New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020nypost.comBlas Proves It Again:
NY Kids Don’t Matter
H
ERE’S something you probably
won’t hear from either the left
or the right: West Virginia Sen.
Joe Manchin is a much more
important and influential Demo-
crat than New York Rep. Alexan-
dria Ocasio-Cortez.
Just this week, Manchin did
something far more consequential
than anything AOC has done in her
entire career. Yet everybody is pay-
ing more attention to her.
Now, when I say “everybody,” I
mean almost nobody, save for the
insular world of political journal-
ists and party activists.
AOC, Sen. Bernie Sanders and
other leaders of the progressive
wing of the Democratic Party have
had to explain why the Democrats
lost seats in the House and so far
only picked up one seat in the Sen-
ate in an election that was supposed
to sweep in an army of young, very
progressive Democrats under the
banner of the Green New Deal and
Medicare for All.
While that conversation domi-
nated coverage, Manchin an-
nounced that he would unilaterally
block the progressive agenda in
the Senate by not voting for the
only maneuver that would make it
possible. He told Bret Baier of Fox
News that “whether it be packing
the courts or ending the filibuster,
I will not vote to do that.”
Given the math of the Senate —
no matter who wins the Georgia
runoff races — it would be all but
impossible to abolish the filibuster
without Manchin’s vote. And with-
out abolishing the filibuster, the
Green New Deal and Medicare for
All are nonstarters.
I think this was a true act of
statesmanship on Manchin’s part
because I passionately opposeabolishing the filibuster and court-
packing. But I also think Manchin’s
announcement was good for the
Democratic Party and not great for
the GOP.
Historically, when one party was
seen as too extreme, the other
party benefited. When one party
went too far left or right, that left
the center up for grabs. And tradi-
tionally, that’s where elections
have been won.
That’s changed in recent years
for a bunch of reasons. Voters have
self-sorted into ideologically bub-
bled communities, and their pre-
ferred media sources have tailored
their programming to those bub-bles. This drives the parties to fo-
cus more on turning out their
bases than persuading middle-of-
the-road voters.
The core argument of the San-
ders faction has been: Don’t com-
promise your principles to win
moderate voters; just swamp the
system with massive turnout. “Our
swing voter is not red-to-blue,”
AOC said in 2018. “Our swing voter
is... the non-voter to voter.”
The best way to turn out your
side? Demonize the other side.
That’s what Republicans and
Democrats have done for years.
But in 2020, voters broke the cy-
cle. Democrats did so poorly in
their House and Senate races in
part because many voters didn’t
want Joe Biden and the Democrats
to have total control of Congress,
particularly when the loudest voi-ces on the left were calling for
ending the filibuster, court-pack-
ing and the Green New Deal, not
to mention “defunding the police.”
Republicans were only too happy
to highlight this rhetoric and cast
it as the core view of the entire
Democratic Party.
And that’s why Manchin’s decla-
ration was good news not just for
the country but for Democrats —
and bad news for Republicans.
Manchin helped the Democrats
in the Georgia Senate runoffs
(which may decide control of the
Senate) by making it harder for Re-
publicans to scare voters away
from Democrats. The GOP wants
to turn the Georgia races into an
apocalyptic choice between social-
ism and freedom, and Manchin
made that spin harder by essen-
tially taking the Sanders-AOC
agenda off the table.
This is how it’s supposed to
work. The two-party system func-
tions best when both parties try to
compete for voters, not pander to
their bases.
AOC talks a lot about the glories
of massive voter turnout, but she
won her first primary in an ex-
tremely liberal district thanks to
low voter turnout. It’s not clear to
me she understands her own dis-
trict, never mind the political reali-
ties outside Queens.
Meanwhile, Manchin’s West Vir-
ginia is the fourth-most Republi-
can state in the country — Trump
beat Biden by almost 40 percent-
age points there. And yet Manchin
keeps getting reelected. Maybe he
knows more about how to compete
and win than she does? He cer-
tainly knows more about how gov-
ernment is supposed to function.
