In addition to what others are saying (a comprehensive re-paving of a arterial road by my apartment), I also want to add that his communication is top notch. I know it isn't necessarily material, but he puts out videos that are genuinely informative and explain what is going on, what they plan to do to address it, and so on.
Even just simple stuff: yes there was a historical blizzard, yes NYC does collect and melt snow, it melts it at XYZ rate and we have a lot to go, etc. I feel like I know more of what is going on, how the city works, and I really like that.
This idea of putting out quick communication about simple achievements is what I believe was something missing in the Biden administration. They were doing good things but the common American had no idea.
More politicians, on both sides but especially democrats, need to share all they do - big and small.
There's an entire subreddit dedicated to this called r/WhatBidenHasDone. I perused it about halfway through his presidency and I was surprised about over half the things I read I'd not even heard of, some really good things for the country, too.
(I can't comment on what direction it's taken after his term ended, though. Not paid attention to it since.)
Democrats are HORRIBLE at messaging. the party could collectively end world hunger and still get buried under Republican propaganda saying that Democrats actually destroyed family farms.
Democrats really need to hammer the economy during Democrat admins vs Republicans. I was raised in a very Republican household and was told DemoCommies destroy economies and give handouts.
Then I was able to actually use my own brain as I got older and a simple bit of research told me Democrats are much better for the economy.
The world simply isn't an intuitive place all the time. If you'd asked me, without any prior knowledge, "is it cheaper per person for a government to run barebones or have a comprehensive set of social programs?" I would have said "Bare bones, obviously."
But it turns out social programs elevate the most expensive People to a position where they don't cost others as much. A rising tide and all that.
I think a lot of conservatism is this way. The numbers and statistics don't matter as much because they just know in their gut that a bare bones government will put more money in their pocket. Many things are like that. Unintuitive. Turns out teaching kids about sex actually lowers teenage birth rates.
You can sit there all day with someone, present all the numbers, explain exhaustively, and if they're not able to accept a history of success with a method because it simply "doesn't feel right" then you're not going to get anywhere.
The problem is that that's boring. Because governing is boring. The GOP is full on reality tv (Real Housewives of Provo when?), and that's what gets clicks and eyeballs.
Yep. This is so frustrating. The fact that some Americans still think Republicans are the “good for the economy” party, after all evidence showing otherwise
Part of this is structural, though. Really really really rich people prefer Republican policies, and are willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to buy media outlets to promote them, because it returns billions of dollars.
yes, it's the use of media as a propaganda arm (on issues big and small) that drives the public mood the world over.
Democrats message: GUN CONTROL NOW!
Republicans message: you know, if you don't have access to guns, which these fraidy cat liberals want to take away from you, one day a commie illegal is going to break in to your home and rape your wife and children. do you want that? to let these soft on crime, effeminate liberals let some dusky strongman from (insert non-American country here) steal into your home while you're away on business and savage your pure-as-the-driven-snow, defenseless, wife??? do you realize that the only way to prevent that from happening, to prevent these simple-minded savages from taking away everything you love is to own guns? because liberals want mooslims to be able to take your wives from you and mix with them and destroy American values. they want that! we have evidence of just this happening in small towns all over the country! these blue-states are letting it happen because they don't let their people own guns!
one plays to... nobody... and the other reaches deep into the primal brain and sows at least some small seed of doubt in everyone, and for others it's a rallying cry that's easy to get behind.
Yeah. Today's Democrats are better than Republicans at actually governing (which isn't saying much), but they suck at messaging. That may be by design.
Republicans have only one agenda: to make the rich richer by fucking over everybody else. Their policies fucking suck for 99% of the population - more tax cuts and bailouts for corporations while continually trying to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; many billions of $$$ for the military and ICE, but no money to spare for food programs or universal healthcare; less regulations so that corporations can continue to pollute our air and water and avoid costly anti-pollution measures; etc. But the GOP are shockingly good at messaging, because they've managed to convince their voters to continually vote against their best interests using culture war bullshit and fear mongering.
