the rest of the country is making strides and flipping seats to Dem , Long Island is struggling to keep theirs or flip seats. The Dem candidates have to carefully walk the middle. There is even have a maga candidate from LI running for Governor!
First we have to take control and use those leaders now to lead us. When they are up for election, people can decide who might be better. I think Jeffries will be a good Speaker and although Schumer is old school, if the Senate wants to make a change they can. He most likely will retire after this term
They should do a commercial for the mid terms like they did they did the we are the world music video. A stadge filled with our great popular polictical communicators like Mandani, Buttigieg, Beshear, Obama, Pritzer, Kelly,Booker, Harris, Sanders, Newsom, AOC, Shapiro, Ossoff, Talarico, Pelosi etc. All saying a sentence one at a time that encourages voters to vote blue. And how rump has destroyed the country. Showing unity within the diverse party, showing all are welcome. Could be put out on TV and all social media.
Brilliant idea! Let's not add Kushner whisperer Jefferies or hack Schumer to the list, though. How to accomplish this? Maybe a group like Save America could fund it?
Mandami does have a good strategic and intelligent approach that appears to be resulting in positive outcomes. Much like you Adam, I do not agree with all of his policies, but he is a breath of fresh air that both political parties could learn from. Government is supposed to serve all people, not just those that have a lot of wealth. Mandami gets that; unlike our current administration that caters to billionaires and big business with little regard for majority of the American population.
As a New Yorker I agree with your assessment. Though I don’t agree with him on everything I believe he brings a breath of fresh air into NYC government. He is obviously very smart, strategic and willing to try new things to address some of the seemingly intractable problems facing our city. He is criticized mercilessly by a large portion of city residents but he needs to be given a chance. Our two former mayors De Blasio and Adams did little( and Adams had one of our most corrupt administrations), so Mamdani already is doing more. It is the Democratic Socialist title that I think is blinding people who believe his views are so far left they are afraid. But, if they look at what he’s accomplished and what he is aiming to do, they’d be surprised how common sensical are many of his ideas. Thanks for doing this piece. I think it’s an important lesson.
Solving every day problems is what our representatives should be doing. I am closely watching the Democratic governors out there who serve their states. Hoping I can vote for one of them in 2028. Tired of the insiders. Keeping a focused eye on Andy Beshear.
I lost so much respect for him with Where’s Mitchgate. He should have been much more aggressive and on it every single day, publicly. Why didn’t he go to a judge and get an injunction to force proof of life?
What, and put a functioning Republican back on the job? Mitch couldn't do anything to help the Republicans for 3 months. What's wrong with that? I know we all want Democrats to show they will fight, but not every fight is a punch-in-the-face.
Mind you, I am not on the Beshear bandwagon. Look at Ike's 1956 campaign platform. Today's Democratic "centrists" like Beshear are far to the right of real Republicans!
He talked to many New York City people before running. He knows how to listen. He knows how to take action. People can see the results. He doesn’t talk about efficiency as a justification for lowering taxes for the rich. He is talking about more efficient services to benefit all the people.
Thank you, Adam, for highlighting Mamdani. While he may offer exactly what works in New York City, it may not play well in places like Wyoming and Montana. But as he achieves more success in NYC it will, hopefully, create a ripple effect that continues to spread.
How can the Rs have the dialogue on ordinary human concerns, like whether the streets feel safe and clean, whether government actually works, and whether taxpayer money is spent without waste when the current regime is the most corrupt "administration" in history? I do agree about Mamdani. He works for the people of NYC to improve the city and their lives.
A very good and astute report on Mamdani. I wholeheartedly agree! Although Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have had similar, progressive strategies for years. Mamdani didn't invent the Sanders/AOC strategy so much as he changed how it is packaged and delivered. The underlying politics overlap substantially, but the political communication is different.
1. Mamdani starts with the kitchen table, not the ideology. This may be the biggest difference.
Sanders has spent decades explaining capitalism, wealth concentration, corporate power, billionaires, Medicare for All, labor, and class inequality. Those are substantive arguments, but they require voters to engage with a political framework.
Mamdani tends to start somewhere much simpler:
Can you afford your rent? Can you afford childcare? Can you afford groceries? His campaign made affordability the organizing principle around which everything else fit. That's politically powerful because someone doesn't have to identify as a socialist to understand, "I can't afford to live here."
2. Mamdani translates ideology into tangible things. This is where he has been particularly clever.
Instead of leading with: "We need democratic socialism," the message becomes: "Free buses. Universal childcare. Affordable housing. City-run grocery stores."
