What History Tells Us About the Rise of Fiorello La Guardia

When Fiorella La Guard was first nominated for the mayor, “most wise political prophets predicted him by the omnipotent machine” Tammony “, lawyer, humanist and long-time Nation Correspondent Paul Blanzhard wrote on these pages in October 1933. But, as the elections approached, it became obvious that New York is facing political upheavals. “

The first sign came to the primaries, which warned “not about the uprising, but the whirlwind.” In a few weeks, this whirlwind of the era of depression will send La Guard to the Grace Grasse-Gueta, like different types of upheaval that can do the same Zohran Mammani This fall.

Then as now. Nation He was delighted with the insurgent candidate, fully aware of the obstacles he encountered: New York still had great prejudices against the Italian leadership, “Blanzhard warned, noting that Baron William Randolf Herst was regular Guardia should find a way to combine “a variety of elements that are now working on its success,” Blanzhard warned, “socialists” who may look like any compromises that La Guardia can do from a powerful city business.

Blunzhard thought both sides were wrong. “What is more important than any Laguardia association,” he wrote, “is a straightforward way he said in this company … (I) seem as definite as everything that may be in politics, that if it is sent to the City Hall, it will carry out great powers of the mayor of New Yarka with economic understanding and political independence.

Blanzhard acknowledged that there are restrictions on what La Guardia could reach. “Social Revolution” would not be as follows: “within our state and federal governments, what could reach a good mayor? He couldn’t, even if he was a socialist … Go very far in the direction of public property, without ruling the state of the Constitution and conservative legislation in Albania. these owners can be able to get their own houses, manage their own banners;

However, La Guard elections will promote political and economic democracy. “From a long point of view,” concluded Blanzhard, La Guard’s elections can not only promote “new belief in the city’s ability to intellectually use democracy”, but even turn it into a “giant lab for civic reconstruction … (H) is an elevation into the New York city hall.”

This is a prediction that will prove strangely certified. Co -cooperating with President Franklin Roosevelt, La Guardia helped to bring in An era of expansive public works and political reform This fundamentally redone the New York. .

Of course, unlike La -Guard, the mayor of Mammani will not find an ally in the White House, at least not soon. But this did not muffle his gratitude for the small flower. If he was asked to call the best Mayor New York, I chose the guard.