De Blasio Unplugged

One of the things I learned taking in the APSA last weekend is how fully today’s radical left rejects the liberal democratic tradition in toto. The rule of law, democratic institutions, and majority rule itself are all tools of oppression that need to be replaced.

And then there’s New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was interviewed a few days back by New York magazine. He was asked, “In 2013, you ran on reducing income inequality. Where has it been hardest to make progress? Wages, housing, schools?” Take in his answer good and slow:

What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too. Unfortunately, what stands in the way of that is hundreds of years of history that have elevated property rights and wealth to the point that that’s the reality that calls the tune on a lot of development.

Oh please, please Mr. Mayor, please start a campaign to expropriate the kulaks of New York City, starting with the upper west side. And let’s have mandatory rent control for all rental units in New York, instead of just the fraction of units still caught in the medieval hell hole of the current rent control regime. And while you’re at it, why not propose a wealth tax on the tech oligarchs of Silicon Valley and Wall Street hedge fund titans?

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