Is This The Smartest Mamdani Ad Yet?

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Bulwark Takes
Host: Tim Miller (The Bulwark)
Episode Title: Is This The Smartest Mamdani Ad Yet?
Date: October 28, 2025

Main Theme:
Tim Miller analyzes recent messaging trends among progressive leaders, focusing on Zoran Mamdani’s standout campaign advertisement, and examines how different approaches to “left populism” might work for connecting with traditional Democratic constituencies and swing voters. He also takes on the ongoing conflict around American democracy, with particular attention to Donald Trump’s latest efforts to use the Department of Justice for his own ends, and the Democratic messaging in response.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump, DOJ, & “Democracy-Speak”

• [00:00]–[01:32]
  Tim Miller describes the current GOP effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against Trump’s political opponents, calling it “fabricated nonsense.” He points out the MAGA right’s savvy in co-opting the language of democracy, making it frustratingly effective:

  “Donald Trump and the MAGA right is co-opting these terms of democracy and doing it with some political effect, annoyingly.” — Tim Miller, [00:16]

• Miller highlights the farcical yet dangerous aspects of these tactics, and sets up a pivot to progressive messaging—specifically, how it intersects with issues of democracy.

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2. The “DSA Generations” at the Zoran Rally

• [01:32]–[03:16]
  Miller plays a highlight reel from the Zoran Mamdani rally, featuring soundbites from Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and Zoran Mamdani himself. Each represents a different “version” of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) messaging, as described by Liz Smith (“Bernie AOC and Zoran, DSA 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0”):

  • Bernie: Focused on systemic threats, authoritarianism, and class oppression.
  • AOC: Emphasizes identity, social justice, Trump critiques, and connects to historical injustices.
  • Zoran: Focused on affordability and cost of living, presenting a cheerful, optimistic tone.

  “Bernie is still on message. Dude cannot be shaken off his message...and it’s very Bernie. It’s unique to Bernie.” — Tim Miller, [02:08]
  “Then you get to Zoran, and he really has kind of dialed in on the affordability, dialed in on the cost of living, dialed in on making New York a better place to live for everybody. And he does so...in a much cheerier way… happy warrior manner.” — Tim Miller, [03:03]

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3. What Works—and Why: Zoran’s Messaging Compared to AOC & Bernie

• [03:16]–[07:52]
  • Miller compares the impact of different messaging strategies, especially as Democrats attempt to recapture working-class and nonwhite voters, constituencies where they’ve lost ground.
    • Economic focus is key:

      “If left populism is going to work, they gotta appeal to those voters. And I think that a lot of those voters were turned off about some of the cultural moves that the Democrats made.” — Tim Miller, [04:46]

    • Cultural issues, especially “woke social justice” politics, risk alienating broad swathes of the electorate.
    • Zoran’s style is inclusive and avoids scare tactics, making him more palatable for swing voters and former Republicans.

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4. Case Study: The “Smartest Mamdani Ad Yet”

• [07:52]–[09:44]
  Miller plays and analyzes Zoran Mamdani’s Fox News ad, emphasizing its unique blend of left-populist and traditional tropes:

  • Attacks on billionaire-backed politics (in the Bernie tradition).

  • Policy specifics rooted in affordability, government efficiency, and tangible deliverables like universal child care, affordable rent, and fair property taxes.

  • Use of “government waste” rhetoric—a cross-ideological talking point.

  • Messaging is “not scary”—deliberately avoids polarizing language or framing:

    “He’s on Fox, he’s using some traditional conservative tropes about the government and he’s saying directly that like I’m not scary, I’m just not doing the billionaire dirty work like Andrew Cuomo is.” — Tim Miller, [08:19] “It is optimistic, it’s forward looking, it’s responsive to people’s concerns. It’s marking the real foes as the billionaire class, not as MAGA Americans or anything like that. He does it with a smile.” — Tim Miller, [09:37]

  • Concludes that this ad is a “broadly appealing” synthesis of DSA values and effective campaign strategy, likely to attract both disaffected working-class voters and moderate swing voters.

