From today's Washington Examiner:
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The declared and potential 2020 Democratic candidates are trying to out-fringe each other.
In one corner, you have people like former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., talking about tearing down currently existing barriers on the U.S. southern border. In another corner, there are candidates like Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., calling for the abolition of the Electoral College.
Now, New York City mayor and potential 2020 candidate Bill de Blasio is calling for “a program of actual redistribution” of wealth. That's his phrasing, not mine.
The mayor’s comments came this weekend during a meet-and-greet in Nevada with progressive activists. One woman asked de Blasio, who is currently exploring a White House run, to explain his position on reparations.
“There’s no question that the issue of reparations has to be taken seriously,” the mayor said in a meeting attended by about 35 activists, according to the New York Post. “I do believe the way to do it is to form a very public commission and say, ‘What is the way to address this problem once and for all?’”
He continued, saying there needs to be a “bigger discussion about income inequality and oppression of other groups including Latinos, Native Americans, Asian and women. I think we’re going to need something bigger even in a way, broader even in a way, then some of the ideas that have been put out there ... I think a program of actual redistribution which includes much heavier taxes on the wealthy. The ultimate resolution has to be profoundly economic.”
This response quite annoyed Leslie Turner, 37, the woman who asked the question. To her, de Blasio’s answer to a specific question about reparations for the descendants of slaves was the equivalent of saying that “all lives matter.”
“He did what a lot of candidates do — they, ‘All lives matter’ it," she told the Post afterward. "They try to broaden reparations for everyone. It’s actually OK to say, ‘This is actually for black people. We shouldn’t shy away from talking about what reparations specifically for black people could look like.”
It takes a rare quality to come up with a position that annoys both the Left and the Right, but de Blasio has it. In the process of advocating the insanely fringe position that there ought to be “a program of actual redistribution” of wealth for various voting blocs, the mayor managed somehow to mark himself out as a permanent enemy of conservatives while sorely disappointing the Left.
Not for nothing, but I also think this may be a sign of bad things to come for the 2020 Democratic field: the fracturing of the party into fierce, splinter groups over issues that have basically no chance anyway of appealing to a broad coalition of voters. If that’s indeed the way things are going to go, then everyone should prepare for another four years of President Trump.
Link:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...t-reparations-among-all-aggrieved-voter-blocs
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I'm telling you, they're gonna out-crazy each other. Free college. The Green New Deal and its concurrent massive expropriation of wealth. Abolition of the electoral college. Packing the Supreme Court. Reparations.
Keep at it, Dems.
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The declared and potential 2020 Democratic candidates are trying to out-fringe each other.
In one corner, you have people like former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., talking about tearing down currently existing barriers on the U.S. southern border. In another corner, there are candidates like Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., calling for the abolition of the Electoral College.
Now, New York City mayor and potential 2020 candidate Bill de Blasio is calling for “a program of actual redistribution” of wealth. That's his phrasing, not mine.
The mayor’s comments came this weekend during a meet-and-greet in Nevada with progressive activists. One woman asked de Blasio, who is currently exploring a White House run, to explain his position on reparations.
“There’s no question that the issue of reparations has to be taken seriously,” the mayor said in a meeting attended by about 35 activists, according to the New York Post. “I do believe the way to do it is to form a very public commission and say, ‘What is the way to address this problem once and for all?’”
He continued, saying there needs to be a “bigger discussion about income inequality and oppression of other groups including Latinos, Native Americans, Asian and women. I think we’re going to need something bigger even in a way, broader even in a way, then some of the ideas that have been put out there ... I think a program of actual redistribution which includes much heavier taxes on the wealthy. The ultimate resolution has to be profoundly economic.”
This response quite annoyed Leslie Turner, 37, the woman who asked the question. To her, de Blasio’s answer to a specific question about reparations for the descendants of slaves was the equivalent of saying that “all lives matter.”
“He did what a lot of candidates do — they, ‘All lives matter’ it," she told the Post afterward. "They try to broaden reparations for everyone. It’s actually OK to say, ‘This is actually for black people. We shouldn’t shy away from talking about what reparations specifically for black people could look like.”
It takes a rare quality to come up with a position that annoys both the Left and the Right, but de Blasio has it. In the process of advocating the insanely fringe position that there ought to be “a program of actual redistribution” of wealth for various voting blocs, the mayor managed somehow to mark himself out as a permanent enemy of conservatives while sorely disappointing the Left.
Not for nothing, but I also think this may be a sign of bad things to come for the 2020 Democratic field: the fracturing of the party into fierce, splinter groups over issues that have basically no chance anyway of appealing to a broad coalition of voters. If that’s indeed the way things are going to go, then everyone should prepare for another four years of President Trump.
Link:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...t-reparations-among-all-aggrieved-voter-blocs
-------
I'm telling you, they're gonna out-crazy each other. Free college. The Green New Deal and its concurrent massive expropriation of wealth. Abolition of the electoral college. Packing the Supreme Court. Reparations.
Keep at it, Dems.
