Andrew Cuomo and the Rotten Elite
Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, October 3, 2018
Few are as privileged as Andrew Cuomo. Son of a governor, brother of a prominent CNN talking head, the governor of New York is an American aristocrat who inherited his political career from his father. He is likely to run for president in 2020. Yet Governor Cuomo has little respect for his country, remarking in August that “we’re not going to make America great again, it was never that great.”
Governor Cuomo also seems to have forgotten America’s dedication to free speech, ordering a “probe” into flyers from Identity Evropa to determine “where the materials are coming from and whether they are designed to incite hate crimes.” This son of privilege, who spends much of his summer in the Hamptons like the villain in The Great Gatsby, is part of a ruling class that is disconnected from the white majority and its history.
“America was never that great” is the elite view. When President Trump slammed his comments, Governor Cuomo went further:
.@RealDonaldTrump: What you say would be ‘great again’ would not be great at all…We will not go back to discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK.
Like NY’s motto says: Excelsior — Ever Upward (not backward) https://t.co/nrcUrsYJCO
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 16, 2018
The governor’s official website provides translations of this tweet in Chinese, French, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.
The New York State motto dates back to 1778, during those dark days of “discrimination.” Those who adopted it would be mystified by words like “sexism,” “racism,” etc. The racial and political attitudes of the Founding Fathers were far closer to Identity Evropa’s than Andrew Cuomo’s. As for “isolationism,” President George Washington, a close associate of New York’s first governor, George Clinton, promoted it in his Farewell Address.
Still, Governor Cuomo’s description of the American past as a catalog of newly invented sins raises a fundamental question: If “isolationism” is to be abandoned, but American history is shameful, what are American soldiers fighting for in all those wars all over the globe?
Governor Cuomo has suggested President Trump’s attitude toward Russia may constitute treason, and says Republicans may have to act accordingly: “You have to put your responsibility to the citizenry above political loyalty.”
But if American history is nothing more than a record of “discrimination” and “racism” partially redeemed by a march towards equality, what is there to commit “treason” against? Should not every progressive American be constantly repudiating America and its sins?
And what is this “responsibility to the citizenry” that should be placed above “political loyalty?” Only a weeks after his “treason” comments, Governor Cuomo pardoned seven criminal illegal immigrants so they would not be deported because of their convictions. “At a time when President Trump and the Federal government are waging a war on our immigrant communities, New York stands firm in our belief that our diversity is our greatest strength,” he said. Governor Cuomo evidently believes he owes greater “political loyalty” to the “immigrant communities” that vote Democrat than to “the citizenry” or to his duty to enforce the law. Governor Cuomo also tried to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing criminal aliens from New York. Is pardoning criminals to keep them in the country not a form of treason?
Governor Cuomo even referred to himself as “undocumented” because his Italian ancestors allegedly faced discrimination. This won derision from illegals and their advocates, who love to trade on victimization, but Gov. Cuomo has a habit of pretending to be things he isn’t: “As a New Yorker, I am Jewish. As a New Yorker, I am Black. I am gay. I am disabled. I am a woman seeking to control her health and her choices. Because as a New Yorker, we are one community.”
Gov. Cuomo doesn’t understand the implications of his own words. If “discrimination, segregation, sexism, isolationism, racism or the KKK” must be purged from America, this process will not respect the limits he wants to impose on it. He has pledged to defend the statue of Christopher Columbus standing “tall and proud” in New York City. He seems to believe Columbus Day is “a time to celebrate the achievements of those who came before us — immigrants who faced untold hardships throughout history, yet persevered to build the world we inhabit today.” Protesters, of course, see Columbus as a genocidal oppressor. And he certainly wasn’t an immigrant. He opened the continent to European settlement and the creation of the United States, which many now claim was a tragedy.
Andrew Cuomo probably continues to support the statue and Columbus Day out of ethnic parochialism, but if America is to be defined by unlimited egalitarianism and overcoming its European past, how can he possibly defend colonization?
Last year, when he was objecting to the move to do away with Columbus, Gov. Cuomo made an oddly irrelevant reference to censorship: “[B]y the Constitution you cannot censor, you cannot control, and government cannot seek to impose its own political ideology on the people.”
Of course, his inquiry into Identity Evropa is doing all three. In response, IE posted new flyers:
Governor Cuomo responded:
Those who spew hate are afraid. Hate is cowardice and the ultimate weakness. We will not cower in the face of hate. We will not fold in the face of anger. And we will not succumb to intimidation.
Does the governor of the Empire State really fear intimidation from Identity Evropa? IE is certainly not “afraid” — the group’s leader, Patrick Casey, has challenged the governor to a debate.
The official reaction seems to be a call for doxing. The mayor of Middletown, NY, Joseph DeStefano, says, “We are focusing on removing the hoods of these SOBS! . . . Our job would be to let people know who they are. . . . Are they your neighbor? Are they a professional down the street? Are they a business owner?” What people are supposed to do with this information, the mayor does not say. This is far closer to “intimidation” than anything Identity Evropa has ever done and is a clear attempt at censorship.
Andrew Cuomo wants to have it both ways. He denounces this country’s history but still enjoys the material advantages wicked “racists” provided for Americans today. He preaches an endless struggle against “discrimination,” but wants exceptions to egalitarianism for what Italian-Americans value. He speaks of duty to the citizenry and fidelity to the Constitution but tosses these aside when it is politically useful.
America cannot survive with an “elite” composed of men like Andrew Cuomo. We need leaders who understand that Europeans made America great in the past — and could make it great again.