Yes, he talks like a Brooklyn tough guy, but Sen. Bernie Sanders is a resident of Vermont, America's most rural and most white state. That he fled New York City nearly 60 years ago seems lost on the current Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his fellow socialists. Then again, Mamdani hasn't been around very long himself.

Sanders skipped out of town as part of the white flight leaving New York in the 1960s. The out-migrants weren't all middle-class whites running away from urban chaos. Some, like Sanders, were white radicals vexed at losing power to a new generation of black militants who didn't want them dominating the civil rights movement.

Having the microphone ripped from their hands, many white activists moved from New York to hip places like Burlington, Vermont. There they could sit around hippie coffee shops and plot the socialist future unbothered by angry blacks. In 1968, Sanders moved to Vermont's biggest city to join them. Burlington at the time was less than 1% black. It was the perfect place for Sanders to build his political career.

Though Sanders is not a New York resident and pays no taxes there, Mamdani chose him to preside over his public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall. That was remarkable for another reason: An out-of-state figure cannot give a binding oath of office unless vested with state-authorized authority. That would explain why Mamdani had New York Attorney General Letitia James administer the official oath at a private midnight gathering.

Mamdani is not running New York as a complex urban civilization built over decades but as a star turn for himself and comrades. Many New Yorkers worry that he's a socialist, or worse, a communist. They should take comfort in knowing that the city's sad finances will stop the more radical ideas from materializing. There are still no free buses. No city-run food stores. Police still respond to mental health crises. And chances that the state will let him raise taxes on millionaires are slim.

In sum, Mamdani had never run anything as intricate as a bodega. That he's totally out of his depths in mastering New York's complexities has its advantages.

But for many on the left, Sanders seems a useful stand-in for the working-class New Yorker. And the argument can be made that he's an exciting speaker. But that doesn't always work.

In 2024, Sanders held a rally for Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the South Bronx. The South Bronx happened to be on the other end of the borough from Bowman's district. However, the neighborhood, long known for its poverty, served as a useful stage set for Sanders and for Bowman, a member of the left-wing Squad.

Bowman had earned fame for setting off a fire alarm in a House office building when he thought no one was watching. And his obscenity-filled rant in the South Bronx seemed an exercise in slumming. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who does represent the area, posted that Bowman's tirade "remotely resembles the decency of the people I know and represent in the South Bronx."

In the end, Bowman lost the Democratic primary to Westchester County executive George Latimer, who won in the general.

That year, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris to win a second term. Sanders was also on that Vermont ballot, vying for another term as senator. But Vermonters seemed less enthusiastic about Sanders than the New York left. He won reelection, but after getting fewer votes in his own state than Kamala Harris did.

Slogans, TikToks and celebrities from elsewhere may work at times. But voters who deeply relate to the place they live may be a far harder sell. They should be.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Mike Chavarri at Unsplash