I now fully understand the office of New York City mayor. I already knew it is a dead-end political position. No New York CIty mayor ever goes on to another elected office. But more important, every mayor since Ed Koch has had to be, for lack of a better word, a right-winger, even if there's a D after his name. He has to be 100% pro-cop, pro-Wall Street, pro-war, pro-corporate, and by extension, pro-rich. If you waver from that template, even in the slightest, you end up being smeared and driven out, like Dinkins and (soon) Wilhelm (de Blasio).
The New York (Jerusalem) Post and the police union are painting de Blasio as anti-cop, and a cause of yesterday's assassination of two uniformed officers in Bed Stuy. Why? Because two weeks ago, de Blasio said in a press conference that he understands "the talk" black parents have with their sons about being cautious in their interactions with the police. This is because he has had the talk with his son, Dante, who is black. That one, honest comment has ruined the mayor. In this town, simply acknowledging that blacks are treated differently than whites by the NYPD is an unforgivable sin against the police by the elected mayor. In the next few weeks de Blasio's approval rating will drop to near zero. de Blasio is going to be kicked out of town faster than Dinkins was.
New York is not a liberal town. This wouldn't happen in a liberal town. It is a hard, right-wing enclave that just happens to have better taste than most other "red" cities in the west and deep south. New York likes organic food, premium coffee, gelato, cocktails, gourmet doughnuts, tasting menus, and weed. It does have the strictest gun control in the nation, but that is logical, given how immense the death toll would be if even 10% of the angry, over-stressed population had firearms. It has always been pro-war. And it was never for the little people.
New York is also right-wing because it is home to a real estate bubble that only makes the rich richer. More on that in the long-delayed next post.