My argument has nothing to do with Mandani or his brilliant campaign. I am making what should be an obvious point. A message that wins a primary, even a massive upset in a primary does not mean it will win in a general election. And a primary in a Mayoral race is not the same as a general election in a battleground house district in Iowa. One needs to appeal to a majority of democrats in in mostly democratic cities. The other must be won by winning over a majority in a general election often in places where a majority of democrats will not be enough to win. Learn from Mandani’s tactics and authenticity but just as he articulated a message for NYC and its problems. Articulate a message that is authentic to you and your district
Yes--we can't get too excited about a local election, although nice to see a young fellow with energy in the running for NYC mayor, but how to grow from local to nationwide authentic coalition of voters is the goal. Lots of work ahead. Thanks, Joe, for keeping us focused.
I’m with the disagreers for the simple reason we need these different outliers propped up in a positive light. I see no reason to carry on and on and on about how it doesn’t really matter cause there’s the same ol same ol. Hey Zeus we are fighting like hell for democracy and these pontificators are merely adding to the overall negative view of how the democrats are doing/proceeding. I have stopped restacking the in general “negative” articles about dems finding ways forward even when they sprinkle in a few placations as had been done in this article.
I consider myself a centrist Democrat, but also take hope from someone who was able to energize young people. A true centrist (in my book) wants to create a very large tent that has enough room for all voices. (Well…perhaps not insane MAGA voices.) I think there are strong lessons to be learned from how all the people you mention are running their campaigns. We clearly need a reset from the old ways. Also, I’m absolutely not heartbroken that Cuomo lost. I would have been alarmed if he’d won. It would signal that old school politics will prevail, even if that means we keep losing to crazy republicans.
The Nazis have control of voting technology(https://bit.ly/43ZBNkO) to rig all future elections and they have beaucoup bucks with the uberwealthy getting even wealthier big tax backs with the Congressional ugly bill
But the Nazi party does not control WE the People This is all about French Revolution 2.0 WE the People should demand that there will be a shoring up of voting election procedures through the courts and then show up for the 2026 midterms armed with our vote to toss the Nazis out of power
WE the People need to demand more information about the 2024 election Nazi subversion and shut down the Nazi propaganda about the 2020 election lies Organized people will defeat organized money It has shown up in the Protest and Resistance movements, it has shown up in Wisconsin when Musk threw a bunch of money in the state Supreme Court race unsuccessful, it has shown up in the NY primary race where New Yorkers voted against big money and for Zohran Mamdani The Nazis should be concerned about WE the People
I agree in part with you Joe and disagree in part. New York City is a world city, a true cosmopolitan city, and as such, is ready for a leader like Mamdani. I wish him great luck and believe he will accomplish great things. The rest of the country is not where NYC is and as such, must be approached somewhat differently. Having said that, as of now I have ZERO confidence in the DNC. I'm rooting for them to get their shit together though. I agree with the fundamental concept of unity within the party, but at the end of the day, we need to WIN. Energizing the youth vote will be critical. The concept of seniority is not acceptable anymore (if indeed it ever was!). May the best person win. The DNC needs to lead with finding the best and identify winning strategies and messages (and the right media), while keeping with our principles. It's not that hard!
There are some VERY important lessons the Democratic Party can learn from Mamdani's win, and those will be overlooked or downplayed at the party's peril:
First, Democrats of all ages and places on the political spectrum from progressive to conservative have been calling for a generational change in leadership for several cycles now. The old guard - and the party as a whole - needs to take that seriously. So far, only Nancy Pelosi has stepped aside in favor of a younger successor. That needs to change. The Democrats are blessed with a deep bench of very bright young leaders who keep getting held back by old political hands who refuse to leave the field.
Second, the Democratic voter base has a female majority, as does the electorate at large. It's high time the party started taking crimes against women seriously and stop throwing its support behind candidates with a long, ugly history of sexual assault against women. It was appalling how many people in leadership threw their support behind Andrew Cuomo as though a few years in the political wilderness washed away all his offenses. And that doesn't even account for the nursing home deaths that happened on his watch during COVID.
