When those on the far left don't get their way, much like 5-year-old children, they usually throw tantrums and resort to extreme measures without regard to the consequences. A recent example of this kind of childish behavior is on display where California now wants to secede from the United States because Donald Trump won the presidential election. They are calling the movement “Calexit” named closely after “Brexit” where the U.K. passed a referendum to leave the European Union. The California strategy, which is picking up momentum, is planning for California to secede from the U.S. by 2020. But just as an emotional outburst doesn't lend itself to clear logical reasoning, many questions remain unanswered regarding how California will handle its infrastructure needs, military obligations, and currency, etc. as a separate country.
Just as no 5-year-old child has time for those kinds of minor details, essential facts and logistics very rarely enter into the decision-making process of this type of leftist. Take for example Mayor Bill de Blasio's fight against the country's immigration policy where he has stated that New York will remain a sanctuary city. By ignoring this or any other federal law, de Blasio is saying that he has the power to pick and choose which federal laws he will enforce and which ones he won't enforce inside the boundaries of the City of New York. In reality, he is playing a perilous game by obstructing federal law and challenging the authority and legitimacy of the President of the United States. Like most far left extremists, de Blasio has no use for the United States Constitution as a whole, but in this specific case it's Article 6 of the Constitution he dislikes which provides that where federal and state law conflict, federal law is supreme.
In a Daily News article, de Blasio stated, “We’re not going to take anything lying down…Anything we see as a threat to New Yorkers, we will confront.” But many find the Mayor's statement deceptive since his sanctuary city policy already hurts thousands of low-income New Yorkers who are forced to compete with illegal immigrants willing to accept lower wages. It also hurts middle-class New Yorkers who see their taxes raised to pay for the benefits illegal immigrants receive. Also, Trump has previously stated that he is considering blocking federal funding from cities that refuse to assist with enforcement and deportation of illegal immigrants and the loss of those funds will also hurt New York's lower-income families.
And to a far-out leftist like de Blasio, when facts get in the way, it's always the perfect time to start calling people names. Like when he called President Trump “immoral” for wanting to enforce the nation's immigration laws but neglected to mention how immoral it was to suppress the wages of legal New Yorkers by oversupplying the market with cheap labor. The New York Mayor realizes that his core voter ranks heavily rely on the subsidies and freebies given to them by the city and they are not about to bite the hand that feeds them even though by doing so they would be breaking the chains of their bondage to generational mediocrity. It remains to be seen just how far into the minefield de Blasio is willing to walk before hopefully coming to his senses and following the law.
**The views expressed in this column represent only those of the author and not the board or membership of the Juniper Park Civic Association.