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5. Takeaways on Effective Left Populist Messaging

• [09:44]–[12:36]
  • Emphasizing everyday economic concerns (affordable housing, childcare, property tax reform) is more effective than focusing on polarizing identity or ideological fights.
  • Zoran’s “happy warrior” tone and refusal to demonize non-billionaire opponents makes his approach stand out.
    • “How do you win people like Tim over? … Zoran has found a messaging substance and style that is preferable to some of what we saw coming before him.” — Tim Miller, [11:32]

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6. The Perils (and Limits) of “Democracy” as a Standalone Message

• [12:36]–[13:08]
  Transition to a discussion of how both Republicans and Democrats now frame themselves as defenders of democracy. Miller is skeptical about relying on “democracy” as a standalone campaign issue:

  “Democracy is a standalone issue, is a weak political issue for the Democrats to focus on...it’s kind of esoteric.” — Tim Miller, [13:18]

  • Both parties’ voters claim to support democracy, but only one side (MAGA/Trump) operates on a false narrative about the loss of democracy.
  • The only way to win the argument, Miller suggests, is with plain, concrete, non-highfalutin language and a focus on real abuses of power.

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7. Notable Quote: Hakeem Jeffries at NAACP Rally

• [15:06]–[15:36]
  • Hakeem Jeffries:

    “Wickedness in High Places. Folks who would rather shut down the government than provide health care to everyday Americans. People who have weaponized the Department of Justice. I’ve come to the conclusion that while Jim Crow may be dead, he still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well running around Washington, D.C. and the rest of the nation.”

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8. Democrats’ Rhetoric: Plain Talk or Moralizing?

• [15:36]–[16:38]

  • Miller prefers direct, blunt criticism of Trump’s actions over generalized historical references or lofty talk about “fate of democracy”:

    “I wish the Democrats would just say it more bluntly...Donald Trump is going after his political folks. Donald Trump, they have...propped up fake reasons to go after people that he doesn't like, using the power of the government. The American people are not for this.” — Tim Miller, [15:56]

  • The real danger, Miller argues, lies in normalizing political vengeance through government institutions, threatening the very norms of American freedom and justice.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [00:16]

  “Donald Trump and the MAGA right is co-opting these terms of democracy and doing it with some political effect, annoyingly.”
  — Tim Miller

• [03:03]

  “Then you get to Zoran, and he really has kind of dialed in on the affordability, dialed in on...making New York a better place to live for everybody. And he does so...in a much cheerier way… happy warrior manner.”
  — Tim Miller

• [08:19]

  “He’s on Fox, he’s using some traditional conservative tropes about the government and he’s saying directly that like I’m not scary, I’m just not doing the billionaire dirty work like Andrew Cuomo is.”
  — Tim Miller

• [09:37]

  “It is optimistic, it’s forward looking, it’s responsive to people’s concerns. It’s marking the real foes as the billionaire class, not as MAGA Americans or anything like that. He does it with a smile.”
  — Tim Miller

• [13:18]

  “Democracy is a standalone issue, is a weak political issue for the Democrats to focus on...it’s kind of esoteric.”
  — Tim Miller

• [15:20]

  “I’ve come to the conclusion that while Jim Crow may be dead, he still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well running around Washington, D.C. and the rest of the nation.”
  — Hakeem Jeffries

• [15:56]

  “I wish the Democrats would just say it more bluntly...Donald Trump is going after his political folks...using the power of the government. The American people are not for this.”
  — Tim Miller

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00]–[01:32] — Trump’s DOJ weaponization & the roots of “democracy-speak” battle
• [01:32]–[03:16] — Bernie, AOC, Zoran: Different DSA styles highlighted
• [03:16]–[07:52] — Deep dive into how left populist messaging can (and can’t) win
• [07:52]–[09:44] — Full breakdown of Zoran Mamdani’s Fox News ad
• [12:36]–[13:08] — Challenges with “protecting democracy” as a campaign issue
• [15:06]–[15:36] — Hakeem Jeffries’ NAACP comments
• [15:36]–[16:38] — Tim’s critique of how Democrats should talk about Trump’s actual abuses of power

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Overall Tone

Conversational, analytical, and sometimes self-deprecating—Tim Miller offers rapid-fire, candid takes aimed at both political junkies and the broader Bulwark audience. He blends humor with frustration but grounds his arguments with detailed, example-based comparisons. The episode balances critique and admiration, particularly regarding the evolution of progressive messaging.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