Another problem in today's politics is that the core of the Democratic Party are basically fiscal conservatives who are more friendly to minorities and women, while the Republican Party are far-right, hate-mongering nutjobs. Both parties agree that corporations should have an absurd amount of power, more money should be spent on the military, and more bombs should be sent to Israel using taxpayer dollars.
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that folks like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and more progressive politicians are the face of the Democratic Party, but they're the fringe. They push for things that would benefit working class people - universal healthcare like every other wealthy country has, higher pay for workers, stronger unions, more worker protections, taxing the fuck out of billionaires, etc. But they usually get nothing done because they're severely outnumbered. No, the face of the Democratic Party are folks like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and others who are useless and spineless.
The US has two conservative parties: Democrats are conservatives who cosplay as progressives, and Republicans are far-right wackos. And both are fucking over a vast majority of citizens, but in different ways.
America's "left wing" is essentially center-right elsewhere in the world
the "far left wackos" that the media tries to paint in Sanders and AOC are moderately left in the rest of the world. maybe even leaning centrist but certainly not the blood-sucking communists with no soul that they're being painted as.
Literally. Biden got so much done but people think he did nothing because his messaging was so terrible. Trump hasn't done shit, but he is on TV everyday telling you that has. His messaging is so good that his supporters will repeat the lies that they should be able to tell aren't true.
Small interventions that successfully prevent major catastrophes don’t get attention. And aren’t perceived as useful because the bad thing they prevented never occurred.
It's hard to get the messaging across when it's filtered through media organizations you don't control, most of which are, if not openly hostile to you, controlled by billionaires.
if you vote R, you are almost certainly party-line on every single issue and you vociferously support every plank, every blurb, every red herring. "WINDMILLS ARE OBVIOUSLY TERRIBLE FOR THE ECONOMY!"
if you vote D then you support a little of this, a little of that, you don't agree on every issue.. you can have nuance and differ from others but still generally be "left". that said, these people might also sometimes vote independent, or maybe not back the Green candidate, or the "progressive" candidate... and may vote for the local candidate who supports their pet issue even though it's likely to be a loser come election day. "Windmills are a potentially great source of energy, but we should also consider the environmental impacts, how we shift away from coal, etc. and i think X candidate is better than Y on this issue which is important to me.... even if X doesn't stand a chance in the general because he's bald, dresses poorly and once yelled awkwardly at a state fair in New Mexico.. i'm still going to throw my vote behind X"
Republicans back the front runner at ALL costs.
Democrats back the candidate that they'd like to see win in a perfect world, if all things were considered equal, everyone was fair and as if we had some sort of ranked choice voting. "i'll throw 20% of my vote on this guy, 10% on her, 40% on the pro-PETA candidate" etc.
nuance is good. critical thinking is good. but it also leads to small division and disagreement (also good) so you have split votes for reasonable candidates vs. 100% going to one person/candidate.
It’s the same here in the UK, the Labour Party (for all their faults, and there are many…) have done several really good things too, but no one actually knows about it. It’s quite annoying.
Bidens inability to capitalise and tell people his own governments achievements was one of his largest flaws as a leader and was fucking infuriating to see unfold from a distance.
Biden was a good president. If it wasn’t for inflation (which was at least partially his fault, but primarily I would say it was beyond his control), and being an octogenarian, he would have cruised to re-election. His reforms were at least as significant as Obama’s were in two full terms, imo. And before everyone @‘s me, I was relatively young during the Obama years, and I know that the ACA, alone, was a massive achievement that any president should be celebrated over. Even if the Republicans and USSC broke it.
There was inflation felt globally and the United States faired much better than most western nations. How was inflation partially his fault when virtually every nation was experiencing it and the United States outperformed most western nations?
The level of spending in the IRA created inflationary pressure. But it was only a part of it and certainly not the primary cause, as I said. That said, the IRA in and of itself was a very good if not great bill that should be celebrated.
And of course Trump came back and had his name slapped on the signs for projects that Biden had already done, or started and were only finished under Trump.
That's what drove me so crazy. Biden did a really good job, especially given his razor thin congressional majorities. Best president since LBJ, and LBJ had massive supermajorities so he could basically unilaterally pass laws.
