CIA Pete explains why Zohran Mamdani is popular

Push shit people care about? Idk you think that strategy would really work? I should probably ask the consultants about it first.

Bro we're serious this time. We just need to work on messaging while not actually offering voters anything.
- I’ll go get the Big List of Biden Accomplishments - all of which were wins of varying sizes from small to historic - for “voters” and draw out all the boo birds who don’t give a crap.
  “Offering the voters anything” how about NOT fascism and all the science, education, and aid stays properly funded? No? Maybe this isn’t the target market for that kind of thing. Maybe we need the soccer moms and whatever because the radical left won’t even support AOC for . . . what was it? Oh yeah “shepherding neolibs into the DNC”.

Yes, I totally agree. Release the Epstein files.

Mamdani’s is not part of the club and they will try their best to block him like Bernie.

mamdani, AOC, bernie, even buttigeg isnt really what the dnc is looking for. Buttigeg mainly becauses hes gay isnt really meshing well with older Dem voters.

So, in other words...his advice is to adopt the language, but not the policies.

Yeah, it's not like democrats have a credibility problem.
Yes, we call out Republicans for being the party of pedophiles (of which they are) and then NOT take away people's rights.
He's fundamentally right, if your goal is to try to win elections. The actual content of what politicians say they're going to do matters less than how they make voters feel. Case in point, voters favor Democratic policies over Republican by a wide margin when presented with specific issues, yet still continue to vote for Republicans.
- The problem with that strategy, is that eventually people will stop showing up for you, if all you do is lie to them over and over again, just to get elected.
  It may work with Republicans, who have been literally brainwashed for generations, into turning off their ability to think critically...but the rest of us aren't that gullible. This is the entire reason Democrats are losing right now. These people need to wake up and realize, that "talk" is not enough to convince people to vote for them anymore. They need to see them actually do something to back up the rhetoric, or they're not going to bother.
- FDR won 4 consecutive elections not because he had "good messaging", but because he actually delivered for the people. Republicans had to instill term limits because they didn't want that happening again.
  You think he would have won even a second term if he didn't get the US out of the Great Depression with his policies? WWII economy also played a part here, but in modern times, the US has been in perpetual war with several different countries, and the only people getting rich off that are the wealthy few, again, due to policy.
- He’s fundamentally right, if your goal is to try to win elections.
  That works until you need to win re-election and everyone saw what you became when you took office.
- Except not really, because look what's happened in the last 20 years. A lot of people voted Republican because the Democrats didn't actually deliver on anything good. And sometimes the situation is complicated, like if you're trying to reform tax law or something like that, yet other times it's incredibly simple, like if you're trying to stop genocide. We cannot expect the majority of voters to be well informed on a complex issues but we can absolutely assume that they will be partly informed on the simple ones.

This is bullshit. What people want is someone is willing gut the DNC of the old guard. They need people who care, but also someone whose willing to create a political program where the voters needs come before the donors and politicians. Everyone knows that the Republicans before 2016 and the the Dems of the last 50 years only saw the voters as an inconvience to what they each thought they were entitled to.

That was great - now I really want to watch that special!
- Same! I didnt even know he had specials!

democrats are desperate to believe and for other people to believe that it's not about his policies. oh it's because TikTok. it's because he seems genuine and talks to people. it's because people support Hamas or whatever...

no matter why it is, it's definitely not because socialism is attractive to voters. don't tell us we have to actually care about the fucking poors now. don't tell us AIPAC money is poison now.

No i also care about the policies.

Idk if I'm the minority but there shouldn't be a "middle ground" between making money off owing homes and people's ability to live in one.

Fuck Pete,, he helped stop Bernie Sanders, you know the guy who was running on a platform that people liked.
You are not in the minority. Housing is a human right, although apparently not an American right.

The lesson I learned is fight for ranked choice voting.

This is the way.

Ideology is such a scary word, what people want is platitudes

"If people are wondering why this guy is popular, It's because he does this outrageous thing called listening to what the people want"

Most of the crats listen. What this guy is doing is responding favorably to what he is hearing.
- Danger detected

No you fucking dipshit we want the government to actually do things to improve our fucking lives and nobody but socialists seems to understand that anymore

Democrats are the perfect illustration of "it's very difficult to make a man understand something, when his job depends on him not understanding it."