Whether someone ultimately agrees with those policies is a separate question. But the political communication is concrete.
Mamdani himself has explicitly described the distinction: "Voters," he says, "Were generally less interested in how he labeled his politics than whether his politics included them." That's a significant evolution from the Sanders era.
Sanders often says, "The economic system is fundamentally unfair."
Mamdani says: "Here's what I want your Tuesday morning to look like if we change it."
That is an enormous rhetorical difference.
3. AOC is actually closer to Mamdani. AOC has always understood the importance of narrative, social media and personal connection. Her 2018 primary victory demonstrated that a relatively unknown candidate could use grassroots organizing and digital communication to break through the traditional political machinery. But AOC has also become an institutional politician. She's been in Congress since 2019. She has legislative responsibilities, a national profile and a much larger political constituency to manage. Mamdani had something she no longer had: permission to be completely new.
Mamdani wasn't defending a congressional voting record. He wasn't explaining seven years of compromises. He wasn't carrying the institutional baggage of Washington. He could essentially say: "I'm going to talk about the life you are actually living." That is much easier to sell.
4. Mamdani is extraordinarily good at showing rather than explaining. This is probably his most distinctive political skill. His campaign understood TikTok, Instagram, short-form video and humor exceptionally well. And there's an important artistic component to this. Mamdani doesn't communicate like a traditional politician. He communicates almost like a performer. He uses humor, visual storytelling, music, short memorable phrases, ordinary locations, direct-to-camera communication, self-deprecation, unexpected cultural references.
Instead of giving voters another political lecture, he gives them something they actually want to watch and share. That's a huge difference in the contemporary media environment.
5. Sanders has a different superpower — and a different limitation. Sanders' great achievement is that he made economic inequality a mainstream political subject. He essentially spent decades moving ideas that were once considered fringe into ordinary Democratic debate. But his communication is remarkably consistent. He has been making the same basic argument for years:
billionaires have too much; working people have too little; government should work for ordinary people rather than concentrated wealth. That consistency is admirable politically, but it can also become predictable.
Mamdani inherited that framework without necessarily inheriting Sanders' rhetorical vocabulary.
He's saying many of the same things in a younger, more culturally contemporary language.
6. And there's another huge difference: age and cultural identification. This matters. Sanders is 85 in 2026. AOC is 36. Mamdani is 35. Sanders speaks for a movement that he helped create. Mamdani looks like someone inside the generation experiencing the problems he's talking about. That doesn't make his arguments inherently better. But it changes identification. A young renter watching Mamdani talk about rent, childcare, transportation or groceries may see someone who appears to inhabit the same economic world. That emotional identification can be more powerful than ideological agreement.
7. Mamdani also benefited from a particular political moment. This shouldn't be overlooked.
His breakthrough occurred when affordability had become an extraordinarily salient issue and when many voters were frustrated with established political institutions.
So, I don't believe that Mamdani has a better strategy than Sanders/AOC. I believe Mamdani arrived at a moment when their ideas could be repackaged in a particularly effective form.
And Sanders and AOC helped create that moment.
And there's one more reason I think Mamdani has gotten such traction: He doesn't appear embarrassed by his ideology, however, he doesn't require voters to adopt his ideology before they can join him. That's an important distinction. (Adam, this is what you have been encouraging people on the left to do when confronted with those on the right).
He essentially says: You don't have to call yourself a socialist. You have to decide whether you want affordable housing, childcare, transportation and groceries.
Whether those policies are financially or administratively achievable is another question entirely — and one worth examining separately. But as political communication, that is considerably more accessible than beginning with a debate over socialism versus capitalism.
And I think that is the lesson Sanders and AOC may have helped teach the Democratic left without necessarily being the people who ultimately perfected the delivery system.
So, Democrats need to take a page(s) from the Mamdani handbook and and start packaging and effectively delivering their messaging - NOW!
I much enjoyed reading your astute analysis. I'm glad to see the appreciation for Bernie and AOC. Also, in fairness to them, they've not been a position to take executive actions like a mayor can do. They have to try to convince a Senate or House with them to see their policies enacted. But, in any event, Mamdani is spectacular in getting good stuff done for his city, and his approach -- which includes empathy, sincerity, honesty, and thinking outside the box -- should be emulated.
Marvelous and fair analysis. This also touches on the question of where we focus. For a long time the Democratic Party has looked almost exclusively to DC for its power. But as another commenter pointed out, federal governance is clunky (by design) and considering the Senate, not particularly representative. Newt Gingrich broke the House as a means of getting things done.
