I’ve never been more alarmed about the state of our democracy. The U.S. is sliding toward authoritarianism faster than ever, while corporate media turns a blind eye. That’s why Common Dreams exists—to cover the news that others won’t. Every day, our independent team works to fulfill our mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
But here’s the truth: we can only do this with your support. We refuse corporate ads and keep our site free for everyone because access to critical news should never depend on ability to pay. That means our survival depends on readers like you. Please donate today and help us reach our goal of raising $100,000 by November 1.
Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent media alive when it’s needed most.
- Craig Brown, Co-founder
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
But here’s the truth: we can only do this with your support. We refuse corporate ads and keep our site free for everyone because access to critical news should never depend on ability to pay. That means our survival depends on readers like you. Please donate today and help us reach our goal of raising $100,000 by November 1.
Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent media alive when it’s needed most.
"While Donald Trump's billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses," Zohran Mamdani said during the sold-out rally in Queens.
Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani last month, broadly praised the candidate's focus on affordability and his push for universal childcare.
But during the governor's remarks, chants of "tax the rich!" rang out—an apparent criticism of her stated opposition to Mamdani's call for wealthy New York City residents and corporations to pay more in taxes to fund universal childcare and other proposals.
"Oh, this crowd is fired up," Hochul said in response to the chants. "I can hear you."
Polling indicates that Mamdani—a 34-year-old democratic socialist whose campaign has focused on offering bold solutions to the city's worsening inequality and cost-of-living crisis—is the clear frontrunner heading into the November 4 contest, with disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa trailing significantly.
But Mamdani implored his supporters to ignore such data and "go into the last eight days of this election assuming you are five points behind."
"While Donald Trump's billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses," Mamdani told the crowd of around 13,000 gathered in Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. "No longer will we allow the Republican Party to be the one of ambition. No longer will we have to open a history book to read about Democrats leading with big ideas."
"No longer should we think about our political process as settling for the lesser of two evils," he said. "We can demand a greater good."
Sanders (I-Vt.) also zeroed in on the billionaire forces arrayed against Mamdani, a group that includes hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and casino mogul Steve Wynn.
"Ordinary people get one vote. Billionaires get the opportunity to spend as much as they want to elect the candidates they want," Sanders said, decrying the influence of super PACs that can accept unlimited political donations. "That is the context in which this election is taking place."
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, cast the race as one that "mirrors what we are up against nationally, both an authoritarian criminal presidency, fueled by corruption and bigotry and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement," as well as the "insufficient, eroded, bygone political establishment, this time in the form of Andrew Cuomo."
"Both of these challenges," said Ocasio-Cortez, "are fueled and funded by the same billionaire class whose apparent greatest fear is an equitable, affordable, and prosperous nation and city for all, not just the very few."
In addition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said the senator, "you've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Despite the Trump administration's increasing assaults on immigrant communities, the political left, and the rule of law, US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday said he is optimistic "about our political future" when he looks at progressive leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In excerpts of the latest episode of "The Axios Show" by the news outlet Axios, which is set to be released in full on Friday, Sanders (I-Vt.) weighed in on the recent news that Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is considering a presidential run in 2028.
When host Alex Thompson asked him whether Ocasio-Cortez would be a "formidable" candidate, Sanders replied, "I think she would."
He added that a number of other Democratic elected officials would also be good candidates, and said the congresswoman's future political moves are "her decision to make." Ocasio-Cortez has also been named as a potential challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2026.
Sanders spoke about Ocasio-Cortez's ability to connect with voters she meets in person.
"I've been out on the streets with her, people come up, and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open," he said. "It's just something that's a gift that she has. It's a quality that she has, she's a great speaker out there."
While progressive electoral successes like Ocasio-Cortez's have often been dismissed by centrist Democrats and Republicans who claim left-wing candidates don't have appeal outside of deep-blue urban areas like New York City, the congresswoman—who's often called by her nickname, AOC—has received warm receptions in conservative, rural parts of the country, including when speaking to crowds of thousands with Sanders on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour this year.
"She comes from the working class, she was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother," he said. "She knows what it's like not to have any money and she’s going out, fighting for working families all over this country."
"I do want to say, it's not just Alexandria," he said. "You've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House...I mean literally dozens... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."
Sanders also spoke about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is running a campaign focused on lifting up the working class in the primary against multiple candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills, as the party aims to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Platner has been the subject of controversy in recent days over deleted Reddit posts he wrote in the past and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—one that he got while serving in the military and that didn't prevent him from being approved to reenlist. He announced Wednesday that he had gotten the tattoo covered with another image, before continuing his campaign with a town hall where he spoke to hundreds of Maine voters.
When Thompson asked Sanders about Platner's controversies, he answered that he is "not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, 'What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Platner's chest?'"
"Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues," he said before speaking about the progressive oyster farmer's impressive campaign rallies and the "dark period" he went through in the past.