It's always exciting when one of the young guns in the party takes out an old bull, and the danger of over-reading that result is real. Stipulated. But, what the party and its leadership need to take on board, however, is that overcompensating by not reading enough into a result like Mamdani's is just as dangerous.
There's a large element in the electorate that wants to overthrow the status quo that is not serving them. In ignorance, they thought Trump was their alternative. Another growing faction sees socialism as their alternative because they blame capitalism.
Free market capitalism brought us great prosperity, but free markets are free of fraud and collusion, not free of policing as Republicans falsely claim. Peter Thiel, one of the Project 2025 conspirators against our democratic system, says their goal is "corporate feudalism" not capitalism. Under feudalism, profit is extorted by cartels and monopolies, not earned by competition through efficiency and innovation. Republicans are selling feudalism in capitalist clothing. The conspirators have installed a fifth column in the Supreme Court who are rewriting the Constitution and calling it "interpretation" rationalized with pure bovine excrement.
Jefferson warned that a people cannot remain free in ignorance, and unless we learn to fight both this economic and civic ignorance, we are doomed. Capitalism is broken in America. I see no emerging candidates with a clear plan to fix American capitalism rather than replace it with autocracy or socialism. The Constitution is not broken, but the people charged with enforcing it are severely broken.
I agree with much of what you said, Dennis, but we need to be VERY clear that progressives embrace DEMOCRATIC socialism, not pure socialism. There's a huge difference between them.
Europeans prefer 'democratic capitalism,' which makes more sense. Democratic socialism just doesn't sound right. I was taught in economics class that we have a mixed system, meaning we choose the system best for each issue. Main street always will be capitalist, but when the free market fails to respond adequately or is not practical (we can't accommodate competing sewer systems), a social approach should not be rejected on dogmatic grounds. Socialism is just another word for municipal services, but semantics matter in politics.
Lots of European countries have parties called social democrats, so I don't think word smithing changes the meaning of what Democratic socialists stand for. Their approach to government aligns very well their European counterparts.
I've heard the ideology called democratic capitalism to distinguish it from socialism. I'd rather not debate the semantics and lose sight of the problem of the binary choice of capitalism versus socialism when the capitalism people are picturing actually is corporate feudalism. The debate becomes a Tower of Babble when we don't have good definitions.
I'm with Joe on this one. Mamdani is his own phenomenon, localized to New York, there is no way it could be generalized to the rest of the country. Allow me to share the two reasons I see for this.
1. The DNC is a clusterfuck inside a dumpster fire. They spent a tremendous amount of time and energy ejecting David Hogg because he had the cheek to challenge the old, dead guys 'running' the place. Chuck Schumer has STILL not been shown the exit, which tells me everything I need to know about them. They're worse than useless, they're a boat anchor. Mamdani is giving them a wide berth, as well he should.
2. Mamdani himself is a Socialist. That's cool and groovy for New York, I guess, but it cuts no ice with the rest of the country, regardless of what high-flown rhetoric you try to dress it up with.
Here's the thing, though. I hope Mamdani is elected mayor. I'm not a New Yorker and have no dog in that immediate fight, but the service he could provide the rest of the country as lightning rod and hate sink for MAGA could be invaluable. They've been yowling for decades about "insane leftist big-city mayors"... so here comes their worst nightmare, right out from under the bed. Their heads will detonate loudly with every action he takes to "improve the lives of working New Yorkers". What he actually does or accomplishes won't matter that much to the country compared to the debilitating rage he will instill in Trump. I am so down for that.
