By Ruth Papazian
7 Deadly Sins of Mayor De Zastero: Lust
Mayor Bill de Blasio (a/k/a De Zastero) deeply desires national name recognition. So much, that he spent four days in Iowa to caucus for Hillary Clinton in early 2016, which Politico noted was “unusual…for a sitting New York City mayor” and called the effort “a strange spectacle of uncertain benefit to either the Clinton campaign in Iowa or to de Blasio’s own image as figure of potential national political influence.” Predictably, his presence in a state that kicks off the presidential primary season created speculation that he would jump into the presidential race himself.
The year before, he went to Washington, D.C. to unveil his 13-point “Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality,” a progressive version of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” Earlier in the day, he had joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to give a speech about income inequality at the Roosevelt Institute.
The most controversial trip the well-travelled De Zastero took to boost his profile was to Hamburg, Germany in July to deliver the keynote address at an anti-Trump event that was part of a larger protest against the G-20 summit. Taking his NYPD security detail with him, De Zastero skipped the swearing in of a new class of police recruits and a vigil for P.O. Miosotis Familia, who had been murdered in The Bronx by a mentally ill felon who had expressed animosity toward the police in a video he had posted on Facebook. In their own protest of the mayor, hundreds of police officers turned their backs when he spoke at her funeral several days later. It’s debatable whether De Zastero’s relationship with the governor is worse than his relationship with law enforcement, or vice versa.
New York City deserves a mayor who makes the financial security and physical safety of New Yorkers his sole focus, rather than his political ambitions.
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