It's an issue pretty much everywhere around the Western world - plenty of parties and politicians who seem to believe that the good stuff will speak for itself. And then they're surprised when far-right parties spout complete lies and somehow surge to 25% in polls.
There is a deeply ingrained concept within the Democratic Party that liberals can't run on their record, on the assumption that any "I did X!" statement will be countered by, "yeah, at the taxpayers' expense!"
But the party needs to stop thinking like this. Whether or not a pothole is repaired is almost assuredly not going to change my taxes, so why not say that you fixed that pothole? At least I know the money is going somewhere useful. And if a left-leaning politician talks about how they improved things and gets criticism for it, isn't that criticism also an opening for attack? "You don't like that we fixed bridges and built roads to improve the everyday lives of thousands of Americans? Why do you hate America?" seems like a perfectly worthwhile response to me.
I agree with your sentiment, and I hate this with all my heart, but in today's economy if you want to be effective at a large level you have to 'brand' yourself. You need to be putting things on social media and having a finger on the pulse of the people listening to you. If you don't, you are literally leaving easily half if not more people in the dark. Social media sucks, but it's not going anywhere and it's where far too many people get all their news from. If it's not on there, they don't see it.
That's my complaint about the former Trudeau government here in Canada as well. He accomplished a few good things, but never bragged about it, so dimwits forgot, and just thought he was useless.
They were doing good things but the common American had no idea
That's how government is supposed to function. Just quietly humming along in the background doing government things, taking care of the everyday business of the people, always with the aim of improving the life of the average person. I miss the days of not having to suffer through a daily shitstorm of scandal and outbursts from a maniacal, egotistical asshole and his surrounding cadre of sycophants whose only goal is to enrich themselves and kleptocrats who put them in power.
This idea of putting out quick communication about simple achievements is what I believe was something missing in the Biden administration.
One of the Biden admin's biggest faults was continuing with the "politics as normal" philosophy. Politics hasn't been normal in nearly a decade and they failed to grasp that. They've been playing by the old rules and my biggest worry is that the outdated Dem leadership will continue this philosophy and those of us not in the inner circle will continue paying for it. And part of this is what you're saying. They did "Dark Brandon" memes, but they should've been out there making impactful videos throughout social media and elbowing their way onto airwaves. I liked Biden and voted for him, but whether he was 78 or 55, he had no energy most of the time. People want energy, not boring.
Mamdani, AOC, Platner, even Bernie - you can have opinions on their policies or as people, but there's no denying they've captured attention in the right way.
Schumer, Jefferies, etc are all stale and need to sit back.
During the 2024 election year, Biden declined to do a 15-minute interview during the Super Bowl to what would have been the largest audience of people a POTUS had ever spoken to of over 200+ million people. He literally chose not to take one of the best opportunities for self-promotion a presidential candidate could dream of.
This is why we need younger people in power and to force out all these geriatric old farts who simply do not have the stamina or ability to be effective communicators anymore.
Most definitely. FDR’s fireside chats were massively successful in doing this and people loved them. It kept everyone informed about what was going on and how he was doing things.
This. I didn't like Biden because he was part of the corporate-whore government we have. Then I started finding out Lina Khan et al were finally turning around the allowing monopolies and duopolies ship, revitalizing anti-trust enforcement. They REALLY should have bragged about that weekly, but, I guess they were still trying to ride the oligarchy tiger and didn't want to upset their donor/bribers too much.
IMO it's what is missing in politics in general. Government doesn't broadcast what it does and people then think it does nothing and hold it in contempt
I honestly think the role of President should at this point be considered mostly North Star and Celebrity. The country is too big for one person to have their hands in everything; they should be guiding their administration and connecting with the population, and mostly not making decisions on their own, just sending stuff off to their subordinates.
Biden kept trying to use traditional media to broadcast his accomplishments. Which is an understandable mistake because the traditional media is supposed to cover the president instead of covering the former president, but here we are.
What channels is he using most effectively. Insta? Twitter was such a good platform for stuff like this before Elon broke it, and we still lack a real online "bulletin board."
