Living in a politically progressive city

Overheard: Promoting social justice should be the number priority of a city government.

Mr. Wright responds: Political promises made by progressives have a very favorable emotional appeal until the facts are examined. Close-up on a local level or afar on a Federal level, progressive policies simply don’t work and even more discouraging is that they most often make problems they are attempting to address worse. The critical question becomes are we doomed to a continual cycle of repeating the same mistakes or are more voters open to learning from failures of the progressive policies of the Obama and de Blasio Administrations and take corrective action at the ballot box?  

 Be ready, be right and respond! – Mr. Wright’s Talking Points:

We who live in any big city dominated by Democrats in power experience every day in our daily lives the negative consequences of progressive political policies and management in action. The rapid descent into chaos on the streets of New York City starting in January of 2014 following Bill de Blasio inauguration as Mayor were startling. Clearly and swiftly visible were dirtier streets, groups of homeless people congregating even in the best neighborhoods of the city, reports of increased crime and hordes of panhandlers on the subways.

After the city’s firm and successful stewardship in the hands of Republican Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg starting in 1994, the rapid descent back to the bad old days of a New York City that was consistently on the brink of absolute chaos is troubling. Promoting and promising a progressive agenda of an activist government that will mitigate the unfairness of our society, Bill de Blasio saw his position as Mayor of New York City as a platform to become a leading national spokesperson for the “The Progressive Agenda”.

His main cause is using the power of government action to promote more wealth equality. He views current conditions in New York City as unfair to many segments of society and wants government to play a key role in leveling the playing field. Of course, the troublesome lesson that many of us has learned living in cities over the years is that more government is the problem rather than the solution.

Municipal Governments especially union dominated Democratic strong holds are particularly responsible for creating and exacerbating the very problems that they are supposedly trying to resolve. We have experienced that the use of excessive rhetoric from the Left does not resolve many issues and we all should acknowledge that results count. Most often, progressives have not been made to be accountable for their poor performance in power. Feeling is not doing and unfortunately many voters especially in politically left leaning cities fail to make this distinction.

A City suddenly in decline

We who live in any big city dominated by Democrats in power experience every day in our daily lives the negative consequences of progressive political policies and management in action. The rapid descent into chaos on the streets of New York City starting in January of 2014 following Bill de Blasio inauguration as Mayor were startling. Clearly and swiftly visible were dirtier streets, groups of homeless people congregating even in the best parts of the city, reports of increased crime and hordes of panhandlers on the subways.

After the city’s firm and successful stewardship in the hands of Republican Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg starting in 1994, the rapid descent back to the bad old days of a New York City that was consistently on the brink of absolute disorder is troubling. We have seen this state of affairs previously before the assumption of the Mayor’s office by these two. The voters in five previous mayoral elections votes choose assumed competence in office and a return to a civil and highly livable city marked by a remarkable decrease in crime rates as the preferred choice.

Bill de Blasio’s main campaign theme was based on the degrading of the overwhelming success of the creation of an exceptionally prosperous city. Instead of building on the examples of the success of his two predecessors, the new mayor ran on a progressive platform decrying the unfairness of system that in reality promotes success and achievement and benefits a wide range of people and resulted in a highly livable city that attracted a large numbers of newcomers from around the country and the world. For many of the very most ambitious people from all walks of life, living and creating a business or career in New York City is the ultimate challenge.

A Progressive Agenda

Promoting and promising a progressive agenda of an activist government that will mitigate the unfairness of our society, Bill de Blasio saw his position as Mayor of New York City as a platform to become a leading national spokesperson for the “The Progressive Agenda”. Until recently, he has demonstrated little interest in the daily responsibilities of the job as Mayor. Most importantly, Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg’s daily focus was to work in behalf of the people of New York City in a pragmatic fashion. Mayor de Blasio paramount consideration is focused on symbolic gestures and pronouncements geared to appeal to our left leaning media, and paying off municipal unions with generous contracts and powerful left leaning special interests with programs of expanded spending by government. He has extensively traveled from Italy to California spending much time away from New York being labeled by many as a global traveler negligent in performing his duties as Mayor.

