For many beleaguered progressives New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio represents a return to New Deal-style liberalism the party abandoned in the post-Reagan era.

It’s easy to see why, since he has made all the right enemies in a short timeframe. He has tussled with charter school profiteers by insisting that private companies who use taxpayer property actually compensate the public. His plan for universal pre-kindergarten education has put him in direct conflict with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a conservative Democrat who wants to fund the program without tax increases — clearly painting de Blasio as a redistribution-minded executive. He aided the beleaguered public housing authority by waiving its obligation to pay for policing, something private landlords get at no extra cost. He settled a long-standing racial discrimination lawsuit against firefighter hiring, a turnabout from the intransigence of the Bloomberg administration.

And when the New York Times asked if he was filling his cabinet with liberal activists rather than technocratic administrators, as if this were a bad thing, it solidified the image among his supporters that activists would have a willing ear inside City Hall. In comparison to the Republican administrations of the past two decades, that is unquestionably true.