De Blasio describes himself as “progressive” whose political views represent a blend of European social democracy, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and liberation theology...

Bill de Blasio's 'march' 

to end inequality tramples little guy

by Timothy P. Carney

As New York City's crusading liberal Mayor Bill de Blasio takes up his pitch fork, don't worry too much about the wealthy bankers he plans to tax -- they can fend for themselves. The potential victims of de Blasio's “march toward a fairer, more just, more progressive place” are the small businesses and voluntary associations that make up civil society.

Charter schools, crisis pregnancy centers, small businesses and private charities are all in de Blasio’s crosshairs. These are government’s rivals in the business of getting people what they want and need — and a growing government doesn’t tolerate rivals.

Charter schools have long irked the teachers' unions and many others on the Left. They are publicly funded schools, but they are run by private bodies. This decentralizes power, weakens the unions and applies competitive pressure to public schools.

But charter schools' worst offense may be offering a different educational experience. The Left puts a huge emphasis on solidarity, which is a virtue. But sometimes “solidarity” can mutate into uniformity. If some New York City kids are at a stellar charter school while others are at mediocre public schools, then we have, to use de Blasio’s favorite phrase, “two cities.” This is intolerable to many activists and journalists on the Left, some of whom pen out op-eds declaring it a sin to send your kids to private school.

De Blasio is taking aim at the charters. His first step: charging them rent for using city buildings. Again, these are basically public schools, just ones given more leeway in forming curriculum and hiring staff. Charging them rent is really just fining them — for the offense of being partially independent from government.

Crisis pregnancy centers are clinics for pregnant women, run by pro-life charities. They provide counseling, some basic health services and things like free baby clothes and toys. These centers also refer pregnant women to adoption services and advanced health care.


But these centers don't perform abortions or refer women to abortionists, and they counsel against abortion. De Blasio attacks them as “sham crisis pregnancy centers” and promises to sic regulators on them. If you want to help pregnant women in de Blasio's New York City, you have to do it according to de Blasio's values -- which means more abortions.

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Read more: washingtonexaminer.com

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Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm, Jr. on May 8, 1961 in New York City and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Shortly after graduating with a bachelor's degree from New York University in 1983, he legally changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm, adding his mother's maiden name to his identity. In 2002 he changed his name for a second time and became Bill de Blasio.

Historian Ron Radosh describes de Blasio as: (a) "a far left radical whose ancestors are the New Left and the Communists"; and (b) "a bona fide red diaper baby" who, "like many of his generation ... kept his parents' ... pro-Communist politics not far from his heart." Both de Blasio’s parents were far leftists—most likely, members of the Communist Party USA or some of its numerous front groups. His mother, Maria de Blasio, worked in the early 1940s at the Office of War Information—a U.S. government agency staffed largely by pro-Soviet leftists who depicted the USSR in a positive light.

In 1983, while he was still at NYU, Bill de Blasio toured parts of the Communist Soviet Union. This was a period of significant Cold War tension between the United States and the USSR, as the Soviets were attempting to permanently solidify their nuclear superiority over the U.S.  Notably, de Blasio at one time served as an organizer with the anti-nuclear, anti-American organizationPhysicians for Social Responsibility.

De Blasio took his first job in 1984 with the NYC Department of Juvenile Justice. Three years later, having recently earned a master's degree at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, he was hired to work as a political organizer by the Quixote Center (QC), aMaryland-based, Catholic social-justice organization with Marxist leanings.

In 1988 de Blasio, an ardent supporter of Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government—which was backed by the Soviet Union, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization—joined a number of his QC colleagues in a ten-day trip to Nicaragua to help distribute food and medicine to people who had been affected by the violent revolution that was raging there. (The Reagan administration, meanwhile, was giving financial and military aid to theContras, who were seeking to overthrow the Sandinista regime.)

Upon returning home from Nicaragua, de Blasio began working for a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care in Central America. Continuing, moreover, to support the Sandinistas in whatever way he could, he joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, an organization that held meetings and fundraisers on their behalf. De Blasio also subscribed to the Sandinista party’s newspaper, Barricadda. He continues to speak admiringlyof the Sandinistas to this day, lauding the “humble” and “really inspirational” blend of “youthful energy and idealism” that they brought to the task of “trying to figure out what would [make their society] work better.” “I’m very proud to have been deeply involved in a movement that rightfully thought U.S. policy toward Central America was wrong-headed and counter-productive and not in line with our values,” de Blasio said in September 2013. “I’m proud to have been involved in the effort that was challenging that.”

In 1989 de Blasio served as a volunteer coordinator for the NYC mayoral campaign of DemocratDavid Dinkins. Following Dinkins' victory, de Blasio became an aide in City Hall.

When asked in 1990 to describe his political views, de Blasio replied that he was an advocate of “democratic socialism.” 

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Read more: www.discoverthenetworks.org