Monday, July 3, 2017

National Role Eludes de Blasio — but Trump Might Help

 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is virtually unchallenged within his party and all but certain to win a second term in November. He’s got a string of liberal policy victories in his back pocket — paid sick leave, paid family leave and a municipal ID card program — and he’s positioned himself as an outspoken opponent of President Donald Trump on policies like police reform and sanctuary cities.

But three years after riding into office with bold liberal promises and visions of leading a national charge on issues like income inequality, de Blasio is still struggling to fashion the national profile he’s long sought.

His efforts to push a national agenda in 2015 sputtered quickly and his awkward election-year relationship with Hillary Clinton’s team only exacerbated criticisms of political hubris and tone deafness at home, underscored by his recent insistence on being chauffeured in city car to his Brooklyn gym at the same time he's calling on people to make sacrifices to combat climate change.

Moreover, the broader liberal revolution the mayor once hoped to lead has come to be defined on Bernie Sanders’ terms, not de Blasio’s, leaving the New York mayor’s place in the national debate unclear — particularly compared to his Republican predecessors, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: Politico (via The Empire Report)

No comments: