Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Netroots Nation Conference

August 4, 2018

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Brothers and sisters, did you just hear that extraordinary man? This is a sign of change, that Birmingham, Alabama elected Randall Woodfin. Let's give him a big round of applause.

[Applause]

And, Netroots Nation, there are so many amazing things happening these last days. Everyone here has a lot to feel proud and passionate about. Do me a favor, please, applaud your neighbor, give them some love and support.

[Applause]

Now, this is a room full of loud and proud progressives, and this is the place that I want to be because I can feel this is where change is going to start in this country. I know that with the activism shown these last days, all things are possible. I know we can create a country where healthcare is a right, not a privilege. 

[Applause]

I know that we can stamp out structural racism once and for all. 

[Applause]

And together, we can work for that day, and that day must come, when the wealthy finally pay their fair share of taxes. 

[Applause]

Now, to get there we have to talk about our strength and the way to keep true to our values. And I'm going to tell you about what I've experienced. And I have to start by telling you, like Randall and so many other folks who are progressives and ran for office, I was not supposed to get this job. I was not supposed to have the honor of addressing you with this title. The conventional wisdom back in 2013, they wrote my political obituary literally the day I announced my campaign. And a lot of progressives have felt the exact same thing. But it turns out, the purveyors of conventional wisdom were wrong in New York City, wrong in Birmingham, wrong in New Orleans. They've been wrong a lot of the time, haven't they? 

[Applause]

And this has led me to a fundamental idea I want to share with you, that as progressives we've been lied to a lot. We have been lied to over and over again. We've been lied to by the pundits, we've been lied to by our political opponents, sometimes by our political friends, too often by the very party that so many of us are members of. 

[Applause]

And I think there's really three big lies and I want to talk about each very quickly. Lie number one, they say progressives can't win. Lie number two, they say progressives can't govern. Lie number three, they say progressives are the political minority in this country. I don't buy any of it. And I think they try to make us believe the lies they tell about us. That's what they try to do. They try and take away our passion and our confidence by undermining the things we know to be true.

Let me break this down a little further. And to do so I'm going to take you far, far away to a magical place called New York City. Come with me on a journey. I'm going to talk about the three lies.

Lie number one – in my city, they said a progressive could not win. That may sound hard to believe about New York City, but for two decades we were governed by Rudy Giuliani –

Audience: Boo –

Mayor: – and a billionaire who was the richest person in the city at that time, Michael Bloomberg. So, given that history, when the 2013 election came along, all the pundits said only an establishment Democrat could win. But guess what? Something powerful, something amazing happened. Progressives banded together, we said – no, wait, this is our city. We did not water down our message. We made it clear. New York City – I said it over and over again – New York City was a tale of two cities. The level of inequality was unacceptable, and it had to end. That led to a strong victory in the democratic primary, an even stronger victory in the general election. So now, what were those poor pundits to do? They said a progressive couldn't win, and they had a progressive mayor. 

So the next thing, lie number two, is to say – a progressive is in office and surely they will fail. They can't govern. It'll all come crashing down on them. Well, I knew that was wrong, but I also knew, and all progressives need to understand this lesson, that once we get into power we've got to move really fast. We've got to move fast, we've got to make a difference. The voices of opposition, the powerful forces of opposition, they will gather quickly. But we got a great lesson almost a hundred years ago from FDR and the first 100 days. Make change quickly. Make sure people can feel it. If they feel progressive change, they will want a whole lot more. 

[Applause] 

Mayor: So in the first six months we created Universal Pre-K for the children of New York City.

[Applause]

I want you to feel the sheer magnitude. The day I took office only 20,000 kids were getting full-day pre-K. Now every single school day in New York City, 70,000 children get all-day pre-K for free. 

[Applause]

And think of that, as progressives that is the epitome of what we believe in – a fair and equal start for everyone. That's the society that we want, isn't it? We made that vision come to life and now we have to go farther, because if you're a progressive, once you get a victory you want to go farther, don't you? 

[Applause]

So now we are going to give a free full-day early childhood education to every three year old in New York City.

[Applause] 

Let me give you another powerful example of making real change. When I took office there was a horrible and broken and derisive policy of stop and frisk that degraded young men of color in our city, that divided police and community. And it was a dangerous, dangerous policy. It was based on a falsehood, and a falsehood that has literally cost the lives of people of color over generations in this nation – the falsehood that you have to choose between safety and fairness. That you can only have one or the other. You can have order and safety without justice, or if you want justice, well, you can't have safety. That's what we were told over and over again. Guess what? That was profoundly wrong. In New York City we created a model of neighborhood policing, of reform, and guess what? We became safer when people were treated properly and respectfully. We are now the safest big city in America and I want to tell you something that may blow your mind. We got safer and safer, and last year we had 100,000 fewer arrests than four years ago.

