The New New Left

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Joan Walsh rips apart a Politico column by Todd Purdum that disses Bill de Blasio. She adds,

I question Purdum’s lazy framing of de Blasio as the “tall” candidate who happens to be “small” – small as in having no national stature but also, I think he means, having no big ideas. In fact de Blasio wants to make New York, once the laboratory of the New Deal and the capital of liberalism, a leader in a new urban policy that addresses the corrosive effects of income inequality. That’s “big,” Todd. He may not do it, but he’s thinking big.

Also, too,

As we now know, de Blasio narrowly defeated the black candidate, Thompson, among African Americans; the LGBT candidate, Quinn, among LGBT voters, as well as the woman, Quinn again, among female voters, and the Jewish candidate, Anthony Weiner, among Jews.

Conservatives are certain that a Mayor de Blasio will turn New York City into the next Detroit. One commenter described de Blasio’s call for “safe streets” as “veering from the liberal left,” because we liberals cannot sleep at night if we think the streets are safe. My favorite de Blasio hell-in-a-handbasket prediction is this one:

To start, setting an arbitrary minimum wage is not only going to encourage low-skill employers in the small business sector to avoid the city, it could also increase rents and prices if employers pass on the addition costs to consumers making the city even less “affordable.” If de Blasio intends to increase rent controls, that does nothing but lead to rent increases in the long-run, which decreases the availability of affordable housing. Free lunches for children actually discourages parental responsibility for meeting the needs of their children. Lastly, the reason that child care is such a problem in New York city among low-income residents is a reflection of low marriage rates. Universal pre-K gives fathers yet another reason not to care for their children and fosters irresponsiblity.

That’s right, folks; universal pre-K leads to deadbeat dads. And de Blasio hasn’t called for free lunches in school, which low-income children already get, but that New York fully participate in an already existing federal program that subsidizes breakfasts in school.

The Republican nominee, Joseph Lhota, already is claiming that de Blasio is trying to divide the city with class warfare. That’s because de Blasio is big on reducing income inequality, which Republicans consider to be something that polite people don’t discuss in public.

“Calling it a tale of two cities, that level of invective has no place in any campaign, at all,” said Mr. Lhota, who was a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration and later chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “It divides people. What we really need to do is to work together and provide a solution, not separating people and then saying that the ends justify the means.”

Unfortunately for Lhota, New Yorkers aren’t known for being polite. And I don’t see them falling for this.

8 thoughts on “The New New Left”

  1. God forbid that the Govt. should lift a finger to help us non-aristocrats. We all know the so-called “Free Market” tinkles in— I mean RAISES all boats.

  2. “It divides people. What we really need to do is to work together and provide a solution, not separating people and then saying that the ends justify the means.”

    OK. For a week, let’s inflict the stop & frisk policy on the well-to-do on Wall Street. When they get out of their BMW or Mercedes n the way to their office, even if they are in the private parking garage, lets have them (men or women) spread hands on the hood and get frisked. Maybe a few will like it, but I would guess that most will protest that the policy is only intended for ‘those people’ which will give credence to the tale of two cities. If New Yorkers are supportive of the policy across the economic spectrum, they will be completely willing to get groped by cops.

    • I hadn’t heard the story about the kittens. The thing is, the MTA is arguably the most badly managed bureaucracy in New York. De Blasio should put out ads saying Lhota will manage New York the way he managed the MTA.

  4. Class Warfare?
    I’m waiting for he wealthiest of the wealthy, the Plutocrats, and the sycophants who serve them for profit, to declare VMC Day – “Victory over the Middle Class Day” – and have a ticker-tape parade down the Broadway, and the main streets of other towns and cities.
    The uber-wealthy can ride their luxury cars in the streets, waving, while their sycophants and the courtier MSM throw the ticker-tape.
    The rest of us will stay home, to conserve our energy. Besides, we have nothing to cheer.
    And even though the filthiest of the filthy rich are War Criminals in this Class War, they’ll never be tried.
    Losers don’t hold War Crimes Tribunals – the winners do.

    And sure, Lhota’s an @$$hole – but don’t discount his chances.
    NYC hasn’t had a Democrat as Mayor since David Dinkins.
    Sure, Bloomberg was pretty liberal on social issues – but he was the Plutocrat’s Plutocrat, and his administration served his fellow Plutocrats, and their servants, the Wall Street gamblers.
    I hope Lhota will lose.
    I think he’ll lose.
    But Giuliani was an @$$hole, too. The advantage he had over Lhota, was that he was a popular grand-standing DA, who put the fear of God in criminals, and anyone who got between him and a camera or microphone.

    GO BLASIO!!!

  5. In a later debate, when confronted with the kitty question, Lahta said that he didn’t say he’d keep the trains running, he said that he’d leave that to the head of the MTA.

    I think, though, that if the head of the MTA tried to save those kitties, Lahta would over-ride him, and tell him/her to let the kitties be subway paste.

  7. “I was going to go out and get a second job to support my family but now that my son gets free lunches I’ve decided to sit on the couch and milk the government teat”. All those things that commentor complained about and warned against are not causes of economic difficulties, they’re the result of it.

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