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Wait. What? Fareed Zakaria, on yetserday's episode of Global Public Square on CNN, explained why only a handful of the 27 countries in the European Union are governed by Center-Left coalitions.
"Countries with more than half the world's population went to the polls last year and the basic message they sent to their governments was one of dissatisfaction and anger with the status quo. Their frustration, however, was seen to be particularly focused on the party traditionally identified with big government, the progressive left. Almost everywhere you look, the left is in ruins."
"The primary left of center party in the European Parliament now has just 136 seats in a 720-seat parliament."
"The crisis of democratic government, then, is actually a crisis of progressive government."
Zakaria then went on to compare New York State with Florida.
"They have similar sized populations, New York with about 20 million people and Florida with about 23 million people. But New York State's budget is more than double that of Florida's, 239 billion verses roughly 116 billion. In addition, New York City, which is a little more than 3 times the size of Miami-Dade County, has a budget of more than 100 billion dollars, which is nearly 10 times that of Miami-Dade."
Then Zakaria pulls out the money question for his viewers.
"What do these New Yorkers get for these vast sums of money?"
My sense is that Fareed Zakaria hasn't joined the Republican Party or become a conservative. Instead, I think Zakaria is trying to tell his fellow Democrats that they have no chance at winning elections if they continue to cater to the far left, the woke industry and the public employees' unions.
Republicans might prefer that Democrats ignore Zakaria's warnings because even in states like New Jersey and Illinois, voters demonstrated in the 2024 presidential election that they are losing patience with the Progressive Blue State model of governing, though "governing" doesn't seem like the appropriate term for what Democrats are doing.
Discussion (16)
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Given the penchant for blue state and city voters to return progressives to office, think how bad it must be for it to change. I mean, even San Francisco voters have run off some progressive officials for what most of us would consider only mildly less extreme candidates. And yet - when even progressive voters see a need for change, that’s a huge indicator that the pendulum has reached the end of its swing.
The rampant crime on the NYC subway has been a big indicator of progressive failure. Trump winning followed by the Daniel Penny acquittal smells like something momentous is happening.
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One note on the Florida economy, 80% of the state's revenue comes from sales taxes, and a very large chunk of those are from the tourist industry which is one of the top 5 sources of revenue for the state.
So a lot of money comes to Florida and they demand very little from the state's pocket for the typical services we have come to expect from a state government. Very few folks brag, or look forward to a vacationing in New York.
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I think that would be a surprise to the 62M that visited the City of New York in 2023. When Covid hit the city took a 59% budget hit primarily from the loss of tourism. Most of that is attributable to Giuliani (and to a lesser extent Disney), which is a shame that the great unifying figure of Bill de Blasio nuked the city back to the Dinkins Era.
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This is the kind of thing that happens when people think that after a Giuliani - on the state level, or a Trump nationally - has gotten things running smoothly, they can just swap in a Dinkins or de Blasio or Hochul to feel better about themselves and get free stuff etc, without any other consequences.
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I was born in New York, spend the first 10 years there, regularly go back for relatives (and hear their grousing). I have now had the opportunity to have some very long TDY's in Florida in the recent years.
Sorry no contest.
Yes I have been to NYC for Broadway, Radio City, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, etc, etc. So perhaps to visit maybe NYC ok, but it has become way too dysfunctional since Bloomberg was pushed aside. I have recollections of the squeegee guys damaging the mirror on my Vega for non payment (extortion) at the exit Lincoln tunnel from the late 70's. I would also venture that the Florida of my youthful recollection (the late 60's early 70's) have vastly improved. So yes I think 62M folks can be wrong about their vacation/living choices. I also do not disparage those who live well outside of the NYC region, however they are cursed with the governing baggage that the city inflicts on them.
Just review that last census as to where folks have migrated and then make your case to me.
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