My old friend Dave, aware of my gloomy presentiments about our incoming Mayor, sent along an item from Commentary that he thought might cheer me up. The article suggests that things might not go as badly for Gotham as it seems reasonable to expect. After all, argues the author, nobody‘s crazy enough to govern the way liberals promise to govern while they’re campaigning. Once in office, “progressive” crusaders tend to be mugged by reality, and have to dial down the battiness.
Among the Mayor-elect’s vaunted resolutions is his plan to reverse some controversial NYPD policies that have led, since their introduction by Mayor Giuliani (and continuation by Mayor Bloomberg), to clear reductions in violent crime rates in minority neighborhoods.
We read:
De Blasio is unlikely to get himself a second term if he reminds New Yorkers of the bad old days of crime. But what’s more interesting, and no doubt frustrating to conservatives, is the fact that progressives who run on dismantling successful security policies get elected because these days, voters just don’t believe them. Maybe it’s the Obama effect: years of shamelessly vilifying the American national-security establishment turned into obsessive targeted assassination, the surveillance state on steroids, and a third and nearly a fourth new military engagement in the Middle East once Obama grasped the levers of power.
A little further on:
The true liberal governing agenda is so reckless that most people on the left just assume liberals are making empty promises, and those on the right hope they are…
…It is characteristic of this new confidence”“which borders, at times, on a very un-New York complacency”“that few are willing to believe a progressive will govern as a progressive, that liberalism is fun in theory but there are too many lives at stake to put it into practice.
Gee, that’s swell. I feel better already.
I wrote back to my friend Dave:
This reminds me of “Lewis’s Trilemma“, C.S. Lewis’s argument about the nature of Jesus. (It’s been popping up in political discussions lately.)
Lewis said that Jesus had to be either “Lord, liar, or lunatic”. And when it comes to the politicians of the Left, either they are:
1) Actually capable of working the miracles they promise (equality without tyranny, etc.), or
2) So deluded by cognitive dissonance that they simply cannot perceive reality, or
3) Lying, evil, power-mad, narcissistic SOBs who know full well that they are bullshitting their way into office, and don’t care.Obviously Barack Obama is type 3. What Bill DiBlasio is, I don’t know for sure yet.
I do know that nobody is type 1.
Anyway, you can read the article here. I’ll be hoping for the best, as always.