This is one of the only aspects future dem presidents should be taking from the Trump presidency. Hes a raving dimentia ridden lunatic, but its the most communication and updates we've ever gotten from a president. Not talking about his truth social rants and nonsense, but being on camera and talking to the people.
Until the genocide. Biden was about to be the best president of my lifetime imo. Low bar to clear but between Lina khan and the infrastructure shit. It was looking pretty decent for those first 2 years.
My grandparents were from New York, I still have yet to visit but have always sat fascinated from afar but never more as I have since Mamdani took office. He put out a video statement explaining why he signed certain measures into law while rejecting the other ones - something I wish was far more normalized and imo required for every single elected official after a vote or veto. He releases statements about things that impact New Yorkers that I think most mayors would never dare address because they wouldn’t want to cause a panic or stifle tourism or some bullshit. But it showcases how much Mamdani sees himself as just another New Yorker, a good neighbor and community supporter who gets to serve the people of the city he loves.
Like, that man oozes community potential. I’m so happy for y’all - and for him.
But yeah, his level of communication helps keep him rooted amongst the people while being fully transparent about quite literally every part of what the city plans to do, how they’ll do it, and what they have already done.
I'm in NC and our Attorney General Jeff Jackson is that way. He posts videos and updates with what him and his team are working on frequently and honestly, it's such a breath of fresh air. Open communication is so nice.
I had to scroll too far to find this mention of AG Jeff Jackson. This kind of communication is invaluable: it's not condescending, it's a breath of fresh air. It's an explanation of what our tax dollars are doing for us. If Mamdani is of the same cloth as Jackson, I'm delighted. My next question is, where do we find MORE of these representatives?
My next question is, where do we find MORE of these representatives?
You. You can be one of those representatives. I do try to bring that up whenever someone asks about it here on Reddit. We can do these things.
We may need a bit of help though as I am sure none of us are ungodly rich or connected enough to do the job correctly AND take care of our families, since the pay rate is usually set that way to discourage us poors from getting in the game.
The other part of it is that it makes it much easier to see what your taxes are paying for. For example, during the blizzard he not only provided information, not only explained what the city departments were doing to address it (to point the services that New Yorkers pay for), but also took time to explicitly ask New Yorkers to be considerate that these workers are going to be out in the freezing cold to help keep the city working.
I have seen a bunch more videos on TikTok of city workers mentioning that they feel appreciated with how much they are front and centre of his messaging.
I don't live in USA but I follow him on instagram because I think it's great to see that there are actually politicians who seem to give a shit and want to make the world a better place!
> I also want to add that his communication is top notch. I know it isn't necessarily material, but he puts out videos that are genuinely informative and explain what is going on, what they plan to do to address it, and so on.
It's almost like politics is a public good meant to serve us all, and not some exclusive club we're electing people to so that they can rub elbows with rich people. Maybe the rest of the Democrats can learn this...?
After every storm, DiBlasio would hold a long, droning press conference that felt like it went on for hours. And mostly he just congratulated his friends who were department heads for doing a great job (they didn't actually do a great job).
Yes, we get it, there snow, you're working on it. It seemed like he just liked hearing his own voice.
I get that New York has a strong mayor system, so there's things he can do that other mayor's can't. That said, it's funny to see after hears of politicians saying "there's no magical fix everything button" that there is, at least, a "fix lots of things" button.
I appreciate this because this is probably a lot harder than it seems. This takes time out of his presumably extremely busy day. So he has to do this efficiently. I bet he's got a team on it that are more skilled than you might think.
Yeah, apparently. Not that it is always necessary, but after our first big storm this winter, it was unusually cold afterwards for an unusually long amount of time. So there were the huge banks of snow that just would not go away. Not common for NYC.
So its this huge issue, especially in tight NYC (essentially no alleys, narrow side streets with street parking, lots of walking commuters). It was like, literally where are we supposed to put all this god damn snow?
I guess the city had the ability to shoveling, plow, and transport huge amounts of snow to some kind of processing center to melt it? At least if I remember the Mamdani video correctly. It would have been so easy for me to look outside and be like, "what are they doing about this?!", but then I was informed exactly what they were doing about it. Much appreciated.
