Anil Dash on the “effusive, exuberant, contagious joy” of Zohran Mamdani.
So much of what people hear in politics is negative and threatening. Zohran’s opponents spoke almost exclusively about how people should be scared and angry. But the undeniable energy of the Mamdani campaign has been joy — an effusive, exuberant, contagious joy. Even when times are hard, maybe especially when times are hard, people are drawn to that joy. And they’ve been missing leaders who offer them a positive vision. They don’t want to hear horrifying visions of “American carnage”, especially when they know those are lies designed to manipulate. A better world is possible.
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Perhaps one of the most joyful parts of Zohran’s instantly-legendary victory speech on election night was its eloquence. His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. He proved that politicians don’t have to condescend to voters with baby talk! And a big part of re-establishing our democratic norms is going to be speaking to the electorate as if we are all adults, assuming a level of literacy in culture and history, as well as as basic civics. I keep saying that I’m hoping we get an “easter egg breakdown” version of this speech, similar to the ones that people on YouTube do for a Marvel movie or a Star Wars trailer. There’s such a dense level of references and context that people will be able to extract meaning from it for years to come — a welcome contrast to a political environment that has usually had deeply hateful dog whistles as the only thing buried within its content.