The Nation Endorses Bill De Blasio

The Nation made an apparently rare local endorsement today, backing the mayoral bid of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

No doubt there will be tremendous challenges should de Blasio become mayor. New York is a fractured and fractious city, and he will almost certainly face strong headwinds from a number of quarters, the city’s powerful Wall Street and real estate interests among them. Yet with the help of a newly minted City Council—one that is expected to emerge from this year’s election a more progressive body thanks to the efforts of groups like the Progressive Caucus—a Mayor de Blasio might have a real chance to begin stitching the city’s tattered social contract back together. And for the first time in a long time, New York might become a national model not of flagrant inequality but of forward-thinking efforts to create true opportunity for all its residents.