Opinion

With New York staring into the void of a massive budget hole amid skyrocketing crime and unemployment numbers, a relative handful of Democratic voters are poised in less than six months to effectively decide on the city’s next mayor and our course over the next eight years in what’s looking a lot more like a roll of the dice than a measure of the will of the people.

Hubert Humphrey famously said, “The ultimate moral test of any government is the way it treats three groups of its citizens. First, those in the dawn of life — our children. Second, those in the shadows of life — our needy, our sick, our handicapped. Third, those in the twilight of life — our elderly.”

The United States is a nation which above all else extols itself as a beacon of freedom and liberty, a place where individuals have the right to be who they are, say what they wish and do what they desire with minimal interference from high. This concept of freedom has been packaged and sold to us over the generations as something uniquely American.

That awful video of a group of Queens Republicans laughing and shimmying, maskless, in a conga line at their Christmas gala, was an apt metaphor for the status of New York City Republicans. The local party should sober up, quit dancing around and get serious about living up to its obligation to help lead our city in 2021 and beyond.

It was cold in the stable that night, and the animals were huddled together for warmth.

Thank goodness. The news that Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona is the choice for U.S. education secretary probably means we can avoid four tumultuous years of tussling. Considering the two runner-ups — an academic and a former union president, both likely to wage education wars on the left as DeVos did on the right — this was a close call.