"He went through some very difficult experiences in the military," said Sanders. "Seeing his friends killed... He went to the VA and by the way, he says they rebuilt his life. He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period."
📺 EXCLUSIVE: On the latest episode of The Axios Show, @SenSanders defends Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying there might be "one or two more important issues" than the Marine veteran's tattoos.
"The guy that I saw up on the stage in Portland, Maine, rather a brilliant guy," said the senator. "Really a strong fighter for the working class, very articulate, very smart and what he said is, 'Yeah, I went through a dark period and said stupid things. I am not the person that I was back then.'"
"And I think as a nation," he added, "especially given the fact that we have a president who was convicted of 34 felonies, maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness."
"What we will not accept is for the ACA premiums to skyrocket on the American people," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse."
Two weeks into the government shutdown that was triggered when Democrats in Congress refused to help the Republican Party rip healthcare subsidies and coverage away from millions of Americans, two of the top progressive lawmakers in the US were resolute Wednesday night at a town hall held by CNN.
Democrats, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) "need to see ink on paper"—legislation that is passed in the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies—before they agree to a spending package to reopen the government.
"I don't accept IOUs, I don't accept pinky promises, that's not the business that I'm in," said Ocasio-Cortez when CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked her and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) whether Democrats would accept "commitments from the White House and Republicans," who have claimed they will hold votes on healthcare after the government reopens.
These losers — the leaders of the Democrat Party — are not serious people. They don't have any clue what they're talking about other than demanding free health care for illegals to vote to re-open the government.
Ocasio-Cortez added that she would not support a Republican proposal for a one-year extension of the subsidies, which help millions of Americans pay for monthly health insurance premiums for coverage purchased through the ACA marketplace. Once the subsidies expire—as they are currently set to at the end of 2025—KFF has estimated that the average ACA premium will more than double.
Whether at the end of this year or after next year's midterm elections, said the congresswoman, "what we will not accept is for the ACA premiums to skyrocket on the American people."
"What we will not accept is the doubling of these premiums. And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse right before everyone’s eyes,” she said.
Republicans have persisted in repeating the baseless claim that instead of opposing skyrocketing health insurance costs, Democrats are refusing to vote for a continuing resolution to reopen the government—which needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate—because they want to give "free healthcare" to undocumented immigrants.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for coverage under the ACA, Medicaid, or Medicare. The Republicans' massive, broadly unpopular One Big Beautiful Bill Act stripped legal asylum recipients, green-card holders, and other legal permanent residents of their eligibility for those healthcare programs, a provision which Democrats have called to reverse.
When asked whether the US should provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants at the town hall, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at the "common lie" that's been spread by GOP leaders including Vice President JD Vance—and vehemently defended the established statute, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires all hospitals that participate in Medicare to provide emergency treatment to anyone who needs it, regardless of immigration status.
"I don't know about you, but me, as a human being, I don't want to live in a world where if a human being is struck by a car or is getting rushed into a hospital, that people in the ER surgical room are asking for your insurance information or asking for documents before they save your life," said the congresswoman.
Rep. @AOC: “This is a common lie Republicans - especially JD Vance (+ @RepTimBurchett) - keep repeating… undocumented people can’t be covered by federal insurance… and federal law says everyone gets treated in the ER. As it should be.” pic.twitter.com/TYqmiYswP4 — The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 16, 2025
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez expressed empathy with federal workers who are missing paychecks as a result of the shutdown, and told audience members who are unable to obtain government-backed loans to buy a home or struggling with a loss of income that they aim for the shutdown to end "as quickly as possible."
But Ocasio-Cortez rejected one suggestion from an audience member who pointed out that about 80% of people who benefit from ACA subsidies live in states that voted for Trump and in "rural, mostly Republican areas."
"If the Republicans are so insistent on sticking it to their own voters on this issue, why don't the Democrats just let them?" asked the town hall participant.
The question illustrated how Trump is "dividing this country," said Sanders, who pointed out that he and Ocasio-Cortez have spoken to large crowds in rural, conservative areas as part of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
Q: “Most hospitals + people who will lose insurance are in rural areas. If Trump & Republicans are so intent on sticking it to their own voters, why not let them?”@AOC: “That’s the difference between us & Trump. I don’t care if you voted for me, I want you to have health care.” pic.twitter.com/OvUjAcZWLD — The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 16, 2025
"It also speaks to a big difference between someone like Trump and someone like me, and someone like Bernie," said Ocasio-Cortez. "Trump believes that if you don't vote for him, he doesn't have to be your leader... I don't care if someone voted for me or not. I don't care if someone is a Republican or an independent or a Democrat... That will never change the fact that I'm going to fight for them to have healthcare."
"And that is the difference," she said, "between a strongman and an authoritarian, and a leader of a democracy."
