Originally published in American Thinker on May 20, 2019 –
Walking to an event on the Upper West Side of Manhattan recently one early evening, I was appreciatively experiencing the City coming alive during an early occurrence of warmer Spring weather. I have also been noticing over the last several weeks as the weather becomes more pleasant, that an increasing population of homeless people and panhandlers are present in every neighborhood and seemingly on every street corner in De Blasio’s New York.
The route I took to reach my destination on that enjoyable night was to walk along Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was time for me to take a short rest from my vigorous walk and I chose to sit on one of the many benches that line Central Park. My bench was located right across the street from 15 Central Park West one the most exclusive of all the wildly expensive apartment buildings that face the park.
It only took a couple of minutes before the first in a parade of seemingly desperate street people started to ask for money.It seems these days a personcan’t sit outside in public for even a moment in New York City without be accosted by a panhandler or homeless person.
In between my encounters with a virtually unending series of panhandlers, I watched as I was seated across the street from 15 CPW as various power brokers, celebrities and reigning members of the establishment were ushered by their doormen into taxis, Ubers and Limos to the very best events and parties, restaurants and cultural events the City has to offer.
I realized that many of the city elites continued to be to be untouched by the chaos on the streets of Mayor De Blasio’s city encompassing even the benches right across the street from their building. All of this was going on right in the neighborhood that is one of the most influential centers of Progressive politics and support in our nation. The Upper West Side is where many left wing celebrities, members of the media and other very influential and powerful people reside.
For the rest of us who live in any big city dominated by Democrats in power experience every day the negative consequences of progressive political policies and management in action. The immediate signs of chaos on the streets of New York City starting in January of 2014 following Bill de Blasio inauguration as Mayor were startling. Clearly and immediately visible were dirtier streets, groups of homeless people congregating even in the best parts of the city, reports of increased crime and hordes of panhandlers on the subways and we have witnessed a transportation system that is rapidly failing.
Bill De Blasio has declared his candidacy for President focusing in on his progressive agenda of an activist government that will mitigate the economic unfairness of our society.He views current economic conditions as unfair to many segments of society and wants government to play a key role in leveling the playing field. Of course, the troublesome lesson that many of us has learned living in New York with him as Mayor is that more government is the problem rather than the solution.
Municipal Governments especially union dominated Democratic strong holds are particularly responsible for creating and exacerbating the very problems that they are supposedly trying to resolve. Most often, progressives have not been made to be accountable for their poor performance in power. Political promises made by progressives have a very favorable emotional appeal until the facts are examined. Close-up on a local level or afar on a national level, progressive policies simply don’t work, and even more discouraging is that they most often make problems they are attempting to address worse. Feeling is not doing and unfortunately many voters especially on the political left do not make this distinction.
Bill Be Blasio and fellow Progressive’s real aim is to forcefully distribute wealth from the most productive members of society who have earned success through hard work and concerted effort. They are in a crusade to effectively level the playing field and often lower the standards of achievement and excellence for all except their fellow members of a small powerful ruling elite and the politically connected.
Instead of unifying people according to our mutual interests, liberals in power deliberately follow policies of promoting division along the lines of identity politics according to group, race and class. Their policies tend to promote dependency among groups of people in order to purchase their long term voting allegiance. At the same time, they often neglect the interests of the majority of citizens who tend to be working and middle class taxpayers. The concerns of the taxpaying public are guaranteed to be last on a liberal’s priority list because there is a limited opportunity to buy future votes by making them permanently dependent upon special treatment by government.
A progressive government looks to be highly involved in the economic decision-making of its citizens. Rather these matters should reside in the hands of the private sector not the government. The private sector traditionally played the primary role in the allocation of our economic resources resulting throughout our history in a rising standard of living for all Americans and the creation until the Obama years of a rising middle class.
The private sector’s major strength is that it promotes an environment of competition. Increasing levels of wealth are created over time by a free market system bolstered by competition and enhanced by freedom so that individuals can take maximum advantage of opportunities that may arise. A free market system is characterized by flexibility and efficient allocation of vital economic resources driven by the profit motive. The resulting economic productivity is the real reason behind the economic success of the country and traditionally of New York City.
On the next pleasant evening, I invite any resident of 15 Central Park West to delay their ride to their intended destination and take a moment to cross the street from their apartment and sit a few minutes on a bench. The Progressive class portray themselves as compassionate people that work for compassion policies and social justice that are intended to help people and especially for those that can least help themselves.
How to justify what you are about to witness passing you on the streets of De Blasio’s New York? Seeing the evidence in front of you of the destructive outcomes of the policies you so faithfully advocate as you spend time as an observer on a Central Park bench, how can you continue to justify your support for today’s Democratic Party and politicians such as Bill De Blasio on the Left? What have you wrought upon the rest of us?
The RightQuestions 