Just reeks of the same convo we had with Bernie when the DNC ousted him in 2016, and we saw where that led the party, I worry the DNC will kill its own momentum and movements again as it has time and time again in favorite of upholding a status quo the American electorate are saying they want changed.
the 2016 DNC email leak: resulted in allegations of bias against Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, in apparent contradiction with the DNC leadership's publicly stated neutrality, as several DNC operatives openly derided Sanders's campaign and discussed ways to advance Clinton's nomination.
Four Sanders campaign staffers illegally hacked the voter database of the Clinton campaign. That's why the Sanders campaign was temporarily blocked from access to the DNC voter database. The pro-Clinton operatives in the DNC was a violation of their neutrality, no doubt about it, but Sanders was never 'ousted' from the DNC as you claimed. Facts matter.
Mamdani showed us how we can energize hundred of thousands who would otherwise have not been engaged in elections, not just progressives. He won the white male youth vote, which dems lost considerable ground on and cost them the election in 2024, do not ignore the election and someone who got 1.1 million doors knocked on by unpaid YOUNG volunteers
Joe Trippi, I couldn't disagree more about he New York election. The approach he took was the new way Dems should be looking for. If Kamala and her election supporters would have taken this approach, I believe she would be in office now. He reached a huge part of the young people, ran an honest campaign on what He would do, and did this with hardly any money with a hell of a lot of volunteers fired up and excited. Don't fight CHANGE Joe!!!!!!!
Thank you Cristi S. I am not usually this vocal, however it seems like a lot of the Democratic leaders are so bullheaded like my Grandpa was. And do NOT want to.change their views.
I agree with the overall message of this post. One detail left out is how Mandan energized the youth vote. A friend in NYC has told me about several examples of this. I do not know how it fits in with the overall message. But it is an item I feel should not be ignored.
Totally agree. That is what I was implying by older Dems not wanting any change. ( Or scared to change)) It is 2025 not 1980, changes are needed!!! Thanks
My argument has nothing to do with Mandani or his brilliant campaign. I am making what should be an obvious point. A message that wins a primary, even a massive upset in a primary does not mean it will win in a general election. And a primary in a Mayoral race is not the same as a general election in a battleground house district in Iowa. One needs to appeal to a majority of democrats in in mostly democratic cities. The other must be won by winning over a majority in a general election often in places where a majority of democrats will not be enough to win. Learn from Mandani’s tactics and authenticity but just as he articulated a message for NYC and its problems. Articulate a message that is authentic to you and your district
Yes--we can't get too excited about a local election, although nice to see a young fellow with energy in the running for NYC mayor, but how to grow from local to nationwide authentic coalition of voters is the goal. Lots of work ahead. Thanks, Joe, for keeping us focused.
I’m with the disagreers for the simple reason we need these different outliers propped up in a positive light. I see no reason to carry on and on and on about how it doesn’t really matter cause there’s the same ol same ol. Hey Zeus we are fighting like hell for democracy and these pontificators are merely adding to the overall negative view of how the democrats are doing/proceeding. I have stopped restacking the in general “negative” articles about dems finding ways forward even when they sprinkle in a few placations as had been done in this article.
I consider myself a centrist Democrat, but also take hope from someone who was able to energize young people. A true centrist (in my book) wants to create a very large tent that has enough room for all voices. (Well…perhaps not insane MAGA voices.) I think there are strong lessons to be learned from how all the people you mention are running their campaigns. We clearly need a reset from the old ways. Also, I’m absolutely not heartbroken that Cuomo lost. I would have been alarmed if he’d won. It would signal that old school politics will prevail, even if that means we keep losing to crazy republicans.
