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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBill De Blasio Is Going To Let Liberals Down
Its only a matter of time before Bill de Blasios face starts sprouting up on T-shirts, Che Guevara-style, for lefties everywhere.
The crusading progressive who was just elected New York Citys 109th mayor has become a liberal hero in recent months, and has the history to prove it. He honeymooned in Cuba, worked alongside the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, visited the USSR the same year Reagan called it the Evil Empire, and his platform is the stuff of which progressive dreams are made.
Enjoy it now, liberals. Because, in the phrasing of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, de Blasios campaign poetry is about to transform into the considerably less inspiring prose of actual governance.
Once he assumes office in the new year, de Blasio will press the progressive agenda that propelled him to victory: increasing taxes on the wealthy; limiting stop-and-frisk; requiring more businesses to offer sick days. He very well may achieve some version of it. But compromises will be required. Purists will no doubt call him a sell out. And there will be other municipal decisions he will face that havent gotten as much attention now expired union contacts; expanding taxi service outside Manhattan that will place de Blasio in an unusual spot, after his blowout Tuesday: unliked, even (and perhaps especially) by those on the left.
Cuomos son, current Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is the man who can block de Blasios signature target: a higher tax on those earning $500,000 or more a year. De Blasio, a public school parent, says the tax hike is needed to expand public school for 4-year-olds and after-school programs for all students. Andrew Cuomo is giving the strong impression the higher tax is DOA in Albany.
Of rich New Yorkers, he recently told the Daily News editorial board: What they fear is that theyre in a place where the taxes will continually go up and there will be a ceiling and theyll say, Im going to Florida.
He added: I believe that.
More here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshrobin/bill-de-blasio-is-going-to-let-liberals-down
DonCoquixote
(13,615 posts)OK all you NYC people thinking you can go to Florida and evade taxes...sure, come on down. Enjoy looking at the rednecks that will want to kil, you because A) you did take over their land and B) they think jaizuzz wants them to beat up you Yankee liberals!" Enjoy having to drive everywhere, and enjoy schools so poor that you will see the minds of your children shrink and twist! Enjoy living among your new neighbors, the crazy types that could not make it in the rest of the country!
And yes, i have lived that nightmare for years, so I can say it. Come down, the Water's fine, give or take an Oil slick or two!
La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)that one man does not change a system
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Thanks Josh Robin, for your Sensible Woodchuckery and hypothesizing!
fredamae
(4,458 posts)can to do these things the People want? And then Gov Veto's him? The anger will turn toward Cuomo...I would think....
pinto
(106,886 posts)"...campaign poetry is about to transform into the considerably less inspiring prose of actual governance." That's the reality of it all, whether it's NYC, your local county government, Congress or the White House.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)They did not seem too pessimistic. But they were cautious about whether the political climate would affect people buying in to the more expensive property in New York.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)in decades? Might as well just forgo his political future right now, because a lot of those people he's about to piss off probably voted for him in the first place.
I guess that speech about New York being a bastion of progressivism during the gun debate means nothing.