While Dems were gazing off to the far horizon, Republicans rolled up statehouses. It's not that all those "red states" are all-red, but the reds have taken over state government and barred the door to Democrats AND citizens!
We all need to pay much more attention to our states, where enormous powers reside if only we'll decide to use them.
Interesting perspective. I don’t agree with him either on everything but I do see the points you’re making. He has educated insight and ability to produce results.
What a good mind you have, Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you, I learned something new. In regard to polarization, media commentators and dedicated voters on the right or left are two wings of the same bird.
Mamdani is a breath of fresh air. He speaks like a human. He gets stuff done (paying people $30/hr to shovel snow is a simple, genius solution to keeping the streets clean). He seems to love his city and his job. A throwback to the optimistic, "Happy Warrior" politicians from ages past. Incredibly, he also seems to be playing Trump like a Stradavarius.
Mamdani is not afraid of Trump, because he's comfortable in his own skin and he knows his power. His confidence intimidates Trump.
Exactly right.
Except that Trump is the furthest thing from a Stradivarius. He's more like a fog horn.
I love the sound of foghorns! They are safety devices, after all. Trump's sound is that of a pig farting.
Ah! C’mon now! We were talking about instruments.
Trump sounds like a pig farting because he IS a pig farting.
That is more true!🐷💨🐖💨
Actually, Trump is more like a bad fart.
I see him as a broken, malfunctioning porta-potty.
🤣📣Yep!
I think I would have said a kazoo.
Smart comment.
WELL SAID ... .sharing with piece.
Spot on! One thing the last decade has taught me is that I don’t need my elected officials to be 100% aligned with me on everything. I DO need them to be competent, honest (to the extent that is possible in politicians), and to be acting out of a sincere desire to serve the public. Give me those three things, and we can disagree on 50% of the details, because a) I don’t know everything and b)I believe such a person will ultimately do more good than harm.
Compromise! It used to be the foundation of politics (and really, everything). We didn’t expect our government to accomplish everything we wanted or agree with us on everything. Bills were passed after lots of arguments and give and take: everyone got something. In the last few decades, we’ve moved into an “all or none” mentality in which we all lose. Disagreeing with someone does not make them the Anti-Christ.
Oh well said... .and we all think it but never say it. Thanks Pat.
I completely agree, Adam. Here on Long Island we're watching him making improvements at light speed to the city we care about. He's smart and must have a crew of talented planners. He talks the talk and walks the walk. He has real empathy for the people and a very long fuse for the naysayers and critics. He's one to watch.
Well said!!
sadly though Long Island is a Repub maga stronghold that blasts 'DSA' Mamdani. Where the rest of the country is making strides and flipping seats to Dem , Long Island is struggling to keep theirs or flip seats. The Dem candidates have to carefully walk the middle. There is even have a maga candidate from LI running for Governor!
Blakeman doesn't stand a chance in NY.
🙏
The middle is fine. Not so the extreme left and far right. No "woke." No"True Believing Christians."
Pitch perfect, Adam!
It also explains why neither Schumer (long past his sell-by date) nor Jefferies can lead us forward.
First we have to take control and use those leaders now to lead us. When they are up for election, people can decide who might be better. I think Jeffries will be a good Speaker and although Schumer is old school, if the Senate wants to make a change they can. He most likely will retire after this term
As long as Jeffries takes from AIPAC ($1.2 mil so far), I will not support him.
They should do a commercial for the mid terms like they did they did the we are the world music video. A stadge filled with our great popular polictical communicators like Mandani, Buttigieg, Beshear, Obama, Pritzer, Kelly,Booker, Harris, Sanders, Newsom, AOC, Shapiro, Ossoff, Talarico, Pelosi etc. All saying a sentence one at a time that encourages voters to vote blue. And how rump has destroyed the country. Showing unity within the diverse party, showing all are welcome. Could be put out on TV and all social media.
Brilliant idea! Let's not add Kushner whisperer Jefferies or hack Schumer to the list, though. How to accomplish this? Maybe a group like Save America could fund it?
Interesting list... I would share it. Adam says they have a crack media team, they should get it out soon.
YOU GET THAT? #OccupyDemocrats
Come On #Hillary drag em out and have them do it.
Excellent idea!!
Reform the DNC and State party Democrats too.
