There are plenty of folks to blame for the disastrous and increasingly dangerous mayoralty of Comrade Bill de Blasio — from the apathetic public that elected him, to the “mainstream” Democratic leaders who gave him a platform, to much of the media that downplayed his radicalism.
For my money, though, the biggest enabler has been the city’s business elite — the very people who had the money to stop the insanity before it took root a year ago. Worse, these captains of industry continue to cozy up to a public official who seems intent on destroying the social and economic fabric of this city.
New York’s business leaders aren’t overt supporters of the de Blasio revolution, which has manifested most recently in sometimes violent anti-police protests and the assassination of two police officers.
But they’re too busy hopping out of their limos to dine at restaurants on the Upper East Side, far away from the action, to understand how, after just a short time under this mayor, the city is tearing itself apart.
Their role in the de Blasio debacle is their continued silence in the face of his outright lunacy, and for that they deserve a special condemnation.
From the start, the city’s business leaders had opportunities to stop de Blasio in his tracks.
Joe Lhota, his Republican opponent, may have run a lackluster campaign, but he was a known and respected entity in business circles from his days on Wall Street and in the Giuliani administration and as head of the MTA during Superstorm Sandy. And he was no right-wing ideologue.
Yet Lhota could barely scare up two nickels in campaign contributions from either the big real-estate moguls or the Wall Street chieftains who believed they could somehow “work” with the heavily favored de Blasio once he became mayor.
What’s so troubling about their inaction and continued tacit support is that de Blasio always told the money men exactly what he was going to do once elected.
In meetings with people like Larry Fink (the head of money-management powerhouse BlackRock), Lloyd Blankfein (who runs Goldman Sachs) or with various real-estate moguls, Comrade Bill has never veered from his core beliefs.
He didn’t hide from his bizarre and downright immoral attacks on the police department nor from his wider “tale of two cities” meme, which ran counter to what every taxpaying New Yorker knows: For all our faults, this is a city that spends (and taxes) a lot to feed, clothe and house our poor.
During one pre-election meeting with real-estate honchos Jared Kushner (Kushner Properties), Stephen Green (SL Green Realty), Douglas Durst (the Durst Organization), Jeff Blau (the Related Cos.) and Scott Rechler (RXR Realty), de Blasio went so far as to proclaim something that would make Karl Marx proud.
According to several people who were there, he said: “Everything you heard about me is true. . . I am not a free-marketeer. . . I believe in the heavy hand of government.”
The response: crickets.
All of which wouldn’t be so bad if the city’s business leaders took a principled stand once Comrade Bill got into office.
But they didn’t, despite plenty of opportunities — from face-to-face meetings to gatherings orchestrated by business groups.
Once again, Comrade Bill never hid his true feelings. Throughout his first year in office he continued to attack one of the most diverse police forces in the country as an occupying force in minority communities.
When the state gave him money to fund his pre-K boondoggle, he still wanted to raise taxes because wealth redistribution is a core de Blasio belief.
After the tragic death of Eric Garner, instead of demanding calm, he basically endorsed sometimes violent anti-cop protests until they led to the assassination of two police officers.
The acquiescence of the business community is startling, since New York’s business elite wasn’t always so cowardly.
When Mayor David Dinkins was spending the city into a hole back in the early 1990s, business leaders spoke out, demanding more fiscal responsibility.
But this group doesn’t seem to understand that the disorder we see now is reminiscent of the discord of the late 1960s and early ’70s, which led to Gotham’s near-bankruptcy as businesses and the middle-class fled to safer places.
If that happens again, the only safe place for the business elite to hide will be in their limos.
Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.