Volume and charisma

There's something truly exciting about hearing Zohran Mamdani address Donald Trump with his now-famous cry of "turn up the volume!" during his victory speech. The brand-new mayor of New York—having broken all his records: the first Muslim, the youngest in a hundred years—not only taught the president a lesson from the wealthiest city in the United States, but also demonstrated that politics can be done differently. While some parties present reports, charts, and address the public like technocrats or PhD students, Mamdani spoke to them as if he were sending them a memo.

We should learn from the far right and its simple messages, but for the better. All it took was not inciting hatred. Framing it positively. The mayor swept the youth, of course, but also renters and public transport users. He appealed directly to all of them, with measures presented very clearly and simply; measures that promise a more livable city, not just reserved for the wealthy.establishmentto the rich. Meanwhile, we've seen him teaching tai chi in a class with senior citizens and meeting with taxi drivers, many of whom share his background.

Mamdani has known how to get down to brass tacks, but with creativity, humor, freshness, and something an algorithm can never manufacture: charisma. Politics has never been just strategy. But today, more than ever, it's image and narrative in the hands of those capable of generating hope; of making voters believe it's possible to curb the speculative greed of landlords with their tenants, that they have the right to public daycare or to ride the bus for free. In the most capitalist city in the world. However, Mamdani's message is universal, because every day all the cities of the First World become more and more like, for the worse, that New York he wants to change.

The triumph of the millennial mayor sends a message to the major parties and the old politics: if the young electorate isn't responding, it's because they aren't being spoken to in their language. They're looking for someone who tells them everything clearly, someone who knows who they are and what matters to them; someone who addresses them like a music idol at a concert, not a university lecturer. Even better if they explain it on TikTok.

Mamdani managed to find the right station and turn up the volume. The rest haven't even tried to tune in.