Mandami does have a good strategic and intelligent approach that appears to be resulting in positive outcomes. Much like you Adam, I do not agree with all of his policies, but he is a breath of fresh air that both political parties could learn from. Government is supposed to serve all people, not just those that have a lot of wealth. Mandami gets that; unlike our current administration that caters to billionaires and big business with little regard for majority of the American population.
Great article! I absolutely agree about Mamdani!
As a New Yorker I agree with your assessment. Though I don’t agree with him on everything I believe he brings a breath of fresh air into NYC government. He is obviously very smart, strategic and willing to try new things to address some of the seemingly intractable problems facing our city. He is criticized mercilessly by a large portion of city residents but he needs to be given a chance. Our two former mayors De Blasio and Adams did little( and Adams had one of our most corrupt administrations), so Mamdani already is doing more. It is the Democratic Socialist title that I think is blinding people who believe his views are so far left they are afraid. But, if they look at what he’s accomplished and what he is aiming to do, they’d be surprised how common sensical are many of his ideas. Thanks for doing this piece. I think it’s an important lesson.
Solving every day problems is what our representatives should be doing. I am closely watching the Democratic governors out there who serve their states. Hoping I can vote for one of them in 2028. Tired of the insiders. Keeping a focused eye on Andy Beshear.
I lost so much respect for him with Where’s Mitchgate. He should have been much more aggressive and on it every single day, publicly. Why didn’t he go to a judge and get an injunction to force proof of life?
What, and put a functioning Republican back on the job? Mitch couldn't do anything to help the Republicans for 3 months. What's wrong with that? I know we all want Democrats to show they will fight, but not every fight is a punch-in-the-face.
Mind you, I am not on the Beshear bandwagon. Look at Ike's 1956 campaign platform. Today's Democratic "centrists" like Beshear are far to the right of real Republicans!
Beshear is trumpeting what a fine "Christian" he is. That's not encouraging. Works in Kentucky, I suppose.
Yes, it works in Kentucky and across the South, probably midwest and Texas. It might be a shorter list to say where it doesn't work?
At least he's helping KY citizens with medical debt relief. That's pretty huge.
He talked to many New York City people before running. He knows how to listen. He knows how to take action. People can see the results. He doesn’t talk about efficiency as a justification for lowering taxes for the rich. He is talking about more efficient services to benefit all the people.
Thank you, Adam, for highlighting Mamdani. While he may offer exactly what works in New York City, it may not play well in places like Wyoming and Montana. But as he achieves more success in NYC it will, hopefully, create a ripple effect that continues to spread.
Wyoming and Montana voters have potholes, too.
Our Michigan Governor ran on "Fix the Damn Roads!" It and she and we are all winners.
How can the Rs have the dialogue on ordinary human concerns, like whether the streets feel safe and clean, whether government actually works, and whether taxpayer money is spent without waste when the current regime is the most corrupt "administration" in history? I do agree about Mamdani. He works for the people of NYC to improve the city and their lives.
Yes. The Trump con-game will go down as the textbook case study for Waste, Fraud & Abuse!
A very good and astute report on Mamdani. I wholeheartedly agree! Although Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have had similar, progressive strategies for years. Mamdani didn't invent the Sanders/AOC strategy so much as he changed how it is packaged and delivered. The underlying politics overlap substantially, but the political communication is different.
1. Mamdani starts with the kitchen table, not the ideology. This may be the biggest difference.
Sanders has spent decades explaining capitalism, wealth concentration, corporate power, billionaires, Medicare for All, labor, and class inequality. Those are substantive arguments, but they require voters to engage with a political framework.
Mamdani tends to start somewhere much simpler:
Can you afford your rent? Can you afford childcare? Can you afford groceries? His campaign made affordability the organizing principle around which everything else fit. That's politically powerful because someone doesn't have to identify as a socialist to understand, "I can't afford to live here."
2. Mamdani translates ideology into tangible things. This is where he has been particularly clever.
Instead of leading with: "We need democratic socialism," the message becomes: "Free buses. Universal childcare. Affordable housing. City-run grocery stores."
Whether someone ultimately agrees with those policies is a separate question. But the political communication is concrete.
Mamdani himself has explicitly described the distinction: "Voters," he says, "Were generally less interested in how he labeled his politics than whether his politics included them." That's a significant evolution from the Sanders era.
Sanders often says, "The economic system is fundamentally unfair."
Mamdani says: "Here's what I want your Tuesday morning to look like if we change it."
That is an enormous rhetorical difference.
