No, the right word to describe Bloomberg is "Statist." He's the leading exemplar, even more than Sanders, of addressing problems "Pragmatically" by hitting the big red button labeled "Government."
Such is the track record of panicky government crisis responses, the most notorious of which Bloomberg has dependably backed over the years.
If you're detecting a line of governmental paternalism toward citizen-subjects - including but not limited to his post-mayoral leadership role in restricting people's access to guns and electronic cigarettes - Bloomberg will cop right to it.
Bloomberg does not apply that logic to some life-or-death issues such as foreign policy, surveillance and policing.
In a New York Times candidate questionnaire, Bloomberg backed Trump's legally dubious drone killing of Qasem Soleimani, said he would keep troops in Afghanistan at least until the end of his first presidential term, and said he would preserve the option to use military force to protect oil shipments and prevent nuclear tests by Iran and North Korea.
As for policing, back when he was still defending New York's controversial "Stop, question and frisk" policy - that is, until he launched his presidential campaign - Bloomberg justified shaking down innocents, mostly black and Latino, as a way to discourage people from carrying guns.
"It's the government's job to have good science and to explain to people what science says or how to take care of themselves and extend their lives," Bloomberg posited during Tuesday's debate in South Carolina.
https://reason.com/2020/03/02/bloomberg-is-a-statist-not-a-centrist/
Such is the track record of panicky government crisis responses, the most notorious of which Bloomberg has dependably backed over the years.
If you're detecting a line of governmental paternalism toward citizen-subjects - including but not limited to his post-mayoral leadership role in restricting people's access to guns and electronic cigarettes - Bloomberg will cop right to it.
Bloomberg does not apply that logic to some life-or-death issues such as foreign policy, surveillance and policing.
In a New York Times candidate questionnaire, Bloomberg backed Trump's legally dubious drone killing of Qasem Soleimani, said he would keep troops in Afghanistan at least until the end of his first presidential term, and said he would preserve the option to use military force to protect oil shipments and prevent nuclear tests by Iran and North Korea.
As for policing, back when he was still defending New York's controversial "Stop, question and frisk" policy - that is, until he launched his presidential campaign - Bloomberg justified shaking down innocents, mostly black and Latino, as a way to discourage people from carrying guns.
"It's the government's job to have good science and to explain to people what science says or how to take care of themselves and extend their lives," Bloomberg posited during Tuesday's debate in South Carolina.
https://reason.com/2020/03/02/bloomberg-is-a-statist-not-a-centrist/
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