Nazis and Controlling the Masses
The Nazis have control of voting technology(https://bit.ly/43ZBNkO) to rig all future elections and they have beaucoup bucks with the uberwealthy getting even wealthier big tax backs with the Congressional ugly bill
But the Nazi party does not control WE the People This is all about French Revolution 2.0 WE the People should demand that there will be a shoring up of voting election procedures through the courts and then show up for the 2026 midterms armed with our vote to toss the Nazis out of power
WE the People need to demand more information about the 2024 election Nazi subversion and shut down the Nazi propaganda about the 2020 election lies Organized people will defeat organized money It has shown up in the Protest and Resistance movements, it has shown up in Wisconsin when Musk threw a bunch of money in the state Supreme Court race unsuccessful, it has shown up in the NY primary race where New Yorkers voted against big money and for Zohran Mamdani The Nazis should be concerned about WE the People
It does tell us that what the party is currently doing is not working, so I would suggest taking note of that
Well put. There’s room for multiple ways to achieve a win. I for one am heartily sick of these “you gotta do it this way” admonitions.
I agree in part with you Joe and disagree in part. New York City is a world city, a true cosmopolitan city, and as such, is ready for a leader like Mamdani. I wish him great luck and believe he will accomplish great things. The rest of the country is not where NYC is and as such, must be approached somewhat differently. Having said that, as of now I have ZERO confidence in the DNC. I'm rooting for them to get their shit together though. I agree with the fundamental concept of unity within the party, but at the end of the day, we need to WIN. Energizing the youth vote will be critical. The concept of seniority is not acceptable anymore (if indeed it ever was!). May the best person win. The DNC needs to lead with finding the best and identify winning strategies and messages (and the right media), while keeping with our principles. It's not that hard!
There are some VERY important lessons the Democratic Party can learn from Mamdani's win, and those will be overlooked or downplayed at the party's peril:
First, Democrats of all ages and places on the political spectrum from progressive to conservative have been calling for a generational change in leadership for several cycles now. The old guard - and the party as a whole - needs to take that seriously. So far, only Nancy Pelosi has stepped aside in favor of a younger successor. That needs to change. The Democrats are blessed with a deep bench of very bright young leaders who keep getting held back by old political hands who refuse to leave the field.
Second, the Democratic voter base has a female majority, as does the electorate at large. It's high time the party started taking crimes against women seriously and stop throwing its support behind candidates with a long, ugly history of sexual assault against women. It was appalling how many people in leadership threw their support behind Andrew Cuomo as though a few years in the political wilderness washed away all his offenses. And that doesn't even account for the nursing home deaths that happened on his watch during COVID.
It's always exciting when one of the young guns in the party takes out an old bull, and the danger of over-reading that result is real. Stipulated. But, what the party and its leadership need to take on board, however, is that overcompensating by not reading enough into a result like Mamdani's is just as dangerous.
. Your column today makes the most sense, in the plainest words I’ve read on the Dems.
There's a large element in the electorate that wants to overthrow the status quo that is not serving them. In ignorance, they thought Trump was their alternative. Another growing faction sees socialism as their alternative because they blame capitalism.
Free market capitalism brought us great prosperity, but free markets are free of fraud and collusion, not free of policing as Republicans falsely claim. Peter Thiel, one of the Project 2025 conspirators against our democratic system, says their goal is "corporate feudalism" not capitalism. Under feudalism, profit is extorted by cartels and monopolies, not earned by competition through efficiency and innovation. Republicans are selling feudalism in capitalist clothing. The conspirators have installed a fifth column in the Supreme Court who are rewriting the Constitution and calling it "interpretation" rationalized with pure bovine excrement.
Jefferson warned that a people cannot remain free in ignorance, and unless we learn to fight both this economic and civic ignorance, we are doomed. Capitalism is broken in America. I see no emerging candidates with a clear plan to fix American capitalism rather than replace it with autocracy or socialism. The Constitution is not broken, but the people charged with enforcing it are severely broken.
I agree with much of what you said, Dennis, but we need to be VERY clear that progressives embrace DEMOCRATIC socialism, not pure socialism. There's a huge difference between them.
Europeans prefer 'democratic capitalism,' which makes more sense. Democratic socialism just doesn't sound right. I was taught in economics class that we have a mixed system, meaning we choose the system best for each issue. Main street always will be capitalist, but when the free market fails to respond adequately or is not practical (we can't accommodate competing sewer systems), a social approach should not be rejected on dogmatic grounds. Socialism is just another word for municipal services, but semantics matter in politics.
