On the day he announced that he’s running for mayor, Comptroller John Liu listed the themes of his campaign.
“New York City needs to be one city,” he said. “Where everyone gets a fair wage and a fair shot. One city. Where we take care of the needy and take on the greedy. With your help, I’ll be a mayor not of the 1 percent — but of the 100 percent.”
As slogans go, Liu’s have a near-poetic cadence. They are catchy and clear — and radical as hell.
Unfortunately for New York, he is just one of many candidates lurching to the far left. Like leftovers from Occupy Wall Street rabble, the candidates spell big trouble for Gotham.
The most surprising thing about the race to succeed Michael Bloomberg is the scramble among Democrats to plant their flags on liberalism’s wackiest wings. As Liu demonstrates, it’s a toxic brew of class warfare and socialist impulses unfazed by facts and good sense.
On the surface, the radical turn is surprising because the primary was expected to be a battle for the support of government unions. But with competition stiff there, the candidates are trying to distinguish themselves by moving further and further left on other topics.
There is also another dimension to the leftward lurch — trickle-down radicalism.
President Obama won his second term with a borrow, tax-and-spend, class-warfare approach. He got 81 percent of the city vote, against only 18 percent for Mitt Romney, reportedly the most lopsided margin in more than 100 years.
Similarly, Gov. Cuomo, who took office in 2011 promising to reduce the state tax and regulatory burden, also has veered left as he gears up for re-election next year and for a presidential run in 2016. Instead of tax cuts, he now touts New York as the nation’s most progressive state, which marks a switch of about 180 degrees.
With proof that radicalism sells, it was inevitable that city Dems would feel emboldened to test how far left is too far. As of now, there doesn’t seem to be a limit.
So, while they still kowtow to labor, and as even Republican candidates dance gingerly around the unions, the race is mostly about who has the most aggressive “social-justice” agenda.
It includes a ban on “discrimination” against the unemployed in hiring that sailed through the City Council, a clamor for paid sick days for virtually all workers, and a higher minimum wage. It includes “come-and-get-it” policies on food stamps and shelter, and free food for all in schools. Glib talk of making New York “affordable” is code for greater subsidies for some and tax hikes for others.
Most strikingly, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the front-runner, proposed sweeping powers for a new inspector general in the Police Department. Indeed, attacks on the NYPD are part of the Democratic catechism.
Given the city’s remarkable record of crime prevention and a reduction in incarceration rates, it is shocking how cops have become punching bags. Consider the antics of an aide to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
The Post caught Kicy Motley, the volunteer director of de Blasio’s campaign, tweeting “F–k. The. Police” and calling America a “racist, imperialist country.” The only cop she praised was Chris Dorner, a murderous ex-LAPD officer killed in a shootout.
Her punishment? A scolding by the candidate and a ban on using social media. Tsk, tsk.
Count Mayor Bloomberg among those distressed at the radical turn. On Monday, he said it was “depressing” and yesterday added to his criticism, saying the crime decline “is the foundation for all the other progress New York has made,” and those gains “are not an accident.”
He told of a lieutenant who said cops were rattled by the campaign, and Bloomberg added: “You can’t have the confidence in the leadership if at the very top at the mayor’s level there isn’t somebody that really understands . . . why the murder rate in our city is going down, and in other big cities it’s going up.”
It’s a chilling thought — the city might actually elect a mayor who doesn’t understand or appreciate the necessity to fight crime.
Wake up, New York. It’s time to panic.
Bam cutback$ are tour de farce
Vice President Joe Biden’s entourage racked up nearly $1 million in hotel bills in Europe last month, and a new report says a night in Paris added limo costs of $321,000. The Obamas went on three vacations this year, and the first daughters are in the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, the adminis-tration still cries poverty to block public tours of the White House. “Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice,” its Web site reads. “We very much regret having to take this action.”
Regret? The closure remains what it was from the start — a calculated scheme to inflict pain on the public, including schoolchildren, to pressure Republicans to restore the cuts.
But the hostage strategy hasn’t worked. The sequester cuts are likely to become permanent because the nation supports reductions in federal spending.
But there is a moral to the story — the White House doesn’t have any. Politico says the canceled tours cost the Secret Service $74,000 a week. That’s a pittance compared to the Obama vacations and the Biden European blowout, but in cutting the tours while keeping the perks, Obama reveals what matters most.
Hint: It’s not you, suckers.
A case for justices delayed
As every executive knows, the best decisions are often the ones you don’t make. That might also be true for the Supreme Court.
Yesterday’s arguments over gay marriage suggest Justice Anthony Kennedy, among others, believes it’s not the right time for a definitive ruling.
“I just wonder if this case was properly granted,” said Kennedy, who could be the swing vote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor also seemed to want to let the states have their say. “Why is taking a case now the answer?” she asked.
The concern reflects a widespread feeling that abortion fights continue, in part, because the court was hasty in making a broad, final ruling in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, perhaps the court’s most liberal member, has said she regretted “the giant step that the court took instead of proceeding by slow degrees.”
Although I favor gay marriage, the growing acceptance in some states, and resistance in others, argues for a go-slow approach. It makes the most sense for the court and the country.
Don’t bank on it, Europe
It’s hard to pity the Russians who lost 40 percent of their bank deposits when Cyprus seized them, but European gloating is premature. Some officials insist deposits could be grabbed if banks falter in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal.
Mattresses, anyone?
GOP dry spell
Trivia quiz: Who was the last Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in New York City?
Tick tock, tick tock—time’s up. Calvin Coolidge, in 1924.