Bill de Blasio: harbinger of a new populist left in America

[marmar]

Bill de Blasio: harbinger of a new populist left in America
Strong stances on inequality and policing underpin the New York mayor's win. If he holds true, he can shift the national debate

Tom Hayden
theguardian.com, Wednesday 6 November 2013 04.30 EST


The overwhelming support of New York City voters for Bill de Blasio is the latest sign of the shift towards a new populist left in America. De Blasio owes his unexpected tailwind to campaigning on issues considered by insiders to be too polarizing for winning politics.

One is De Blasio's promise to redress the "tale of two cities" inequalities among New Yorkers, an issue forced into mainstream discourse by the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement – not by New York Democrats aligned with Wall Street. The other is De Blasio's pledge to sharply curb police stop-and-frisk policies directed against young people of color – aggressive tactics favored by a majority of white voters and overwhelmingly criticized by African Americans, Latinos and Asian-American voters.

Despite its Democratic voter majority, New York in recent decades has been the political stronghold of the plutocratic Mayor Michael Bloomberg and, before him, the abrasive law-and-order Mayor Rudolph Giuliani – both Republicans with national, even global, reach. Democrats have lacked a progressive voice on the national stage of American politics often provided by the New York mayor's office – until now.

De Blasio will have a mandate for economic and social reform backed by a newly-elected 51-member city council, the most progressive in years. As Juan Gonzáles of Pacifica's DemocracyNow! put it:

"I can't think of a time like this when so many progressives have been elected at once."

With American politics polarized between the Obama center and the thriving Tea Party, the only opening for the left is through state and local federalism serving as "laboratories of reform", to paraphrase former Justice Louis Brandeis. After the Gilded Age and the Great Crash of the 1920s, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (1934-47) and legislators like Robert Wagner created the first pillars of the New Deal before it become the national platform of the Democrats. They successfully fought not only Wall Street bankers, but a virulent and racist American right. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/06/bill-de-blasio-new-populist-left

[stevenleser]

1. There is a lot at stake here. A lot of people want him/them to fail.

I hope he is successful.

[cali]

2. I posted this in August:

Is Bill de Blasio The Future of Progressive Politics In The Democratic Party?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023459112

[marmar]

4. Good piece.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

26. Thank you.

[seveneyes]

3. I doubt NYC represents most of America

In fact, I'd guess that most voters would not appreciate their taxes being used to enforce Big Gulp bans. Ending "Stop and Harass" might be a selling point, but the Nanny type nonsense would likely turn off most voters.

[Puzzledtraveller]

7. He's got the look of a mayor and the name that suits NY Bill De Blasio!

he's a Democrat and most voters there probably went with that.

[marmar]

8. "he's a Democrat and most voters there probably went with that."

That hasn't been true in the last several elections. ..... And there were other, much more established and well-known Democrats in the primary, but yet they chose de Blasio. They went with the progressive.

[Puzzledtraveller]

14. All voters?

I'm certain the informed and thoughtful Democrats did. Do you think the less engaged and informed knew anything about him being a progressive? Perhaps I'm too cynical. I do admit not knowing the voter landscape in NYC so I'm probably being biased due to my experience living in a small town in Kentucky.

[randome]

19. New York is a symbol, though. An important one.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[seveneyes]

21. Yes, similar to Apple Pie, corn fields and emigration to America

[sabrina 1]

24. He was elected because he is a Progressive. NYC is a symbol of the rest of the country which for a

while, went with the so-called center only to realize how it so adversely affected their own interests. They elected Bloomberg buying his 'center/moderate garbage, for a while. Now they see what that actually means and have chosen the Progressive in order to try to reverse the policies that brought this country's economy to its knees.

Great victory for Progressives in NYC after a long, awful period of 'centrism', whatever that means.

[scheming daemons]

5. it is a harbinger for NYC... but NYC is far from representing America

Too much is being read into it.

It is a start ... but a very small one.

