Bill de Blasio Marches In Veterans Day Parade With OWS Nemesis ; What Political Mandate ?

Mitch Rudin, president and CEO of U.S. commercial operations at Brookfield Office Properties, evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park.

Mitch Rudin, CEO of US operations for Brookfield Properties, joined Bill de Blasio for Veterans Day Parade http://t.co/avrBBjhWcB #OWS

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) November 12, 2013

For several blocks, New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio marched in today's Veterans Day Parade alongside Mitch Rudin, the US CEO for Brookfield Properties. Brookfield Properties was the landlord over Zuccotti Park, which had been the site of the Occupy Wall Street encampment, before Brookfield asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYPD to evict the protesters.

Mr. de Blasio campaigned for mayor on a platform that supported Occupy Wall Street sensibilities, but the de Blasio campaign has not addressed the apparent contradiction of the mayor-elect embracing Mr. Rudin when so many Occupy activists were under the impression that Mr. de Blasio was a sympathizer.

Occupy Wall Street is "speaking to what people feel all over this country" –Bill de Blasio at Zuccotti Park, 10/13/11 http://t.co/g6PxIWBFeX

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) November 6, 2013

• Mitch Rudin, CEO of US operations for Brookfield Properties, joined Bill de Blasio for Veterans Day Parade
• How committed is Bill de Blasio to progressive reforms ?
• Bags of Cash : Political Corruption and Lobbyists in NYC, NYS
• Bill de Blasio is going to let liberals down

Voter Turn-Out Was 22% : What political mandate ?

The media keeps describing Mr. de Blasio's win as a "landslide," yet his effective voting tally expressed as a percent of total registered voters is actually lower than 20%. Given how few registered voters made it to the polls on election day, how can the media spin such a low participation rate to equal a political mandate ?

Newsday’s Dan Janison notes the paltry turnout numbers in last week’s general election, running counter to the narrative of a “popular uprising” for de Blasio. (Voter turnout disappointing in Tuesday's elections : New York Newsday)

Turnout in Tuesday’s election for New York City mayor appeared to have set a record low of 24 percent of registered voters. (New York: Voter Turnout Appears to Be Record Low * The New York Times)

Bill de Blasio Triangulation To Power Clintonista Way

"The deeper you look, the stronger the evidence that de Blasio’s victory is an omen of what may become the defining story of America’s next political era: the challenge, to both parties, from the left," writes Peter Beinart in an article, "The Rise Of The New New Left" for The Daily Beast, noting that, "It’s a challenge Hillary Clinton should start worrying about now," adding, "If history is any guide, the sentiments behind Occupy will find their way into the political process, just as the anti-Vietnam movement helped create Eugene McCarthy’s presidential bid in 1968, and the civil-rights movement bred politicians like Andrew Young, Tom Bradley, and Jesse Jackson." Although Bill de Blasio is a definite Democratic Party insider and Clintonista -- he served in the Bill Clinton administration and was Hillary Clinton's senatorial campaign manager -- he was shrewd and politically calculating to position himself to the left of the other mayoral candidates, but Beinart seems to take de Blasio's move at face value. "Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign offers a glimpse into what an Occupy-inspired challenge to Clintonism might look like," he adds. But what if de Blasio was just triangulating his way into power by telegraphing signals to outside pressure groups, and nothing more than that ? De Blasio can hardly challenge Clintonism if he is using the same unprincipled machinations from the Clinton playbook.

Moreover, the article seems to minimize that voters made a wholesale reject of Christine Quinn's boss-style politics. It cannot be denied that Occupy sensibilities played a role among some of the anti-Quinn activists. But, Occupy sensibilities could not have entirely backed de Blasio's campaign, especially given his apparent use of an independent expenditure group to help his campaign circumvent public campaign finance limits and his close working relationship with real estate lobbyists, who have been responsible for the loss of hospital infrastructure to the Bloomberg-Quinn's administration's emphasis on gentrification.