Why I Voted For Bill de Blasio

This morning, I went around the corner and voted for Bill de Blasio in the Democratic mayoral primary. At the last moment, I almost changed my mind and switched to Bill Thompson, an experienced and likable fellow who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for running Mike Bloomberg close in 2009, and who, along with Christine Quinn, is trying to keep de Blasio, the frontrunner, below forty per cent, forcing a runoff. But in the end I stuck with de Blasio, and here is why. My reasoning will initially seem a bit far removed from what’s happening in New York, but bear with me.

Years ago, when Tony Blair was fresh in Downing Street, I asked one of New Labour’s top economic advisers why the Blair government, which took over in 1997, was so intent on establishing a reputation as fiscally responsible and socially moderate. “Ruling from the left is not an option,” he said, or words to that effect. “You have to establish credibility with the markets and with the public. Then, but only then, you can do some progressive things.” Some years later, I interviewed a well-known Democrat who served under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and during a discussion of the Obama Administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis he said something strikingly similar to what I had heard in London. “You cannot rule from the left. Look what happened to Mitterand and Schröder.” (Elected to the Élysée in 1981, the French Socialist introduced a sweeping package of economic reforms, only to reverse course two years later. Chancellor Schröder’s U-turn wasn’t as stark, but during the second half of his term, which ran from 1998 to 2005, he swung to the right, trimming welfare benefits and relaxing Germany’s tight labor laws.)

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