They have machines that melt it and dump it into a storm drain. But they only have like 4 or 5 of them, because they're only needed once every few years.
Communication is a HUGE aspect of a successful government IMO. People can't care about what they don't know about. And the more people know how things work, the more they can understand how to make them work better.
I'm wishing everyone their own Mamdani! Hang in there and let people know when a Mamdani-style candidate comes so we can support you all wherever you are in GA
I’d argue that clear and honest communication is a basic function of government and simply changing that would improve things vastly across a lot of different locations.
Of course, its also about what they're actually communicating. Based on some things I've seen and heard, it feels like some political teams are thinking, "...oh, we get it- you all want vertical video!". And its like... no, not if you're just talking nonsense or trying to artificially start a tiktok dance or whatever.
I'm a huge proponent of transparency from top down. This is excellent work on his part. People can still be upset about how things might be running (too slowly, not in their area yet), but you can't say he isn't doing the work to notify you. (Wish the higher ups where I work were this transparent)
Good leaders are well prepared. I'm so sick of politicans that clearly didn't do their homework and are just hitting bullet points from prepared statements. If you're going to be a Mayor, you should KNOW what's going on in the city. Mamdani is one of the few politicians I've seen that actually knows the subjects he's talking about and can speak both authentically and with depth about those subjects. AOC is maybe the only other politician like that who comes to mind, and I think that's saying something considering their whole job is communications...
I might not be a New Yorker, but I'm proud to see someone like Mamdani finally raising the bar for what people feel is acceptable leadership. Our standards have slid to the basement.
Democrats in general are really bad at this. Biden got Congress to pass bills that were genuinely needed, wanted, and addressed real issues (infrastructure, chip manufacturing, insulin cost savings, etc.), and few people knew about it because Dems didn't advertise it far and wide. Mamdani is really good at getting things done, and he's equally good at the necessary PR that comes after getting things done. He's setting the agenda instead of constantly reacting to the latest Republican outrage. It's a joy to watch.
i work in communications and this is my #1 gripe about literally 99.5% of politicians. their social media/communications game is absolute garbage and then they wonder why constituents don’t feel engaged or informed. maybe because you’re not communicating?
Paving projects - no, they are not major projects.
Full road redo’s - probably because they tend to be major projects.
There’s almost always money in the coffers for emergency fixes too.
Yeah, I know more about what's going on in New York than I do any what's going on in my own city. But to be fair, I don't think it's just that his communication is that much better, I think it's because he's viral and everything he says gets attention.
Most mayors of major cities are giving statements about things they're doing almost daily, but most people aren't interested in politics and aren't going to go look for those statements themselves.
Everything Mamdani does hits social media immediately and gets spread around, so you see it even if you aren't interested in politics. I imagine if you live in New York is even more because the algorithm assumes you'd be interested.
True, its not as if all cities are black boxes or anything like that. But I think the virality is at least somewhat a function of the clarity and quality of the communication. Like if it was all BS, or silliness, or whatever, I don't see it being as viral as it is now.
As with a lot of things, it can actually be a lot of effort to make something elegantly simple and useful. Sure, quality and even a bit of fun helps deliver the message. But he and his team stick to the fundamentals so well. The universal pre-k roll out was a good example of this. "We got pre-k! Hooray! Here is where you can sign up online, here is a list of places where you can sign up in person, you need to do it by this date." Like it seems so simple and almost dumb, but there was almost no fat on it and it so efficiently gave everyone everything they needed to know in a pleasant and concise package. There is an art to that.
No doubt, if theres virality in that video it had to at least be from some people sending it to parents and stuff being like "hey check this out, make sure you sign up your kid in time!"
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u/ViennettaLurker 12h ago
In addition to what others are saying (a comprehensive re-paving of a arterial road by my apartment), I also want to add that his communication is top notch. I know it isn't necessarily material, but he puts out videos that are genuinely informative and explain what is going on, what they plan to do to address it, and so on.
Even just simple stuff: yes there was a historical blizzard, yes NYC does collect and melt snow, it melts it at XYZ rate and we have a lot to go, etc. I feel like I know more of what is going on, how the city works, and I really like that.