If the Left ever needed a masterclass in emotional pandering, grievance politics, and anti-Israel obsession, it got one on full display on Saturday at a townhall featuring New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and Vermont’s socialist-in-chief, Senator Bernie Sanders.
At a town hall that was less about governance and more about political theater, Mamdani kicked off with a tired refrain: “No faculty member should be disciplined for supporting Palestinian human rights.” But make no mistake—this wasn’t a plea for academic freedom. It was a thinly veiled endorsement of radical, anti-Israel activism. Mamdani, who had heretofore refused to denounce the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) resolution threatening to expel members who aren’t sufficiently anti-Zionist, is perfectly comfortable siding with a movement that promotes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and demonizes Israel at every turn.
When previously asked about the DSA’s explicitly anti-Zionist platform — which threatens to expel members for cooperating with pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC — Mamdani had weaseled his way out, saying he took his orders from New Yorkers. Loosely translated, he was saying that he would not dare criticize the radicals whose endorsements he would certainly need.
At one point in the town hall, Sanders parroted the scurrilous lie often purveyed by mainstream media, railing, “We should not be spending tens of billions of dollars on the government of Israel that is currently starving children to death.”
Rather than discuss real solutions for New York’s public safety crisis, housing shortages, or spiraling budget deficits at the town hall, Mamdani and Sanders devoted most of their energy to blaming the usual scapegoats: billionaires, corporations, Republicans, and of course, President Donald Trump. Mamdani railed against Trump’s tax legislation — calling it a “wealth transfer” — as if the city’s poverty and housing crisis suddenly began in 2016. He glossed over New York’s decades of Democrat mismanagement, choosing instead to indict the president for everything from hunger to homelessness.
Sanders, for his part, descended into demagoguery that bordered on parody. According to him, the United States is now an oligarchy run by cartoon villains like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Rupert Murdoch. He lamented the “six media conglomerates” that supposedly control everything Americans read and think—oddly omitting the overwhelming liberal slant of most mainstream outlets. The irony of a man who has spent over 40 years in public office raging against “the system” seems to escape him entirely.
On immigration, Mamdani criticized Uganda — his country of origin — for agreeing to accept U.S. deportees. But the real villain, he said, was Trump. Sanders added that deporting illegal immigrants was akin to behavior seen in “two-bit dictatorships.” The idea that a sovereign nation might enforce its immigration laws is apparently unacceptable in their utopia.
The overarching theme of the evening wasn’t policy. It was resentment. Resentment toward wealth, toward Israel, toward police, toward American institutions. Mamdani and Sanders painted a picture of America and New York as dystopian nightmares ruled by elites—without offering any coherent roadmap out. Free child care, free buses, universal rent control, and unlimited legal aid for immigrants were all promised. But how to pay for it? They didn’t say.
Of course they didn’t.
In the end, Mamdani and Sanders continue to divide New Yorkers by class, race, religion, and political allegiance — while offering little beyond slogans, scapegoats, and socialist fantasy.