In this tightly-packed solo episode, Tim Miller breaks down the latest currents in political messaging on the left, using Zoran Mamdani’s “cheerful left-populist” campaign as the model for how Democrats might regain lost ground with both working-class voters and wary suburban moderates. Through comparisons with Bernie Sanders and AOC, he illustrates how a focus on affordability, tangible reforms, and optimistic tone can succeed where culture-war and lofty appeals to “democracy” fall flat. The episode also touches on the dangers of Trump’s new moves against political opponents and critiques both MAGA and “establishment Democrat” approaches to defending democratic norms, urging more straightforward, non-moralizing language instead.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, everybody, Tim Miller from the Bulwark. I just got off MSNBC and we're discussing Donald Trump's full frontal effort now to have his Department of Justice investigate the supposed crime of the century of the 2020 election being stolen from him. Obviously this is all fabricated nonsense and we get into a lot of like what that means, how in some ways it's scary, in other ways it's farcical talk about how Donald Trump and the MAGA right is co opting these terms of democracy and doing it with some political effect, annoyingly. And so we get into all of that and I want you to stick around for it. But first, at the end of that segment of talking about democracy, Chris Jansen kind of pivoted into the Zoran rally last night and asked my co panelist who I love, Basil Smichel, to kind of analyze that. And she played some highlights from Bernie Sanders AOC and Zoram Mandani's speech at that like really impressive rally and sort of asked him about how their messaging intersects with these questions around democracy and didn't come back to me. I didn't get a chance to talk about that. That's nice to see. What I have my own channel is now I get to do some post game with you guys and give you my takes on that, which I'm sure you're dying to hear. And so I want to play for you that highlight reel that they clipped on MSNBC of the three speakers and then talk to you about that on the other side and some other things I've noticed about Zoron's messaging. The very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally.

[B]

This election is taking place when we.

[A]

Have an administration in Washington which every day is moving us toward an authoritarian society.

[C]

I stand before you tonight as the nominee of a Democratic party reinvigorated in its pursuit of of making government work for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well connected.

[A]

So interesting. Now obviously you know these, they're just playing like a couple sentences from these long speeches. While I think it is pretty representative of the way each person spoke, obviously like they talked about other stuff as well over the course of their speech. And my friend Liz Smith was talking to New York magazine and she called this basically Bernie AOC and Zoran DSA 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 and point out kind of the different ways in which they talk. And you do see this in just those clips like Bernie is still on message. Dude cannot be Shaken off his message. Millionaires and billionaires, you know, the way that he talks about it is going to be an authoritarian regime. Right. And it's very Bernie. It's unique to Bernie. Obviously all three of these guys have very similar policy views because of the way in which they present them is different. AOC is next my millennial girl. And she is doing kind of the woke millennial stuff. You know, there is more focus on identity over the course of the speech. She's talking about, you know, native peoples. There's some checklist on identity politics stuff. She goes after Trump to rousing applause, talking about how, you know, he is, you know, trying to bulldoze a White House that was built by enslaved people. The East Wing wasn't, but the White House itself, you know, and obviously it.

[B]

Played well in the room.

[A]