Lots of European countries have parties called social democrats, so I don't think word smithing changes the meaning of what Democratic socialists stand for. Their approach to government aligns very well their European counterparts.
Social democrats is what people call themselves in Europe, so it does makes sense there.
I've heard the ideology called democratic capitalism to distinguish it from socialism. I'd rather not debate the semantics and lose sight of the problem of the binary choice of capitalism versus socialism when the capitalism people are picturing actually is corporate feudalism. The debate becomes a Tower of Babble when we don't have good definitions.
I'm with Joe on this one. Mamdani is his own phenomenon, localized to New York, there is no way it could be generalized to the rest of the country. Allow me to share the two reasons I see for this.
1. The DNC is a clusterfuck inside a dumpster fire. They spent a tremendous amount of time and energy ejecting David Hogg because he had the cheek to challenge the old, dead guys 'running' the place. Chuck Schumer has STILL not been shown the exit, which tells me everything I need to know about them. They're worse than useless, they're a boat anchor. Mamdani is giving them a wide berth, as well he should.
2. Mamdani himself is a Socialist. That's cool and groovy for New York, I guess, but it cuts no ice with the rest of the country, regardless of what high-flown rhetoric you try to dress it up with.
Here's the thing, though. I hope Mamdani is elected mayor. I'm not a New Yorker and have no dog in that immediate fight, but the service he could provide the rest of the country as lightning rod and hate sink for MAGA could be invaluable. They've been yowling for decades about "insane leftist big-city mayors"... so here comes their worst nightmare, right out from under the bed. Their heads will detonate loudly with every action he takes to "improve the lives of working New Yorkers". What he actually does or accomplishes won't matter that much to the country compared to the debilitating rage he will instill in Trump. I am so down for that.
Just reeks of the same convo we had with Bernie when the DNC ousted him in 2016, and we saw where that led the party, I worry the DNC will kill its own momentum and movements again as it has time and time again in favorite of upholding a status quo the American electorate are saying they want changed.
The DNC never ousted Bernie. Facts matter. Let's stick to them.
the 2016 DNC email leak: resulted in allegations of bias against Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, in apparent contradiction with the DNC leadership's publicly stated neutrality, as several DNC operatives openly derided Sanders's campaign and discussed ways to advance Clinton's nomination.
Four Sanders campaign staffers illegally hacked the voter database of the Clinton campaign. That's why the Sanders campaign was temporarily blocked from access to the DNC voter database. The pro-Clinton operatives in the DNC was a violation of their neutrality, no doubt about it, but Sanders was never 'ousted' from the DNC as you claimed. Facts matter.
Mamdani showed us how we can energize hundred of thousands who would otherwise have not been engaged in elections, not just progressives. He won the white male youth vote, which dems lost considerable ground on and cost them the election in 2024, do not ignore the election and someone who got 1.1 million doors knocked on by unpaid YOUNG volunteers
Joe Trippi, I couldn't disagree more about he New York election. The approach he took was the new way Dems should be looking for. If Kamala and her election supporters would have taken this approach, I believe she would be in office now. He reached a huge part of the young people, ran an honest campaign on what He would do, and did this with hardly any money with a hell of a lot of volunteers fired up and excited. Don't fight CHANGE Joe!!!!!!!
Beautifully put!
Thank you Cristi S. I am not usually this vocal, however it seems like a lot of the Democratic leaders are so bullheaded like my Grandpa was. And do NOT want to.change their views.
I agree with the overall message of this post. One detail left out is how Mandan energized the youth vote. A friend in NYC has told me about several examples of this. I do not know how it fits in with the overall message. But it is an item I feel should not be ignored.
Totally agree. That is what I was implying by older Dems not wanting any change. ( Or scared to change)) It is 2025 not 1980, changes are needed!!! Thanks