Bloomberg as President Would Be More Undemocratic Than Trump

Bloomberg inspires much fear and loathing from those of us who knew him close up from his takeover of the NYC school system. The very arrogance of his entry into the presidential race speaks volumes. I think I might prefer an often inept clown like Trump to a high end technocrat like Bloomberg who would know how to pull the levers of power without anyone being willing to challenge him. Bloomberg should have been impeached for the lies and misinformation when he ran the city.

I am laughing out loud at the idea of Bloomberg challenging Trump. How often have we heard that Trump would refuse to leave office if he lost or even if he won a 2nd term? He even joked about that.

I know where he got the idea - from former mayor of NYC Bloomberg who defied term limits to demand a third term here in NYC. Bloomberg was as undemocratic a mayor as we've had, punishing critics or buying them off. Community groups suddenly went silent, bought off with Bloomberg donations.

We saw that first hand in his takeover of the education department just how dictatorial were he and his henchman, Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott (see my post the other day, Former Bloomberg Hit Man Dennis Walcott as Queens Library Head Absolves Himself of Responsibilty for Errors - What Else is New?)

And how about that Cathy Black appointment as chancellor?

He called the rising test scores "a  great victory," but they were bogus all along

https://nypost.com/2011/02/20/new-yorks-school-testing-con/

And those school cheating scandals stem directly from Bloomberg policy.

And remember the wasted time and money over building a stadium on the west side? Imagine traffic in the city.

As for racism, Bloomberg is certainly in Trump territory, just smoother. Stop and frisk is exhibit number one. Since it's been cut down, the crime rate still dropped.

How about those gentrification real estate deals? Bloomberg is way more responsible for the homeless crisis because he refused to build housing - he wanted to push poor and even middle class people out of the city. I taught in Williamsburg and saw what his policies did to that neighborhood which is so crowded and dense and overbuilt with awful architecture too. Are there some good outcomes? Of course but anyone who allows what happened without thinking through the consequences is bad news.

How about the transportation issues? Billions for a few fancy subway stations with no concept of expanding service to more areas that needed it.  Just see that Hudson Yards #7 train station as an example.

And sexism - the guy who told pregnant women who worked for him to "get rid of it?" Oh, I could go on.

Bloomberg is not running against Trump but to stop Bernie or Warren.

He and fellow billionaires are terrified at the thought of high tax rates and cutting into their wealth which is used to give them inordinate power over everyone else.

Bloomberg inspires fear to members of the press who might one day be looking for a job -- I remember getting that feeling from some reporters over their weak, fawning coverage of the Bloomberg years.

We already saw that act here in NYC.