OPINION: Does de Blasio Want to Undermine the Foundation of America’s Democracy?

Hillary Clinton voters across the country who are sore at being shut out of power for the next four years have been protesting — in some cases rioting — since last Wednesday. Understandable, perhaps. President-elect Donald Trump (“Mr. Trump”) is after all threatening to roll back their free-lunch programs.

What is not understandable is the rhetoric of Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio on Trump.

My governor.

My mayor.

My president.

It was slightly weird to see Cuomo stick a note on Union Square’s “therapy board,” where disgruntled Clinton supporters have been hanging up their thoughts about the election, nuclear power, Israel and the evils of lace over satin. Instead of touting his celebrated leadership skills to do the right thing and help New Yorkers, he pronounced himself “soul sick” over Trump’s win. He has sent out a press release every day since the election urging New Yorkers to play big brother and tattle on every perceived “bias” incident, presumably by Trump supporters.

Memo to the Gov: The election is over. Trump won and his voters are regular Americans. Use your connections to him to bring infrastructure dollars to the state instead of being led by the leash.

Even more toxic than Cuomo is Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor initially followed the lead set by President Obama and Clinton and urged New Yorkers to give the man a chance. But with reelection coming up, de Blasio wants the same narrow electorate which gave him a historic victory three years ago to vote for him again next year.

So the man who is trying (unsuccessfully so far) to angle himself as the national leader of the progressive movement changed his mind and rhetoric. De Blasio on Monday called for nationwide protests to continue. More dangerously, he said that Trump has “no mandate to rule” since he will likely not win the popular vote. This is no less than the beginning of the Trump birther movement, only more debauched.

Mr. Mayor, let me remind you of an incident in the not so distant past. Recall how you tried interfering in elections of Republican state senators two years ago. You failed; the Senate remains in GOP hands. What did the city you lead gain from it? We are on the verge of losing mayoral control over the school system, we nearly got slammed with hundreds of millions of dollars in new healthcare payments, and we have an angry governor and a hostile Senate.

In short, Mr. Mayor, your political battles have failed, and just brought disaster on our great city. Don’t try it again. Trump is no fan of yours, as he said several times during the campaign. Election Day has always brought the country together. Not doing so, by impugning the legitimacy of the next president, will harm the city for the next four or eight years.

It is clearly evident you are hoping to crassly ingratiate yourself with minority and liberal voters with your rhetoric.

Memo to the Mayor: It didn’t work for Clinton, it won’t work for His Honor. Appealing to the narrow slice of voters to whom Trump is #NotMyPresident and relying on the white vote staying home as they did in 2013 is irresponsible and not worthy of a leader.

The lesson of Clinton’s loss, if there ever was one, is that you cannot continue to slice and dice the country into blacks and whites, college educated and high school grads, older men and unmarried women, and still win.

Results of every election in recent history mean that while a president may be chosen by half the country, he must now rule over proponents and opponents alike. Doing otherwise is downright un-American. It’s Sandinista politics.

Clinton tried doing that — she pathetically focused on getting out the minority votes, refusing to condemn the Black Lives Matter group even after a half dozen policemen were killed execution style.

Mr. Mayor, for the sake of the city, issue a clarion call for New Yorkers to unite behind the president-elect. Stop dividing us. End the new birther movement. Don’t undermine the foundation of our democracy.

Leadership is for times like this.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the November 16th, 2016 edition of Hamodia.