Twitter: @JonahDispatchDems’ ‘Base’ Myopia
Jonah
GoldberGPOSTOPINION
ured on a citywide basis — was in-
cluded in the mayor’s school-safety
plan (to which the United Federa-
tion of Teachers agreed) to open
schools using the (absurd)
“blended” model. That got our kids
extremely limited in-person in-
struction on some days and nearly
non-existent remote instruction on
others. What a plan.
But when COVID-19 positive
rates went over 3 percent in cer-
tain neighborhoods, the 3 percent
citywide number went out the
window, as the UFT argued that
schools in those areas should
close. The union won, of course.
Of course, the arbitrary 3 percent
figure is nonsense anyway. It
means 97 percent of people tested
are virus-free. And if all New York-
ers with no symptoms got tested,
the positive rate would likely drop
even further. Yet counting onhealthy people to take COVID
tests is no way to run schools.
That the mayor couldn’t stand up
to the union was no surprise to
anyone who’d been watching his
tenure. But where is our hero gov-
ernor, who had only recently writ-
ten a book about his own spectacu-
lar COVID-19 leadership (even as
New York led the country in
COVID deaths)?
Gov. Cuomo, who loves to strut
and show off his power, is sud-
denly impotent. In April, when de
Blasio announced schools would
be closed for the rest of the year,
Cuomo jumped in, making clear
the mayor lacked the power to
open or close them. Cuomo shut
them himself a few weeks later.
Yet now he’s leaving it up to local
districts to decide whether they
open or close. Does that mean de
Blasio can close and open schools
at his whim? How convenient. But
it’s just another politician choosing
unions over the kids.
Cuomo did admit something Fri-
day that anyone who’s been follow-
ing the science already knew:
Schools are not where COVID is
spread. “The infection rate in the
schools is not the problem. It’s
very low. The problem is not com-
ing from the schools,” he said.H
ERE we go again — putting kids last.
On Friday, Mayor de Blasio warned parents to prepare for schools
to close beginning Monday. We’re inching closer to the magical 3 per-
cent positive number, which, for reasons unclear to anyone, means
schools can’t stay open.
Observers noted that the city had blown past the 2 percent threshold to
close indoor dining, yet restaurants were still open. Not that there’s any
scientific reason to close restaurants at that point, but if we’re willing to
offer leeway to eateries, perhaps we could do the same to ensure kids get
an education.
Alas, as parents dealing with city schools this year will tell you: Educa-
tion just doesn’t matter here anymore.
The 3 percent number — meas-Cuomo added: “I would hope
that the mayor and teachers and
parents work to open the schools,
if you close them, as quickly as
possible.”
But parents know better than to
have that hope. We use numbers
to close schools, such as in “red
zones,” but not necessarily to
open them. Park Slope has been in
the 1 percent range for a while, yet
there’s zero talk of opening its
schools full-time. And get this:
Private schools in the city, which
follow state guidelines, will re-
main open until positive rates hit
9 percent. Science? Really?
On Friday, de Blasio warned thatschools won’t reopen when the
citywide rate drops below 3 per-
cent. So when we reopen will be
anyone’s guess.
He also said pre-K programs in-
side public-school buildings will
close while pre-K programs run by
community-based organizations
will remain open. Hizzoner’s ex-
planation: “It’s a different reality.
It’s a much smaller building. This
whole concept is based on safety.”
Which made about as much sense
as the rest of his plan.
Nine months into the COVID-19
pandemic, New York’s leaders re-
main hapless and lost. Being led by
science (not just saying it) was
clearly too much to ask.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers look at
other cities that have successfully
opened and stayed that way and
wonder what it must feel like in a
place where leaders care about
children. London, Paris, Berlin all
have kept their schools open even
as they lock down other parts of
the city. Closer to home, Miami,
Dallas, Houston and suburban
areas all across the country have
likewise decided that yes, actually,
education matters.
Not us. Sorry, kids. Hope you
have better luck next year.
Twitter: @KarolKAROL
MARKOWICZ‘
Gov. Cuomo, who loves to strut and show
off his power, is suddenly impotent.
’