Thursday, April 25, 2013

Michael Bloomberg's Authoritarian Instincts



Michael Bloomberg's Authoritarian Instincts

If the Bloomberg administration believes that salt is worth losing your freedom over, imagine what he'd have planned after a terrorist attack.

David Harsanyi | April 25, 2013



So, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes that the public's interpretation of the Constitution must evolve in the face of terror
attacks such as the one in Boston. "You're going to have to have
a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days,"
the man explained, "and our laws and our interpretation of the
Constitution, I think, have to change."




Of course he thinks they do. That's why we have constitutions -- so
they can be changed in tumultuous times. As Bloomberg sees it, the
first obligation of government is to keep your "children safe." How this wide-ranging duty affects other societal concerns -- liberty, cost, etc.
-- is largely irrelevant because ... well, because toddlers are cute.
Those tobacco-addicted Founding Fathers didn't have the decency to
include a single line about keeping Americans salubrious or children.

Bloomberg is an authoritarian. 

He's not an authoritarian in the way Josef Stalin or Pol Pot was
authoritarian, but every instinct tells you he's a man who would
use any power given to him to govern every aspect of public and
private life whenever necessary -- or, more precisely, whenever he
finds it necessary, which is frequently. All said, he's exactly the type
of person who makes the Constitution a necessity.

Anyone who believes your caloric intake is government's prime
concern should be watched carefully, of course; but no matter
what crusade the man's on, his rationalization for limiting
personal freedom is a dangero:p>
the next thing you know you're lspan style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">are popular (smoking bans), and others are less so (limiting portion
sizes and banning ingredients), but all of them set precedents that
distort the relationship between government and citizens. The jump
from minor infringements on personal liberty to giant ones is a shorter
one than you think.

Allow a politician to tell you what your portion sizes should be and
the next thing you know you're letting Washington force you to

buy insurance you don't want.

If the Bloomberg administration believes that salt -- "the greatest
public health threat facing" New York City -- is worth losing your
freedom over, imagine what he'd have planned after a terrorist attack.

When Justice Milton Tingling struck down Bloomberg's pathetic soda
ban as "arbitrary and capricious" last year, he might as well have been
talking about the mayor's overall disposition. Bloomberg likes to act as
if he's a man free of the unpleasantness of political ideology or party.
He's the driving force behind the inane No Labels group -- which, in
addition to having no labels, has no ideas and no support.

But pretending to be without a guiding philosophy doesn't by default
make you a moderate. It can just as easily mean you support using
arbitrary and capricious power to get your way.

I suppose the one positive thing that can be said of a man who once
declared "I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom" is that he's more honest than most. You may remember that Bloomberg had term limits lifted in New York City so he could run
for a third term. (Citizens simply couldn't bear to move on without him nagging them about the perils of plastic foam cups.) Understanding
New York, though, I realize that the average person rarely thinks about
the mayor, as urban life churns on despite the best efforts of its worst to be mainstreamed.

political players in the nation, to allow his radical idea of governance
to be mainstreamed.

:
Use your masterful powers of thought,
visualization and verbal intent to
Co-create a peaceful world now...




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No one has arrested this turn coat yet?

Unknown said...

Very simple solution to all the problems with government, reinstate the original thirteenth amendment!