[Applause] 

I want to give you one more example. Perhaps you have heard the phrase, the rent is too damn high. Never has a truer statement been made. In our city there had never been a rent freeze, but it was time for a rent freeze, and I said it was something we had to consider. Well, the landlord lobby attacked me, and they said it was illegal. We went to court, we beat them, and for two years we gave the people of New York City a rent freeze. And then we took another step, and we said anybody facing an unjust eviction deserved a lawyer for free to defend them and make sure they were not thrown out of their apartment. 

At every turn – this will be familiar to all of you – at every turn we were told we were going too far. Anyone heard that one before? 

Audience: Yes –

Mayor: You’re going too far? Well, as progressives we are very used to being told that what we want to do is too bold, and it can't be done. My strong belief is that we should ignore that bad advice every time we hear it because it almost always can be done, brothers and sisters. The things we believe in can be done.

So I've told you about lie number one, we can't win. And I've told you about lie number two, we can't govern. And both of those have been proven wrong. And now I'm going to tell you very quickly about lie number three.

Lie number three is that we are the political minority in this country, now and forever. We are constantly told that our ideas will never win the day. They tell us to moderate, they tell us to speak to that great middle out there. They tell us that our authentic values and our message will never move everyday people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our authentic message, our authentic values are exactly what will move everyday people in this country. 

[Applause]

What I see, it's not a time for moderation. It's a time for progressives to double down on what we believe in. 

[Applause]

I see the dawning of a new progressive era. I see change coming like never before. The signs are unmistakable. It was years ago when you could see it in Occupy Wall Street. 

[Applause]

You could see something beginning, and then you started to see all over the country good progressives getting elected. You saw people like Randall, you saw people like Chokwe Lumumba, and LaToya Cantrell right here in New Orleans. 

[Applause]

You could absolutely see it in Bernie Sanders' campaign in 2016. 

[Applause]

You could see it this year in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's extraordinary campaign.

[Applause]

That's a lot of evidence that something big is changing in this country, but how about on top of that the Women's March? And Black Lives Matter?

[Applause]

And the Me Too movement? And how about all the teacher strikes in all those red states? 

[Applause]

And that extraordinary movement against gun violence started by the Parkland students. 

[Applause]

Brothers and sisters, what makes this so extraordinary is it's all happening at the same time. I can't remember anything like that. You have to go back to the 1960s to see so many powerful social movements building with such passion and reach all at the same time. You have to go back to the election of 1974, right after Watergate, to see the kind of momentum that's happening on the ground. This is an extraordinary moment. 

And look, here's what I want to finish with. This is what we need to focus on – our power, the emerging majority that we are building. We can't think of it as we're just filling a niche. We have to see ourselves as authors of an emerging majority. We have to focus on our ability to reach people in every corner of this nation. I'm talking about everyone in this room and everyone who believes as we do, and everyone who's fighting for [inaudible]. But I'm not talking, by the way, about one person. There's a name I have not used. I have not mentioned Donald Trump on purpose. I have not mentioned on purpose, I'm not talking about him because we don't make change by talking about him all the time. 

[Applause] 

We make change with a bold, positive, progressive vision that speaks to everyday people's lives. We make change by showing people what we do actually improves their lives materially. We make change by organizing them and mobilizing them. I'm not talking about him, I'm talking about us – us. We need to focus on our own power. We need to focus on the America we want to build.

And I'll finish with this, and I feel it from my heart. I am optimistic tonight. I am optimistic about what's happening in this hall, and what's happening on the ground all over this country. You know, I have been, for four and a half years the chief executive of a city of 8.6 million highly opinionated people. 

[Laughter]

One might get a little worn down by that experience, but no, I am more optimistic today than the day I started. 

[Applause]

And I am optimistic because I have seen progressive ideas take flight, I have seen those ideas become action. I've seen people's lives change. And I am optimistic, genuinely optimistic because of you. 

You're here in this hall because you don't believe all the lies we've been told. You're here in this hall because you know we need to seize the moment. You're here because you know the change comes from the ground up. It is not about the power brokers, or the consultant class, and it's certainly not about the big donors, is it? It's about all of us in this room standing together telling the voices of false pragmatism and phony moderation that we don't believe their lies. 

[Applause] 

We are the real thing, we are unapologetic, and we are bold. And Randall said it right, and I'm going to say it again – progressives, it's our time. Thank you and God bless you all.