Fareed Zakaria, a long-time fixture at CNN, identifies as a sensible centrist. No conservative, he’s also not a ‘woke’ leftist; his stance aligns more closely with liberalism. Over the weekend, he sparked quite a reaction during a lengthy segment focused on the Democratic Party, where he didn’t hold back in criticizing the disorder in many major cities across the nation. These urban strongholds, which are key hubs of liberal ideology, face challenges with effective governance, excessive spending of taxpayer money, and an overwhelming fixation on increasing taxes:
Blue cities are out of control, promising more, spending more, delivering less and pushing off fiscal problems to some future day.
Democrats in city halls should stop governing as if the goal is to announce new entitlements, and instead make government work.
My take: pic.twitter.com/kwYkA4XEjx
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) February 22, 2026
During his show “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday, the lefty journalist blasted Democrat-run cities for overspending on entitlement programs.
“New York is really a prime example of a problem Democrats seem unwilling to confront,” he said. “Blue cities are out of control, promising more, spending more, delivering less and pushing off the fiscal problems to some future date.”
Zakaria called out Mamdani, the 34-year-old socialist mayor leading the Big Apple who recently suggested hiking city property taxes by as much as 9.5% to support his massive $127 billion budget proposal.
“Zohran Mamdani’s basic instinct is correct. Focus on affordability, especially housing — but not by providing government subsidies,” Zakaria said, adding that subsidies have only driven up the cost of rent.
“For Democrats in city halls, there is a choice. Stop governing as if the goal is to announce new entitlements, and instead make government work. Safer streets, functioning schools, predictable sanitation and above all, enough housing that the middle class can find places to live.”
…Zakaria also took aim at Democratic leadership in Los Angeles and Chicago.
The City of Angels has a roughly $950 million budget for tackling homelessness this year — but homelessness has grown 80% in the city from 2015 to 2024 despite funding, Zakaria noted.
In Chicago, the mayor’s approval ratings are “underwater” and pension promises are so large “that they will surely bankrupt the city at some point,” the host added.
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Fareed, these are not serious people. And it’s clear their left-wing-socialist-Marxist ideology drives their main action items, all of which are niche, exclusionary, and not popular.
It must be really bad if even the NYT is finally saying it out loud. https://t.co/q5m9yiFx7u
— Jean (@queens_parents) February 23, 2026
There was some hope that the Democratic Party would have learned some hard lessons following their 2024 trouncing, but no. Rather, party leaders, as well as the rank-and-file, are tripling down on stupid, failure, Trump hate, and divisiveness.
