New Yorker columnist on Bill de Blasio: “Let’s give him a shot.”

The New Yorkers' John Cassidy on why he voted for Bill de Blasio.



Bill de Blasio back in 2009. Copyright: Hans Sandberg

There’s no doubt that electing de Blasio, who doesn’t have much executive experience, would be a progressive experiment based upon optimism and, to some extent, suspension of disbelief. As a recovering realist, that’s the mindset I’m adopting. New Yorkers, after years of watching their city being transformed by aggressive policing, changes in migration patterns, and corporate-friendly development policies, can afford to push back a bit. De Blasio is hardly another LaGuardia, but he has presented a vision of the city as a vibrant, multi-racial place, with progressive values and a bit less inequality. Pulling the lever today, I said to myself, “Let’s give him a shot.” If it doesn’t work out, we can always switch to Thompson or Quinn or somebody else in four years, or even call Bloomberg out of retirement.