[marmar]

6. I think NYC represents a lot more of America than it's given credit for.....

..... particularly the emerging demographic trend in America.

[HappyMe]

9. There is an incredible amount of diversity in NYC.

Plenty of ethnic, economic, sexual orientation differences. It does represent America.

[scheming daemons]

13. come on

Lets be real.

NYC is overwhelmingly liberal, and in no way mirrors the political diversity in the country.

I would venture to guess that NYC is the second most liberal city in the country.

If you think NYC represents America as a whole, you're way off base.

I WISH that were the case, but lets be realistic here.

[jeff47]

15. There's a NYC in every state now.

One of the side effects of the growth of cities in the last decade has been to produce an ethnically diverse, educated and liberal large city in every state. That's why there's so many states turning "purple" from dark red.

To use one example, North Carolina. It used to be that Chapel Hill was considered a communist enclave, utterly at odds with the rest of the state. Now, Charlotte and Raleigh are a lot like Chapel Hill was.

Sometimes, that's enough to swing the state. Othertimes, we get the same problems we get elsewhere - too many Democrats only vote in presidential election years.

But that's today. The cities are growing. The rural areas are shrinking.

[Puzzledtraveller]

16. I'm with you on this

What would be a good example of a progressive winning a mayoral race that would realistically knock our socks off? What city would that be? Just for fun.

[scheming daemons]

25. Dallas, Phoenix, Cincinnati to name some

But really, it is the suburbs that are even more representative of society as a whole.

And mayoral races in general are not indicative of a wider national trend.

Governor and Senate races are.

If a Deblasio got elected governor in a swing state, THAT would be a big indicator.

[HappyMe]

18. I disagree.

If you think that there aren't any repug asshats or any bigoted jerks there, you should think again.

I still think that it is a good representative of all viewpoints.

[starroute]

20. There are a lot of Archie Bunker types in New York City

The law-and-order Democrats are the people who gave New York twenty years of Giuliani and Bloomberg. But the demographics have changed. The socially conservative working class is being squeezed nationally and priced out of being able to live in the city. The fact that New York is being turned into a playground for the 1% is becoming glaringly obvious. Hurricane Sandy pointed up the way that lower middle class and poor neighborhoods are treated with a combination of neglect and gentrification.

New York may still have more than it's share of old-fashioned liberals in certain neighborhoods, but that doesn't sway city-wide elections. And everywhere outside those liberal enclaves, New York is pretty much like any big city.

[WinkyDink]

23. NYC is more than Manhattan.

[xchrom]

10. du rec.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Bill DeBlasio and Jerry Brown

will be able to offer "test cases" of modern liberal/progressive governance, economic focus, and other policy development and implementation, aimed at improving the general well-being of the populace, both at the municipal level, and at the state level.

IMHO, this demonstration of populist liberal innovation in governing is sorely needed and it will be interesting to see the waning of a destructive cycle of 40 years of regressive policies, punctuated by greed and malice, to be replaced with a cycle of renewal (currently in its embryonic stages), that broadens the benefits to the collective society versus the individual.

[LongTomH]

28. +1000 The two coasts are providing laboratories for a 21st Century progressivism

Let's give Mr. de Blasio a chance to succeed.

[polichick]

29. Well said.

[Dustlawyer]

12. State and local elections are the key to better national politics!

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been swaying these races with cash! It doesn't take that much, relatively speaking in the smaller elections. Those Democrats can demonstrate locally how our politics are better for them and their community.

[geek tragedy]

17. Let's see how he governs before making him a model for the country.

I voted for him twice, and am very happy to see him win.

But, his list of promises exceeds the resources he has to keep them.

[Jim Lane]

30. He's been in government for a while already, and some aspects of his record justify your caution

I recounted the highlights of his chumminess with developers and the real estate lobby in this post.

[closeupready]

22. I sincerely hope so. Our turn is LONG overdue.

K&R

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. For those saying NYC (and by implication NY) does not represent American, where was FDR from?