The Rise and Fall of New York
November 6, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield
Twenty years ago, New Yorks long nightmare ended with a Giuliani victory over Mayor Dinkins. Now the nightmare returns as former Dinkins staffer and terrorist supporter Bill de Blasio will begin wrecking the city where Dinkins and his Democratic predecessors left off.
Bill de Blasio vowed to undo Giulianis reforms and turn back the clock on fighting crime and terrorism. Giulianis victory was a wake-up call to Democrats that one of the more dangerous cities in the country had rejected their liberal soft-on-crime policies that had made it unlivable. Bill de Blasios victory tells them that soft-on-crime is popular again.
Welcome back Michael Dukakis.
Part of the reason is that New York City has changed. The citys politics have traditionally been middle class. Even Democratic politicians identified with the storeowner in Brooklyn, the fireman in Staten Island and the auto body mechanic in Queens.
Bill de Blasio breaks with that tradition. The former Warren Wilhelm Jr. did pick a name that opens more political doors for him among working class voters, but other than that his causes, building more housing projects, banning carriage horses in Central Park and ending police surveillance of Muslim terrorists are a grab bag of bad ideas from his two bases; liberal yuppies and welfare voters.
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Media boycotts of the opposition are turning New York City elections into Soviet elections where there is only one choice.
Bill de Blasios victory isnt an endorsement of his program, but of the manipulation of the political system by the powerful special interests bringing the city to the brink of bankruptcy and of the short memories of city residents voting in more of the same two decades after the Dinkins nightmare ended.
New York Citys meteoric rise from the slums was a national story. Its descent back to the slums will be local crime coverage.
The Rise and Fall of New York | FrontPage Magazine