This is the first speech that isn’t for white people. He reflected the actual population of NYC and didn’t cater to a consultant‘s vision of who is worthy. Yet, he clearly spoke about “kitchen table,” issues. It’s just that he included other people’s kitchens, too.

Cornell YDSA employed innovative outreach tactics to reach a highly transient electorate with limited canvassing opportunities. DSA campaigns like Hannah's are designing winning models to reach masses of people, and sets a historic precedent for @ydsa.org.

The assumption appears to be that ordinary voters will be cowed, obsequious, and unwilling to challenge autocracy, just like the billionaires, business leaders, media executives, and other leading institutions of civil society, which have decided that fighting back is “not worth the hassle.”

He could have commented on the dangers of a president vowing to punish an entire city because he doesn’t like the democratically-elected Mayor, or asked Mamdani to do so. Instead, he took these threats for granted and asked whether voters should decide to be swayed by the rhetoric of an autocrat.