The War on Police

A troubling new national trend under the Obama Administration and contributed to so significantly by Mayor de Blasio’s actions in office is the escalating war on police. The mayor’s actions in this regard has been so far the most troubling aspect of his failed administration. Mayor de Blasio’s actions and rhetoric helped to counteract the most important achievements of the last two administrations which was to significantly decrease the levels of crime and make New York the safest large city in the nation. Most distressing for all New Yorkers and especially those who live in the poorest neighborhoods, de Blasio’s actions lead to reversing this trend of a rapid decrease of crime. New York and many other urban centers such as Baltimore are witnessing a job action by police as a reaction to events. All of this will undermine the essential foundations of a civil society. “Social justice” starts with a foundation of safe and secure streets for all New Yorkers and people who live in urban areas.

More government is the problem not the solution

His main cause is using the power of government action to promote more wealth equality. He views current conditions in New York City as unfair to many segments of society and wants government to play a key role in leveling the playing field. Of course, the troublesome lesson that many of us has learned living in cities over the years is that more government is the problem rather than the solution. Municipal Governments especially union dominated Democratic strong holds are particularly responsible for creating and exacerbating the very problems that they are supposedly trying to resolve. We have experienced that the use of excessive rhetoric from the Left does not resolve many issues and we all should acknowledge that results count. Most often, progressives have not been made to be accountable for their poor performance in power. Feeling is not doing and unfortunately many voters especially on the political left fail to make this distinction.

Unions in control

The unions and left-wing interest groups that are the real powers behind many Left leaning municipal governments ignore reason and evidence because fundamentally their number one priority is not to provide viable solutions and services for the people. At the heart of the matter for them is an ongoing fight to maintain and gain more power and channel more tax dollars to their allies and at many times symbolic gestures and causes.

They aim to forcefully distribute wealth from the most productive members of society who have earned success through hard work and concerted effort. They are in a crusade to effectively attempt to level (lower) the playing field and standards of achievement and excellence for all except their fellow members of a small powerful ruling elite.

Instead of unifying people according to our mutual interests, liberals in power deliberately follow policies of promoting division along the lines of identity politics according to group, race and class. Their policies tend to promote dependency among groups of people in order to purchase their long term voting allegiance. At the same time, they neglect the interests of the majority of a city’s citizens who tend to be working and middle class taxpayers. The concerns of taxpaying public are guaranteed to be last on a liberal’s priority list because there is a limited opportunity to buy future votes by making them permanently dependent upon special treatment by government.

Promoting greater income equity by lowering all of our standards of living

A progressive municipal government looks to be highly involved in the economic decision-making of its citizens. Rather these matters should reside in the hands of the private sector not the government. The private sector traditionally played the primary role in the allocation of our economic resources resulting throughout our history in a rising standard of living for all Americans and the creation of a prominent middle class. Small business and entrepreneurs are the main drivers of job growth in this country. The growth, health and creation of small businesses in many cities are too often burdened by increasing amount of regulation demanded by progressive governments. 

The private sector’s major strength is that it promotes an environment of competition. Increasing levels of wealth are created over time by a free market system bolstered by competition and enhanced by freedom so that individuals can take maximum advantage of opportunities that may arise. A free market system is characterized by flexibility and efficient allocation of vital economic resources driven by the profit motive. The resulting economic productivity is reason behind the economic success of the country and of a city.

 

New York City like many other left leaning municipal governments promote an economic model ruled by the concept of social justice and dominated by Big Government resulting in an economy that limits flexibility, innovation and individual initiative, therefore, growth and opportunity for all. Progressive policies actually drive income inequality and have an adverse effect on the structure of the family and drive people permanently from the work force. How did the streets of New York City under these two mayors become so much cleaner and safer, how did educational achievement finally come about?

 

Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg had the common sense to mix private and publically run institutions to provide services to the people of New York City. The differences between Central Park and Bryant Park run now by private entities versus the City Parks Department, city zoos run by the Wildlife Conservation Society, sanitation and security services provided by Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and charter and private schools compared to the Board of Education is astounding and evidence of the inefficiencies of union run city services. Where do you think city teachers send their children to school?

 

The collapse of civility and the war against success, standards and excellence

Political promises made by progressives have a very favorable emotional appeal until the facts are examined. Close-up on a local level or afar on a Federal level, progressive policies simply don’t work and even more discouraging is that they most often make problems they are attempting to address worse. The critical question becomes are we doomed to a continual cycle of repeating the same mistakes or are more voters open to learning from failures of the progressive policies of the Obama and de Blasio Administrations and take corrective action at the ballot box?