OPINION:
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City walks a few steps to the left of Karl Marx, but that’s not enough for some of the daffy Democrats in Gotham. The mayor started young, traveling as a youth to Nicaragua to lend a hand to the communist government even as Ronald Reagan was doing his best to mitigate its evil. Mr. de Blasio, one of the last of the red-hot romantics, even defied a travel ban to take his bride on a honeymoon to the socialist paradise of Cuba. But in certain precincts he’s a DINO, shorthand for “Democrat in Name Only.”
This could only be so in New York, where the liberal elite in charge of the state Democratic Party are miffed that Hizzoner endorsed two “renegade” Democratic state senators who struck a compromise with Republicans to pass stalled legislation in the session just concluded. There can be no absolution for such crimes.
State Sens. Jeff Klein and Tony Avella and three others were ostracized for forming the Independent Democratic Conference, which sided with Republican legislators on a handful of issues, including a scheme to spend even more money on a state pre-kindergarten program.
For a time, Republicans and the “independent” Democrats shared control of the narrowly divided state Senate in Albany. Gov. Andrew Cuomo saw his agenda thwarted, and he blames the independent Democrats for the failure of legislation that would pay the college tuition of illegal aliens. The governor is unhappy as well for the failure of campaign-finance legislation that would have helped incumbents by hindering the ability of challengers to raise campaign money.
The Democratic elite want to drive all five compromisers out of office. The far-left Daily Kos accuses Mr. de Blasio of “the ultimate act of betrayal,” making common cause with Republicans. This is odd, considering that Mr. de Blasio’s exemplary service to the left ought to make Fidel Castro smile.
The mayor’s top policy goals include requiring employers to pay employees more than their work is worth, requiring business owners to give employees more paid time off, limiting what property owners can charge for rent, and distributing government ID cards to illegal aliens. He’s even courting the Dobbin vote, seeking to replace Central Park’s horse-drawn carriages with electric cars.
Far from being a “Democrat in Name Only,” Mr. de Blasio embraces all nine yards of the party cloth. He wants the government to make ever more life decisions for the residents of New York and to right every wrong. He wants to be the mayor with “free stuff” for all.
Now the Republicans in Albany have an opportunity to profit from the Democratic rift by strengthening their relationship with the Democratic “renegades.” The Republicans can be their only friends. Such relationships could be the guide to empowering the individual and curing what’s wrong with the economy.
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