Too bad Pete slammed Bernie in the 2020 debates, following the script given to him by the DNC. If he had actually supported Bernie, we wouldn't be in this fascist mess.

I think people misunderstand. Pete is saying that Democrats should pretend to care about people while not actually doing so.
- "You need both a public and a private position” -Hillary Clinton
Reminder that Bernie Sanders lost both primaries by not getting enough votes from American voters.
Hard Truth: Bernie isn't as popular in reality as he is on the internet.
- Hard Truth: You're mistaken. That's not actually how things played out. Many of us remember it well, and those who are too young or were too busy can easily read the details in the history books.
  ... But hey, I don't blame you for trying. Pro-corporate Democrats and their supporters should be scared of candidates who advance real left-wing policies. Your policies are failing the country, and your power is waning.
- Hard truth: he polled better than Clinton among the demographics that voted Trump into office. Shame the DNC railroaded him by publicly announcing that delegates wouldn’t vote for him. Shame they strategically pulled other candidates from the race to shore up votes for Biden in 2020. You can also thank him for meeting with Biden’s team during Covid and crafting a joint platform to help them win votes, since Biden barely has a progressive bone in his body. Shame about the surrounding elections, who knows what went wrong there?
  Hard truth: Donna Brazile and Elizabeth Warren gave public statements that the 2016 primary was rigged before they walked it back. That Donna Brazile, the one who gave two questions to the Clinton campaign before the debate. You’re free to speculate as to why the former chair of the DNC and another railroaded progressive voice in the party would have knowingly made such a statement on the record.
  Hard truth: Bernie’s policies are popular. The ones the Democrats have adopted are the only things keeping them above water, and unless you’re looking forward to a Democratic Party that chases the white male vote by being hard on crime and immigration again—and those strategy meetings have occurred and you’re free to read about them—you’re going to have to change your tune.
- Yeah, the super delegates voting ahead of the public and putting their fingers on the scale to create a massive lead out the gate had no affect on the minds of voters whatsoever.
  The DNC is corrupt trash.
  At the same time, I'll still put the majority of the blame on voters. Primary turnout is like 15% of eligible voters. Completely embarrassing.

Oh Pete, you're so cute, but no one believes you because you're totally full of shit.

All y'all miss the point?! Mamdani's proposals are focused on what New York City voters told him they want. How can Democrats anywhere get game like his? Get their happy asses on the street and talk to everyone.

Mamdani interviewed Trump supporters and listened to them. He's fascinating to watch, a politician that listens closely and responds to exactly what he heard, doesn't spout a list of talking points.

All he's saying is that Mamdani's ideas may not be applicable to all Democratic constituents, but the listening part is the secret sauce.

Mamdani’s proposals are focused on what New York City voters told him they want.
I'd go a step further. He's championed some very popular local policies, but he's also trailblazing into territory that progressives still just have on the drawing board. The trick is that the progressive policies hinge on the municipal leadership providing real, tangible amenities to city residents.
Mamdani interviewed Trump supporters and listened to them.
Did Mamdani do well on Staten Island? Seems like that was Cuomo's turf. Seems like he was much more tuned in with Brooklyn, Uptown Manhattan, and the Bronx. One reason why Richie Torres has completely flip-flopped on Mamdani is tied to how well Mamdani did in Torres's district. Also why Jefferies is running scared.
But rent freezes and cheap groceries and free buses aren't terribly popular with the landlords and the car owners way out in the 'burbs. His failure to jerk off the NYPD is probably his biggest vulnerability, outside pissing off AIPAC by running as a non-self-hating Arab. That's where all of Adams's and Cuomo's supporters still live.
- At the same time, the people hate the NYPD, those dirty fuckers. If you want the popular vote, you need to tell the pigs to go to hell, especially in New York where they're some of the worst human beings around.

The ideology is to focus on what most people care about, which requires talking to them, and proposing policies that actually address those, Mr McKinsey!

Yes you have to focus on problems that people care about, but then you also have to say what you're actually going to do about them.

Yeah, if the rest of the DNC was half as smart as Pete Buttigieg, we'd be in a much better place as a country. Sadly, you have to play the hand you're dealt.

