Watch: Bill de Blasio Sounds Like Ocasio-Cortez with Asinine Anti-Capitalism Statements
Is there something in the water in New York City? Or maybe it’s the kombucha? Whatever it is, it seems to be turning the city’s Democrats into minor-key Marxists.
Of course there’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America who doesn’t shirk the S-word. And then there’s Bill de Blasio, the city’s mayor. While he presides over one of the Western Hemisphere’s great centers of capitalism, he doesn’t seem to be particularly enamored of the system itself.
Nowhere was that contradiction more evident than during a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where the Democrat declined to endorse capitalism and instead called himself a “social Democrat” and “New Deal Democrat.”
In the exchange, de Blasio was pressured by Republican strategist Susan Del Percio to say, once and for all, that he “believe(d) in the capitalist system.”
“I believe in — I’m a social Democrat,” de Blasio said. “I believe that we’re living in a capitalist system that has strengths and weaknesses and we have to address it with a strong role of government. And right now, that’s not happening sufficiently.
“Here’s the bottom line: We look at a country where the federal government has substantially, consistently put wealth in the hands of the 1 percent,” he continued.
“That’s why I say very clearly — we have an opportunity to, this year, out loud say our national government, from Ronald Reagan to present, has continued to empower the 1 percent through the policies of the federal government. Working people have created all that wealth in this country, they have not benefited.
“So I say there is plenty of money in this world, and there’s plenty of money in this country, but it’s in the wrong hands. And we have to have policies that give people a chance again by redistributing some of that money back to working people.”
“So do you consider yourself a capitalist?” Del Percio asked.
“I consider myself a social Democrat,” de Blasio responded. He said that while “we are living in a capitalist society,” he “philosophically identifies” with the social Democrat label. He would also refer to himself as a “New Deal Democrat,” although he sounded a bit more like Huey Long to this viewer.
Oh, and he also said during his appearance that he could have worked things out with Amazon so that it would build its second headquarters in New York City. I mean, he may not be willing to say he’s a capitalist, but he certainly knows where his bread doth be buttered.
Nevertheless, words like these have a tendency to become actions, and de Blasio remains a rising star among the Democrats. At least at the moment, as the mayor of New York City, he doesn’t exactly have the capacity to redistribute much wealth to what he would consider the “right hands.”
However, what you saw on “Morning Joe” is what you’re seeing from more and more Democrats. They believe that the capitalist system — which has given most Americans a quality of life few on earth could have dreamed of even half a century ago — is inherently flawed because some people have a lot of money and that money could be in someone else’s hands.
Notice, too, that he believes “working people have created all that wealth in this country,” as if entrepreneurs who took risks and created jobs just sat back and let the money flow into their bank accounts. I’m curious what the wealthier denizens of his city, many of whom fall into this category, have to say about this.
You would think, given the implications of this exchange and the fact that he didn’t come off so well, that the mayor would be trying to play it down. If the Twitter account of his communications director is any indication, however, that’s not the case:
hell yeah https://t.co/JJjkrh9l3k
— mike casca (@cascamike) March 15, 2019
Kinda-sorta-socialism: Hell yeah.
Can we please get some sort of check on that water in New York City? Ocasio-Cortez was bad enough, but now we even have the mayor sounding like her.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
