Posted on 11/04/2013 5:28:58 PM PST by Dqban22
THE RADICALISM OF BILL DE BLASIO
By Stanley Kurtz NRO 9/23/2013
Today’s New York Times features an in-depth look at the radical background of Bill de Blasio, the man poised to become the next mayor of New York.
De Blasio is a longtime admirer and supporter of Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinistas. He helped raise funds for the Sandinistas in the 1980s, subscribed to the party’s newspaper, Barricadda (Barricade), and unlike many others, remained supportive even after the Sandinistas lost power. To this day de Blasio speaks admiringly of the Sandinistas (while offering some token criticism of their handling of dissent), and remains interested in the Latin American left. De Blasio honeymooned in Cuba, in violation of the U.S. travel ban.
Asked about his goals for society at a meeting in 1990, de Blasio “said he was an advocate of ‘democratic socialism’”. Today he describes himself as “progressive,” yet also characterizes his views, in the eighties and today, as a mix of admiration for European social democratic movements, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and liberation theology.
Today’s Times profile focuses on de Blasio in the 1980s and early 1990s. As the piece ends, de Blasio is voicing distress at a newly-elected President Clinton’s efforts to pull the Democratic Party closer to the center. This was shortly after de Blasio had said he favored democratic socialism. So it makes sense that, according to a 2009 profile in City Limits, in the 1990s de Blasio served as Executive Director for New York branch of the New Party, a leftist third party that described itself as “social democratic” and had many prominent “democratic socialists” as members.
As I reported last year, President Obama was also a member of the New Party, and falsely denied this during his election and re-election campaigns. And as I laid it out in Radical-in-Chief, Obama’s political past shares many other parallel’s with Bill de Blasio.
ACORN, for example, represents an interesting point of connection between Obama’s radical past and de Blasio. ACORN exercised substantial de facto control over the leftist New Party. Former ACORN head Bertha Lewis has close ties to de Blasio and has predicted a comeback for ACORN’s successor group under a de Blasio administration. Patrick Gaspard, a former New Party staffer with close ties to ACORN is not only a former Obama White House Political Director, but is one of de Blasio’s closest friends, and played a central role in shaping de Blasio’s campaign for the Democratic mayoral nomination.
Joe Lhota, the Republican mayoral nominee, has called de Blasio a “radical,” and plans to emphasize his leftism in the campaign. As today’s New York Times profile makes clear, Lhota is not exaggerating. The leftist world of ACORN, the New Party, and Sandinista-supporting activists is looking less-and-less like some long-gone relic of Obama’s past and more-and-more like the future of the Democratic Party.
NYC deserves this putz. Good.
I am done caring what happens to places like NYC. Screw them.
He is DOOMED.
The people of America will be crying “where is Al Quaeda when we need them”
Nope, he’ll be drinking Dom in Gracie Mansion. NYC is doomed, not this guy.
A few days before the election when most minds are made up? Thanx NYT and NRO.
De Blasio IS the face of the Democratic Party. Democrats march in lock step and De Blasio is just one of the crowd. It’s time people started realizing just what the Democrats are.
I’m tired of hearing Tea Party and the RINOs. They are the only two party system now.
Undoubtedly, DiBlasio promised to keep abortion "safe and legal" which always gets the hard-feminist for whom abortion is the only issue. The minorities vote for the person who will keep their gravy train going. Ditto for the unions who want 100,000 dollars for their basic skills jobs. And of course, there's always the bohemians who believe socialism will work "if the right person tries it." Which is why NYC is perpetually doomed to repeat its tragic past.
sorry to all those trapped behind enemy lines, but....
The voting majority in NYC deserve this candidate for the generational progressivism they insist on voting for time and time again. In NY, stupid has been the normal for a long time
This guy doesn’t sound too much different than Nanny Bloomberg.
The only difference between a socialist and communist is when they bring out the guns to control the people.
Agree.
What is happening to NRO? Why publish a left wing propaganda mouthpiece?
“NYC deserves this putz. Good. I am done caring what happens to places like NYC. Screw them.”
Nj and PA have been beneficiaries of NYC’s troubles; a DeBlasio win can be a boon!
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