On August 10th, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation, following a barrage of sexual assault and harassment allegations, culminating with a report from that state’s Attorney General office showing the governor engaged in a pattern of sexually harassing behavior, along with an executive system that covered it up. His resignation will mark the first time that a Cuomo did not control the state of New York in a generation.
In his resignation announcement, Cuomo denied all the accusations made by him, but still admitted to some of the actions, saying that he was nothing more than a “victim” of social and cultural differences. A victim in the supposed #MeToo crusade of outing and “cancelling” people who engaged in conduct that is no longer considered acceptable.
The outgoing governor also claimed that he could have fought the looming impeachment and won, but he decided to resign to “spare” the state the torment of a prolonged political battle. Included in there, but not openly mentioned, would be the potential damage to the Democrats nationwide in having such a drawn-out battle. With the 2022 mid-term election already going on, and with his party holding single-number leads nationwide, you know he would have been the poster diva for the nationalist Trump/Q Party.
Cuomo’s resignation speech was awash with contradictions. He admitted to being “affectionate” but claimed to doing nothing wrong. He claimed this was how things were “back in the day”. It’s like saying you took money that you weren’t supposed to from a bank, but that you didn’t steal it, and that “everybody does it”.
Funny, because I’ve been doing commentary for over a quarter of a century now, and I remember the whole mess with then-President Bill Clinton and how sexual harassment was being defined in workplaces all around the country and how it was wrong. You would think that someone like Cuomo, who was also around during that time, would realize that his own actions would be considered wrong as well.
And yet Cuomo did what Clinton refused to do. He actually resigned. Even with the evidence mounting and people across the country saying he should resign, Clinton forced the then-GOP to go through with the impeachment hearing and the impeachment and the trial, with all of the lurid details coming out and broadcast endlessly over the brand-new cable news channels like Fox News (back when they actually had news) and MSNBC. Yes, Clinton prevailed. He stayed in office to the end, but he didn’t do anyone any favors because of it.
This commentator commends outgoing Governor Cuomo for stepping down amidst all the damning information and evidence against him. It’s not the only bad thing he’s done, though. He still needs to account for the underreporting of nursing home deaths due to the initial COVID-19 breakout of 2020. Thousands of elderly residents in nursing homes all through the state had died during that time but were not reported by the state. Cuomo needs to answer to that, but it is unlikely he will.
Cuomo’s decision to resign is also something that separates the “old school” Democrats from the rest of the political group, and certainly from the fascistic and nationalistic Trump/Q Party. He is willing step down when faced with evidence of sexual harassment. Clinton and his wife were what they considered “New Democrats”. They didn’t listen to the calls for resignation and they fought everything to the bitter end, banking on their political influence to keep their party’s members loyal to them, no matter the ultimate cost. They put themselves above everyone else.
And that’s certainly true when it comes to the leader of the Trump/Q Party; a notorious narcissist who skirts accountability with lawyers and endless lawsuits. As president, he was impeached not once, but twice, with one of those articles of impeachment concerning inciting a terrorist attack on the Capitol Building on January 6th of this article’s year.
No, this political leader – and, make no mistake, he became one back in 2016 – was all about himself, and he wouldn’t step down no matter how horrid the accusations were against him. He stymied the system, just like he’s always done before he ran for the highest office in the country. Except that in 2017, he had the power of the government working for him. He forced his own party, the party that he coopted and assimilated, into aiding and abetting his escape from accountability. He’s still doing it today, even out of the White House.
Worse yet, his very presence in the White House encouraged others in his party to be like him. To lie, to cheat, to steal, to engage in unethical behavior, knowing full well that they would never be held to account for it, just like their leader. Gone were the days of doing things “for the good of the country” or “the sake of the nation”. Now it’s just about them and what they want and what they can get away with... just like their leader. Even his followers have been encouraged to engage in hostile conflict concerning this damnable global pandemic. Violence is now acceptable... even against doctors and nurses and teachers.
Let’s get brutally honest here... Cuomo’s decision to resign instead of putting his state through a costly impeachment is a much-needed relief from today’s aggressive bully-thug politics. While there is much to be said about “old school” politics, one of the rare good things about it is that those “old time” politicians knew better than to drag party, never mind the people they supposedly represent, through lengthy impeachments. They would step down rather than go through with a process that would only hurt their party later on. They had some modicum of respect and dignity for the position they hold. That is what separates them from the “new” breed of opportunists that infest politics today.
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