Bill De Blasio Democrat Ny Mayor A Leftist...!! Progress

[Rich One]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/new-york-election-results_n_4184635.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

De Blasio, a white man married to a black woman (ex lesbian), also received a boost from a campaign ad featuring their son, a 15-year-old with a big Afro.
Despite his reputation for idealism, he has also shown a pragmatic side, having worked for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and was known for closed-door wheeling-and-dealing while serving on the City Council.
Lhota, 59, his opponent spent much of the campaign slamming de Blasio's "tale of two cities" appeal as class warfare and argued that de Blasio's time in the 1980s with the left-wing Sandinistas in Nicaragua as an aid worker and activist made him a Marxist.

 

[EdRooney]

John Nichols is on DN right now signing De Blasio's praises.
I'll believe he's progressive when 'stop and frisk' goes to the dustbin and wall street CEOs start doin' time instead.

My bigger question, though, is: he won a landslide 75% of the vote in city of 8.3 million = 750,000 votes? i.e., 9% of the population voted for him. How can anyone not say there is something systemically broken in democracy there?

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Err...treading veeerrry carefully here, but is an ex lesbian not just a current bisexual who has entered a committed relationship with a man?

Apart from that, don't know who the guy is nor am I particularly interested.

 

[Rich One]

Err...treading veeerrry carefully here, but is an ex lesbian not just a current bisexual who has entered a committed relationship with a man?

Apart from that, don't know who the guy is nor am I particularly interested.

De Blasio declared he invited this African American Woman on a first date, she told him then that she was a lesbian.....!!
Bill persisted and she decided to marry a white hetero man....?

 

[PhilipDT]

I can always tell which threads have been started by Rich One by the number of exclamation points in the title.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

John Nichols is on DNright now signing De Blasio's praises.
I'll believe he's progressive when 'stop and frisk' goes to the dustbin and wall street CEOs start doin' time instead.

My bigger question, though, is: he won a landslide 75% of the vote in city of 8.3 million = 750,000 votes? i.e., 9% of the population voted for him. How can anyone not say there is something systemically broken in democracy there?

In the first instance, many of those 8.3 million are not eligible to vote because they are below the legal age of 18. Many others are not citizens. Unlike Argentina and many European countries, voting is not obligatory, and it tends to be lower in off-year elections than presidential elections. I agree, nevertheless, that a higher turnout is desirable and we should make voting simpler, but the Republicans (in many states but not New York) are making every effort to make it more difficult to vote.

Also, unlike in Argentina, in the US we have frequent elections for relatively minor offices such as park district and school board. Even if you want to vote in these, it's easy to overlook or forget them.

 

[EdRooney]

In the first instance, many of those 8.3 million are not eligible to vote because they are below the legal age of 18. Many others are not citizens. Unlike Argentina and many European countries, voting is not obligatory, and it tends to be lower in off-year elections than presidential elections. I agree, nevertheless, that a higher turnout is desirable and we should make voting simpler, but the Republicans (in many states but not New York) are making every effort to make it more difficult to vote.

Also, unlike in Argentina, in the US we have frequent elections for relatively minor offices such as park district and school board. Even if you want to vote in these, it's easy to overlook or forget them.

I agree with a lot of your points, and I think this is a good argument for mandatory voting, flawed as that may be too.

My point is even if you take out a couple of million for under 18s, you still have 75% of the people not having voted for the guy, but he's nevertheless called a democratically elected leader. And no, it's not saying the Repubs are any better, since they have even less popular support. But at what point do you drop the pretence about it being a functional democracy and just say, "OK its an oligarchy but we've just found more efficient ways to keep people from voting instead of outright banning them from the polls"?

And just to repeat, It's not about De Blasio per se. I'll withhold judgement on him until we see how he acts in office.

 

[ghost]

I agree with a lot of your points, and I think this is a good argument for mandatory voting, flawed as that may be too.

My point is even if you take out a couple of million for under 18s, you still have 75% of the people not having voted for the guy, but he's nevertheless called a democratically elected leader. And no, it's not saying the Repubs are any better, since they have even less popular support. But at what point do you drop the pretence about it being a functional democracy and just say, "OK its an oligarchy but we've just found more efficient ways to keep people from voting instead of outright banning them from the polls"?

And just to repeat, It's not about De Blasio per se. I'll withhold judgement on him until we see how he acts in office.

Everyone has observed what the system has produced recently and they just don't give a damn anymore.

 

[jp]

Found this whilst reading up on voters in NY: http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/09/06/voting-blocs/

There are 4 million voters apparently.

 

[sleslie23]

Just read this and thought of this thread:

http://www.theguardi...ystem-newsnight

Edit: Click at your own peril. It's Russell Brand discussing the disillusionment of the voting public.