In theory, Mayor de Blasio’s progressivism is embodied in his slogan: “One New York, Rising Together.”
In practice, we’re learning de Blasio-style progressivism is more about punishment: punishing the wealthy by raising their taxes; punishing charters by depriving them of space; punishing cops by branding them as racist; even punishing workers whose only crime is to take folks on horse rides around Central Park.
Start with the wealthy. These are the people who pay most of the taxes that keep our city running. The mayor originally said he needed to tax them more to fund his pre-K plan, but when the governor came up with the funds without a tax, the mayor demanded their taxes needed to go up nonetheless.
Or look at charters. In a city whose public schools are failing its children, charters are one of the few bright spots. Parents know this, which is why there’s a waiting list 50,000 long and growing. So what is the mayor doing? Taking away money for charter expansion, moving to raise their costs by charging them rent and working to make it impossible for them to take advantage of unused space in city school buildings.
Then there’s the police. New York’s Finest have given us the safest big city in America, which includes policing areas in poor and minority neighborhoods that in other cities are ceded to the thugs. Instead of hailing the cops for this achievement, de Blasio has come down with a biased judge who, in a kangaroo trial, found the police guilty of racial profiling.
Finally, there’s the horse-carriage industry, which has been here since 1858. These carriages are run by hardworking drivers who now have their livelihoods threatened by a left-wing, de Blasio-backed campaign based on spreading false charges of animal abuse.
All in all, it’s an extraordinary set of priorities for someone who claims to be all about bringing New Yorkers together.