by Joseph P. Tartaro | Executive Editor
Some physiological and psychological conditions are hereditary, running from generation to generation in one family.
And, that can sometimes be an embarrassment in political families, or as some say, political dynasties.
The Cuomo family of New York governors provides a prime example.
The current New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, recently set off a minor firestorm by saying that conservatives aren’t welcome in the Empire State.
Well, what he actually said on a radio state interview was: “Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves.
Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
Please notice that Cuomo’s “conservatives” included gunowners who disagree with him, especially on the Safe Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (SAFE Act) he rammed down everyone’s throat hastily in January 2013.
He claimed it was in response to the horrific Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut just a couple of weeks earlier, but some political observers believed it was a singular attempt to grab national attention in an effort to propel himself into the 2016 presidential race.
Passage of the SAFE Act has cost Andrew Cuomo a lot in the polls, and if he ever gets to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, he may discover, as other anti-gunners, like the late Ted Kennedy in 1980, learned in the past: that being openly anti-gun rights is not a good way to seek national office.
Cuomo the Younger is not new to the anti-gun cause. He was the architect of much of Bill Clinton’s anti-gun policies as Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And he was anti-gun as New York State’s attorney general.
But perhaps his antipathy for lawful gun ownership is hereditary. His father, Mario Cuomo, tried to get a ban on so-called assault weapons passed for many years while he was governor of New York, without success. Republican control of the State Senate was probably the strongest reason why he failed. It’s ironic that when George Pataki, a Republican, succeeded him, he did get a ban on modern semiautomatic long guns through the legislature.
Nevertheless, Cuomo the Elder was also culturally anti-gun, and he showed it publicly in many ways, much like his son.
In March 1985—nearly 29 years ago—then-Gov. Mario Cuomo caused some political blow back when he described those who stirred opposition to the then newly enacted mandatory seat-belt law in New York as “N.R.A.
hunters, who drink beer, don’t vote, and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend.”
What hunters specifically had to do with opposition to the seat-belt law was never clarified by anyone, except as a manifestation of the Cuomo family’s antipathy to gunowners and hunters.
Perhaps it is noteworthy that at one time long ago the elder Cuomo was anti-same-sex marriage and antiabortion, but that has changed for him and his son Andrew.
The son’s spin doctors tried to deflect some of the criticism over his “extreme”
conservatives remarks, claiming the governor was referring to political candidates and not right-of-center state residents, but that apparently wasn’t smoothing some of the ruffled “conservative” feathers.
Even the Catholic Bishop of Buffalo, Richard Malone, countered the Cuomo attack by saying Cuomo had delivered “the best example of extremism I’ve heard in a long time.”
A possible Republican contender for the governor’s job this November, Rob Astorini, the Westchester County executive, termed Cuomo’s remarks as extremely disconcerting and divisive in a state that should embrace all political philosophies.
However, the fallout from Andrew Cuomo’s remarks, like the passage of his SAFE Act, apparently also has economic consequences.
The Associated Press reported that Cuomo’s remarks have led to a boycott by the Rhode Island Farm Bureau of an agricultural conference hosted by New York State.
“Most, if not all, of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau’s members would fit the definition of ‘extreme conservatives’ as defined by the governor (Cuomo),” the Rhode Island group’s president, Bill Stamp Jr., said in a letter to the New York Farm Bureau.
Given that Rhode Island might be considered as a Blue State like New York, one could imagine how offended the people of the Ocean State were by Cuomo’s hereditary loose mouth.
