It's not what Mamdani SOLD. He led with affordability. But his COALITION — young people, liberal to centrist Jews and professionals (thanks, Brad Lander) — is just what @brianbeutler.bsky.social says. It's self-identified liberals, progressives, moderates, and the young.
Will that work outside of NYC? Will it work nationally? The coalition will, yes. @grahamformaine.bsky.social in Maine can pull together this coalition if he can excite young people and get suburban moms and the professional/college class. Look at Osborne in NE. But ppl want fight, and change.
Driving young people and swing voters is going to require fighting against Trump. And telling a story that billionaires made our lives bad and we must fight against oligarchy and for what Beutler says: rule of law, democracy, freedom, pluralism, tolerance.
put a different way: The Dem Quantbrain Data people say we can't win by running on democracy. But have they ever been to a red state? Half of the people at any store or event are wearing a t-shirt saying "FREEDOM."
Freedom and democratic values are popular and can be activated. That Dem leaders think we can't win that way is just a failure of messaging and action. It's a skill issue, not a fundamental feature of the electorate.
Mostly agree, but the problem is more fundamental than just messaging. Their exquisitely calculated non-response to an obvious authoritarian breakthrough reveals the moral, ethical, and political vacuousness of these alleged D "leaders." With a few exceptions they're bloodless, pre-programmed robots
Specifically, the word 'freedom' is important and for some reason the left doesn't use it as much as they could. It's a perfectly acceptable replacement for 'democracy' in any way Dems need to use it and it also touches on so many more aspects of life beyond just voting.
The challenge is that for a lot of those folks, they only care about their own freedom. Improving freedom for everyone doesn't always fit their concept of it.