3. AOC is actually closer to Mamdani. AOC has always understood the importance of narrative, social media and personal connection. Her 2018 primary victory demonstrated that a relatively unknown candidate could use grassroots organizing and digital communication to break through the traditional political machinery. But AOC has also become an institutional politician. She's been in Congress since 2019. She has legislative responsibilities, a national profile and a much larger political constituency to manage. Mamdani had something she no longer had: permission to be completely new.
Mamdani wasn't defending a congressional voting record. He wasn't explaining seven years of compromises. He wasn't carrying the institutional baggage of Washington. He could essentially say: "I'm going to talk about the life you are actually living." That is much easier to sell.
4. Mamdani is extraordinarily good at showing rather than explaining. This is probably his most distinctive political skill. His campaign understood TikTok, Instagram, short-form video and humor exceptionally well. And there's an important artistic component to this. Mamdani doesn't communicate like a traditional politician. He communicates almost like a performer. He uses humor, visual storytelling, music, short memorable phrases, ordinary locations, direct-to-camera communication, self-deprecation, unexpected cultural references.
Instead of giving voters another political lecture, he gives them something they actually want to watch and share. That's a huge difference in the contemporary media environment.
5. Sanders has a different superpower — and a different limitation. Sanders' great achievement is that he made economic inequality a mainstream political subject. He essentially spent decades moving ideas that were once considered fringe into ordinary Democratic debate. But his communication is remarkably consistent. He has been making the same basic argument for years:
billionaires have too much; working people have too little; government should work for ordinary people rather than concentrated wealth. That consistency is admirable politically, but it can also become predictable.
Mamdani inherited that framework without necessarily inheriting Sanders' rhetorical vocabulary.
He's saying many of the same things in a younger, more culturally contemporary language.
6. And there's another huge difference: age and cultural identification. This matters. Sanders is 85 in 2026. AOC is 36. Mamdani is 35. Sanders speaks for a movement that he helped create. Mamdani looks like someone inside the generation experiencing the problems he's talking about. That doesn't make his arguments inherently better. But it changes identification. A young renter watching Mamdani talk about rent, childcare, transportation or groceries may see someone who appears to inhabit the same economic world. That emotional identification can be more powerful than ideological agreement.
7. Mamdani also benefited from a particular political moment. This shouldn't be overlooked.
His breakthrough occurred when affordability had become an extraordinarily salient issue and when many voters were frustrated with established political institutions.
So, I don't believe that Mamdani has a better strategy than Sanders/AOC. I believe Mamdani arrived at a moment when their ideas could be repackaged in a particularly effective form.
And Sanders and AOC helped create that moment.
And there's one more reason I think Mamdani has gotten such traction: He doesn't appear embarrassed by his ideology, however, he doesn't require voters to adopt his ideology before they can join him. That's an important distinction. (Adam, this is what you have been encouraging people on the left to do when confronted with those on the right).
He essentially says: You don't have to call yourself a socialist. You have to decide whether you want affordable housing, childcare, transportation and groceries.
Whether those policies are financially or administratively achievable is another question entirely — and one worth examining separately. But as political communication, that is considerably more accessible than beginning with a debate over socialism versus capitalism.
And I think that is the lesson Sanders and AOC may have helped teach the Democratic left without necessarily being the people who ultimately perfected the delivery system.
So, Democrats need to take a page(s) from the Mamdani handbook and and start packaging and effectively delivering their messaging - NOW!
I much enjoyed reading your astute analysis. I'm glad to see the appreciation for Bernie and AOC. Also, in fairness to them, they've not been a position to take executive actions like a mayor can do. They have to try to convince a Senate or House with them to see their policies enacted. But, in any event, Mamdani is spectacular in getting good stuff done for his city, and his approach -- which includes empathy, sincerity, honesty, and thinking outside the box -- should be emulated.
Marvelous and fair analysis. This also touches on the question of where we focus. For a long time the Democratic Party has looked almost exclusively to DC for its power. But as another commenter pointed out, federal governance is clunky (by design) and considering the Senate, not particularly representative. Newt Gingrich broke the House as a means of getting things done.
While Dems were gazing off to the far horizon, Republicans rolled up statehouses. It's not that all those "red states" are all-red, but the reds have taken over state government and barred the door to Democrats AND citizens!
We all need to pay much more attention to our states, where enormous powers reside if only we'll decide to use them.
Yes. Agree.
Interesting perspective. I don’t agree with him either on everything but I do see the points you’re making. He has educated insight and ability to produce results.
Terrific analysis. I agree.
What a good mind you have, Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you, I learned something new. In regard to polarization, media commentators and dedicated voters on the right or left are two wings of the same bird.