The radical left is so extreme, avowed socialist Zohran Mamdani is not revolutionary enough for them.
The New York City mayor has been heckled at Gracie Mansion, shouted down at events and slandered — not by people from the right, but those on his own side.
He’s also been accused, somewhat confusingly, of being pro-Israel and of not doing enough for trans people. Socialist congressional candidates have even taken to using him as a bogeyman to promote their even more radical agendas.
It’s barely been 100 days since Mamdani was sworn into office, and already he is losing the left. As Jacques Mallet du Pan observed of the French Revolution in 1793: “The revolution devours its children.”
Kshama Sawant, a former Seattle City Council Member running for the House of Representatives, has contrasted herself with Mamdani as a campaign tactic, assuring voters that she will be even more radical.
“The AOC-ification of Mamdani has taken place at lightning speed,” she wrote on X in February, deriding Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who she sees as a socialist sellout.
“There is only one way to break with this endless cycle of disappointment and betrayals from so-called ‘progressive’ and ‘socialist’ Democrats: breaking with both bloodstained parties of war and genocide.”
“The ‘AOCification of Zohran Mamdani’ is a phrase that’s going to live in my brain rent free,” a Bluesky user chimed in.
Sawant has also circulated a video of a member of the activist group Workers Strike Back accusing Mamdani of delivering “a mind-boggling list of betrayals,” including endorsing Kathy Hochul in the New York City governor’s race.
Meanwhile, Christian Smalls, workers rights activist and co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union, warned on X: “Zohran is going to break ppls heart way more then AOC [sic].”
“He plays the fence so well [that] one day he can sound like a leader of resistance the next a shill for Israel,” he wrote in a March X post. “He’s nothing but another career politician Democrat. Politicians are not our saviors… I’m with the resistance through and through.”
Another X user declared that “Zohran is a liberal not a socialist” and that “anyone who says otherwise is a f—king idiot.” When a commenter responded pointing out that Mamdani is a “Democratic Socialist,” they shot back, “There’s no such thing.”
Meanwhile, on Bluesky — the microblogging alternative to X — users have been deriding Mamdani for his transgender policies.
“He could be speaking out, publicly shaming folks, finding resources to help,” one transgender user complained. “He has one of the most powerful bully pulpits in politics. He is not using it to support us. It’s ok to be disappointed.”
Another ripped Mamdani for his February decision to resume sweeps of homeless camps. “My homeless sweeps are going to be different,” they posted mockingly.
The mayor has even been swarmed at his own home. When the Epstein files revealed in February his mother, film director Mira Nair, had attended a party at convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s home, hecklers showed up outside Gracie Mansion with drums and a megaphone.
“That’s right we know about your mom,” one protester shouted through the mansion’s gates. “We was with you, Zohran, we voted for you, Zohran, we advocated for you, Zohran, we advocated for you. You ain’t do nothing but get up in there and lie to us!.. Shame! Shame! Shame!”
And more recently, groups have formed to protest Mamdani’s supposed betrayal of healthcare workers. A sit-in demonstration has raged on for weeks pressuring Mamdani to sign a bill that would end 24-hour shifts for home health aides. On the campaign trail, he had committed to the cause.
In a video from the event, protesters decried: “Zohran, we all voted for you because you promised to stand up for working people and end the abusive 24-hour workday… Why have you said nothing? Instead, you’re parroting the racist, sexist lie that immigrant women choose 24 hour workdays.”
It’s all proof that even the man who is arguably America’s furthest left politician will never be left enough. His radical contingent demands perfection — the sort of instantaneous action that only a progressive dictator could pull off.
The writing has been on the wall since his days on the campaign trail. In one spectacular showdown at a June event filled with supporters, a young man in a keffiyeh shouted Mamdani down for apparently not being pro-Palestine enough.
“My family is in Palestine right now, constantly under attack, and I’m hearing you say free Palestine but also Israel has the right to exist,” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Don’t be hypocritical!”
Cheers from the crowd broke out in support of the heckler.
Similar sentiments have since been echoed online. “Always Remember: Zohran didn’t do anything but ride the wave,” the Palestine News Network wrote on X. “He didn’t ‘push’ anyone to the ‘left.’”
Also on the campaign trail, Mamdani was slammed by the Revolutionary Communists of America, who announced that “communists can’t support Zohran Mamdani.”
“Despite his nice-sounding words, Zohran is ultimately a reformist seeking to make minor tweaks to the New York City budget,” they sneered. “He is deceiving the working class.”
All the infighting is proof the radical left will never be satisfied. They will always demand more free things, more chaos, and more destruction.
It appears many of Mamdani’s supporters did not realize they were voting for a politician. They were voting for the fantasy of a socialist savior, free of fault, undeterred by political opposition, capable of unilateral control, and able to usher in a “socialist revolution” once and for all.