A lot of people liked it. I saw some bu about how she seemed presidential to people in the room. But for me, it's a little, it's, it's definitely still kind of coded towards kind of the woke social justice left stuff that we're hearing around, you know, the Black Lives Matter protests and things of that nature. And then you get to Zoran and he really has kind of dialed in on the affordability, dialed in on the cost of living, dialed in on making New York a better place to live for everybody. And he does so he's is in a much cheerier way, happy warrior manner. His manner is just much happier and smilier than Bernie's, of course. And, and of course he again, like he mentioned some of the identity politics stuff, but like the, the emphasis is different than what you see from aoc. And, and I, I don't know. I think that it works and here's why I think it works. There's basically two groups that the Democrats need to think about and particularly left populist Democrats need to think about. Like if you're a DSA candidate, you're like, how do I get left populist policies to be successful as a political matter? Right. And you know, we've seen it in the cities, but how can you broaden that out to, you know, make it more of a successful movement in swing states and in other places? Well, for starters, you got to do better with poor low income voters, particularly from traditional Democratic constituencies, black voters, Hispanic voters, Asian voters. And the Democrats are not doing that well or they've at least lost a lot of ground in that demo. There's a new study out today. I'm going to go deeper on this tomorrow with Sam Stein but it kind of looks at where the Democrats have lost ground over the course of the last 10 years. And it has been the most acute in, like, poor neighborhoods that are, you know, either poor black neighborhoods. One was in New York. It was a poor neighborhood filled with Chinese immigrants mostly. And so if you just look at the precincts where they're losing ground, it's a lot of these poor voters of color. If the DSA is going to work, they got to appeal to those voters. Like, that has to be their bread and butter, right? If left populism is going to work, they got to appeal to those voters. And I think that a lot of those voters were turned off about some of the cultural moves that the Democrats made. That same study talked about how Democrats started talking more and more about social issues and climate issues and less and less about economics. And so that's like the theory of the case for left populism that, like, they can re engage those voters by focusing on economics. I think that probably would help to also dial it back a little bit on the culture stuff. And I think that's where Zoran's a little better than aoc, frankly, in his message positioning. But that is one group. And the other group, which is why I feel so suited to talk about this, is me. If left populists are going to win, they've got to do better with those traditional Democratic constituencies. But then they've got to hold on to the people that have come into the Democratic coalition during the Trump era who are not going to share all of their economic policy views, but who want to know that their policies are not so extreme. They're not not trying to burn everything down, that they're not scary. You know, that we, those of us who left the Republican Party over Trump, do not want to replace right wing illiberalism with left wing illiberalism. Right? You want to make sure that there's going to be some continuity with traditional American values, mores norms, Right? And interestingly, I think that the way Zoran talks is more appealing both to my people, right? These former Republican types, the swing voters, the suburban moms and to the working class or even, you know, kind of bottom of the income bracket voters that the Democrats have lost ground with. And I think it's because his manner, the way that he talks, the way that he presents it, where his emphases are, it is on stuff that is net less alienating than we've seen from some of the, like, progressive, identitarian left other candidates, particularly over the course of the Last decade. So I want to give you another tangible example of this. That is the ad that Zorin was running on Fox News that I just thought was really smart and clever and well done. Let's watch Zoran's Fox News app.

[C]

Hey, I'm the actual Zoram. I'm Donnie, not the guy they talk about on this channel. My radical agenda. Turn the page on the billionaire backed politics of Andrew Cuomo.

[A]

Okay, so there you go. So what is he talking about there? At the start, it is in the Bernie tradition and something that I think is gaining more and more popularity for a variety of reasons which we can get into at a later date. But there's going after the billionaire class, I think works. Going after the billionaire backed policies of Andrew Cuomo works and has a ring of truth to it. And I don't think is really turning too many people off. Then you go over what does he talk about that? What does he want to do? Make the city more affordable, keep New York City safe and tackle government waste. Tackle government waste? Again, that is stealing, borrowing from the abundance left or the small government. Right wingers like obviously Democrats talk about this, but you don't hear that a lot from DSA types. Zoran did that when I interviewed with him, really focused on that, talking about how he thinks that people that want bigger government, it should also be really important, incumbent upon them to talk about and care about ensuring that government works efficiently. Which is just logical. If you're gonna sell government to people, you have to sell them a product that they think works for them. So he's on Fox, he's using some traditional conservative tropes about the government and he's saying directly that like I'm not scary, I'm just not doing the billionaire dirty work like Andrew Cuomo is. Let's watch the end.

[C]

Make the city affordable, tackle government waste, keep New York safe and deliver on our promises with universal childcare, rent that you can afford and a property tax system that actually makes sense. So don't be fooled by the noise. This is who I am and you, you're who I'm fighting for. Paid for by Zoron for nyc.

[A]

Okay. Then he lists out what his actual tangible promises are. Universal child care, something that is badly needed in this country that is not. Not something that's scary. Going to turn people off, making rent affordable. He's not using like a socialist buzzword there. It's just about making rent more affordable to people. Some of the policy specifics on that, some on the right might not like, but Just as a general matter like that is something people want. Housing is too expensive, affordability is at the top of everybody's interests. And then he talks about property tax reforms. He's going into Fox to delivering that ad. And I just don't think that anybody watching that Fox ad, I mean, there might be people that don't like him because of other things they've heard about him or racism or just, oh, he's a socialist. So I'm not even going to listen. I can't even hear what's coming into my head. But for the people that are open to hearing it, the message isn't scary. It is optimistic, it's forward looking, it's responsive to people's concerns. It's marking the real foes as the billionaire class, not as MAGA Americans or anything like that. He does it with a smile. And I think it is an appealing synthesis of what his DSA forebears have left him. And I think that if a Democrat can focus on that and execute this, obviously Zara can't run for president. He's foreign, foreign born. You know, I think that is something that can be broadly appealing. And I think that the way that he's presenting himself in the way that he talks about it really matters. And I just think that this stark scene of me sitting there and watching that highlight reel of Bernie and then AOC and then him, I, I just, as somebody who is conceivably one of the target audiences for left populism, how do you win people like Tim over? I was just looking at it and saying, I think that Zoran has found a messaging substance and style that is preferable to some of what we saw coming before him. So we'll see how that all shakes out. I wanted to, it's worth sharing. This is why you come to this page, right? So you can get the extended version, the extended cut of the cable hit. You know, you want to know what was really going on in my mind when they asked me for a 45 second sound bite? That's what I'm giving you right here on this channel. So subscribe to the feed, but stick around. We got into a bunch of other stuff with Chris Jansen and Basil Smichel on this democracy question. And it was some material I didn't get to on the pod today that I think is worth talking about, about what Donald Trump is, is doing with DOJ right now in response to his hallucinations about 2020. So stick around for that subscribe to the feed comment. Tell me what you Think appreciate that I do my best to check him out and, and hear from you guys and be responsive to it.

