Mamdani’s camp is tracking Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s challenges and trying to avoid repeating his missteps, according to a person close to both Mamdani’s and Johnson’s teams.
I worry that poor execution or bad decision making is what will sink the progressive movement. People assume that Johnson’s poor performance is due to inherent issues with democratic socialism, when in fact it he’s just not good at his job. Not all progressives have the right disposition and skills to do great things - and if progressive voters can’t or won’t distinguish between policy and performance, then the movement is likely to fizzle out.
I worry that poor execution or bad decision making is what will sink the progressive movement. People assume that Johnson’s poor performance is due to inherent issues with democratic socialism, when in fact it he’s just not good at his job.
Exactly! It’s why I’m not concerned with Mamdani based on what I’ve seen. He seems fairly level-headed, and he has a bit more governing experience than Johnson had.
Not all progressives have the right disposition and skills to do great things - and if progressive voters can’t or won’t distinguish between policy and performance, then the movement is likely to fizzle out.
We need to have the ability to self-criticize and be pragmatic. There’s room for pragmatism without compromising core beliefs.
I dunno… The whole make buses free so they run faster is not well tethered to the reality of bus travel. It’s stuff like that that makes me worried for Mamdani.
To be clear, he is not saying that making them free will cause them to be faster. He is saying he will make them free and will also make them faster. Two different things
So i took a bus line in LA that went free for a while, and it got faster. It just got faster, because people didnt habe to fuck around with their ohones or their cards or qhatever while boarding.
I can say, conxlusively, as someone who takes the bus and regularly took a bus line that went free for a while: this works. It’s great. Bus feels safer too.
I consider assembling the right team part of the leadership position. 🤷 If there are structural problems where a leader cannot remove underperforming or undermining team members, then success is unlikely.
Aren’t council elected? I’m unfamiliar with Chicago electoralism and hiring/firing policies, but a difficult to remove person who talked one way and performed another is certainly problematic, whether it’s intentional or not. At the end of the day, in capitalism, people will fight tooth and nail to stay in a job where they are not only under qualified without hope of proper support and training for themselves, and they’re also outright miserable, because bills still need paying and homelessness and hunger are still criminalized.
The annoying thing about that is that progressives are expected by the media to make no mistakes, but the right gets a pass on continuing gross incompetence and deliberate sabotage.
And progressives, by definition, are trying new things. Some aren’t going to work. Fail early, fail often should be the expectation, but when that happens, progressive leaders need to remain directionally correct and must be competent at not only executing new plans but pulling the plug on failures.
Anyway, a lot of this is Chicago-specifiic. Chicago governance has been a dog’s breakfast for a very long time.
I worry that poor execution or bad decision making is what will sink the progressive movement. People assume that Johnson’s poor performance is due to inherent issues with democratic socialism, when in fact it he’s just not good at his job. Not all progressives have the right disposition and skills to do great things - and if progressive voters can’t or won’t distinguish between policy and performance, then the movement is likely to fizzle out.
Exactly! It’s why I’m not concerned with Mamdani based on what I’ve seen. He seems fairly level-headed, and he has a bit more governing experience than Johnson had.
We need to have the ability to self-criticize and be pragmatic. There’s room for pragmatism without compromising core beliefs.
I dunno… The whole make buses free so they run faster is not well tethered to the reality of bus travel. It’s stuff like that that makes me worried for Mamdani.
To be clear, he is not saying that making them free will cause them to be faster. He is saying he will make them free and will also make them faster. Two different things
So i took a bus line in LA that went free for a while, and it got faster. It just got faster, because people didnt habe to fuck around with their ohones or their cards or qhatever while boarding.
I can say, conxlusively, as someone who takes the bus and regularly took a bus line that went free for a while: this works. It’s great. Bus feels safer too.
A lot of performance also depends on having the correct support in place, with a willingness and ability to quickly replace undermining elements.
Yes. He is building a movement that can be utilized once he is in office. The work doesn’t end on election day, it starts.
I consider assembling the right team part of the leadership position. 🤷 If there are structural problems where a leader cannot remove underperforming or undermining team members, then success is unlikely.
Aren’t council elected? I’m unfamiliar with Chicago electoralism and hiring/firing policies, but a difficult to remove person who talked one way and performed another is certainly problematic, whether it’s intentional or not. At the end of the day, in capitalism, people will fight tooth and nail to stay in a job where they are not only under qualified without hope of proper support and training for themselves, and they’re also outright miserable, because bills still need paying and homelessness and hunger are still criminalized.
The annoying thing about that is that progressives are expected by the media to make no mistakes, but the right gets a pass on continuing gross incompetence and deliberate sabotage.
And progressives, by definition, are trying new things. Some aren’t going to work. Fail early, fail often should be the expectation, but when that happens, progressive leaders need to remain directionally correct and must be competent at not only executing new plans but pulling the plug on failures.
Anyway, a lot of this is Chicago-specifiic. Chicago governance has been a dog’s breakfast for a very long time.