I didn't like Buttigieg in 2020, but I have to admit that he's very gifted rhetorically. It was really satisfying seeing him in some Fox interviews and just… being able to make an actual point without the hosts being able to turning it around against him.
- Yeah, I would never claim any politician is perfect, and he certainly isn't. But he does seem very authentically intelligent (as in, he is both authentic and intelligent) and he manages to "not suffer fools" while remaining courteous in a very Midwestern way. Buttigieg/Walz would be an interesting ticket.
Can we please not have another consultant in higher office???
- I don't think Pete is quite at the level of "consultant," but I'm also not saying he's our best option. Just that, in a field of "anyone would be better than what the racist oligarchs are fielding" he seems like an actively-good candidate rather than a neutral or bad one.
Sadly, you have to play the hand you’re dealt.
We can play a different game. Enjoy your hand full of jokers.
- Some people could choose to. Hopefully my children will be able to. But for most Americans, there's only the one.
- We can play a different game.
  WHAT GAME IS THAT?!?!?!?!
What do you mean? The rest of the DNC is exactly as smart as Pete. All platitudes, no ideology.

Wow Pete, that is some high grade denial and or delusion you got there.

It’s neither. It’s pre-approved Party Thought. They will do anything they can to keep the status quo, and we will see if mamdani starts a demsoc movement in the US, we will watch the DNC very quickly embrace fascism.

Roko's Basilisk demands Universal Healthcare.

I love that "it's not about the idiology" except it totally is. It may not be about the name, but the idiology is trying to do something to help poor/working class people, instead if the wealthy. Meanwhile the alternative neoliberal ideology is about talking about the poor/working class struggling and doing nothing to help them because it'd come at the cost of the wealthy.

He's not doing well because he's called a socialist. He's doing well because he is a socialist and that prioritizes the people, not businesses.

One of the most unlikeable politicians pushed on us this decade, who’s been flatly rejected by the voters at every turn, thinks he has a clue about what people want.

Pete would’ve thrived 20 years ago, but arrived just in time for the death of liberalism.

Lol.
Buttigieg went from mayor of a random city to one of the finalists in the Democratic primaries for President of The United States and ended up as Secretary of Transportation.
In the last 6 months, since the Biden administration ended, he briefly suggested he might run for Senator but then decided not to because he has a baby and wants to try another presidential run in a few years.
He hasn't been "flatly rejected by voters at every turn". The fact that he made it to the final stage of the Democratic primaries when he was just a mayor of a mid-size city is a major accomplishment.
This guy is a success story and you're making him out to be a failed politician.
I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with a personal agenda.
He knows what people want more than the entire GOP. Donald J. Trump is a pedophile, so he thinks people want to have child brides.
- So why hasn’t that translated into better polling and winning elections? If he knows what people want, why does he choose to distance himself from ridiculously popular leftist policies?
  If you’re going to claim a notoriously out-of-touch politician is secretly in tune with the populace, the burden of proof is on you.

God I hate Bootyjudge.

Buttigieg doesn't hate you. But if he did, he could tell you so in multiple languages.
- Lol, this is such a quintessential example of the problem with Democrats

I'm not a huge fan of his, but I don't entirely disagree.

If someone genuinely wants to pass universal healthcare, tax the rich, or has a great plan to drive down the cost of living... I'm significantly less concerned with the specifics of their ideology than I am with their policy goals.

People generally vote around kitchen table issues.

Unfortunately for Pete and the DNC, everyone currently in office has demonstrated that they will actively oppose any policy that would help the working class. They've burned through all their good will.

If I see one more DNC hack yammering about how city run grocery stores wont work, I'm going to loose my grip. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. But people would rather the government fail trying to help common citizens than succeed at fucking us over.

Pete is close, but not close enough.

Pete was a shit transportation secretary. He’s a prime example of the “Peter Principle”. In fact, I’m going to refer to him as “Peter Principle” Buttigieg from now on.

Democrats aren't going to support the ideas of people who can't be bothered to vote. Can you blame them? It's not rocket surgery

It's almost like the job of a politician is to appeal to people so they will vote for them instead of staying home.
- It's like telling your teacher you'll study if they gave you straight A's. Sorry to break it to you but that's how life works
The Democrats should be creating the narrative and then rallying people to agree with them.
Narrative #1: Republicans are pedophiles.
Narrative #2: Palantir wants to know how much semen you shot into your wife last night.
I mean, have you ever heard of a petition that said "If we get 10,000 signatures, then we'll... do something those 10,000 people want. Let's raise 10,000 signatures for the chance to find out what that is!"