[B]

So let me know what you think.

[A]

We'll be talking to you soon.

[D]

Tim, deconstruct this for us because in a sense, both sides are arguing we're fighting for democracy. Democrats have been saying that, I would say, since 2016. They say Trump threatens democracy. He says that he lost in 2020 because democracy was, you know, that the democratic norms were not in place. Who's winning this fight? Does it matter in terms of messaging?

[B]

Well, Trump won the last election, so I guess he won the fight when it comes to just looking at this purely in politics. And part of this is, I think, speaks to why democracy is a standalone issue, is a weak political issue for the Democrats to focus on. And obviously it's very important on the substance. I'm gonna get to in a second, but it's for. The reason you just laid out is that it's kind of esoteric. Donald Trump has convinced his base of the lie that the election was stolen from him in 2020 or that it was unfair in some way, which is obviously not true. But so then when you poll people and say, do you care about democracy? It's like both sides say yes, because the Republicans are talking, think that the 2020 election was stolen. So I mean, obviously on the substance, it's the Republican side that is wrong on this. It was Donald Trump that tried to overturn the will of the people in 2020. That's why it's kind of an ominous statement there where he says at the end that if they don't get this fixed, this will happen again. I think a lot of us are worried that this is gonna happen again with this being in 2028, Donald Trump trying to stay in power, do things to subvert or overturn the will of the people, as he did. So, look, I think that sending the DOJ after people is a complete undermining of the way that the Department of Justice works and our democratic norms. And I think it's alarming on the one hand. On the other hand, this is all based on a lie. Fox had to pay 700 plus million dollars because of this lie. There's been no evidence of it. They've tried to prove it. And he can send the Department of Justice down a rabbit hole going after his fantasies, but I don't know that it's actually going to yield anything.

[D]

Tim, let me ask you. Well, actually, let me play for you what the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries said at an NAACP rally. This was in support of Letitia James, the New York ag.

[E]

Wickedness in High Places. Folks who would rather shut down the government than provide health care to everyday Americans. People who have weaponized the Department of Justice. I've come to the conclusion that while Jim Crow may be dead, he still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well running around Washington, D.C. and the rest of the nation.

[D]

Tim, Wickedness in high places is an interesting rallying cry that echoes kind of what Letitia James herself said, which is that Trump is taking a wrecking ball to our values. Is this ultimately, if they can go after Tish James, we're all in danger.

[B]

I actually kind of like the way.

[A]

That you phrased that question at the.

[B]

End better than how the minority leader talked about it. Right. Some of it is. I agree with what he's trying to say, but I wish the Democrats would just say it more bluntly rather than kind of talking about it in the way of like, again, Jim Crow, the fate of democracy, wickedness. But what is happening bluntly, Donald Trump is going after his political folks. Donald Trump, they have created essentially propped up fake reasons to go after people that he doesn't like, using the power of the government. The American people are not for this. They don't want a government where you're gonna have the Justice Department, the most.

[A]

Powerful people that have the power to.

[B]

Subpoena you, that have the power to jail you and imprison you, come after you because the president doesn't like you or doesn't like what you said or because who knows what could be next? What you said on social media. That is what's happening here in this Letitia in the Tish James case, like, going after her over the second mortgage is totally preposterous. And the only reason they're going after her is because Donald Trump wants revenge. And that's not a way that we wanna run our government in this country.