Andrew Cuomo’s Going Mad

Andrew Cuomo is going mad; his political dynasty has eroded over time, and there’s not a soul to blame outside of himself. Almost six years ago, many would deem his collapse as implausible, rightfully so. Innumerable people had watched on their TVs as Cuomo, then Governor of New York, read aloud COVID case numbers, declaring how we collectively needed to “flatten the curve”. Championing the resilience of New Yorkers and presenting a steady, reassuring hand during a generational crisis, it was hard to go a day without seeing Cuomo’s fireside chats during the pandemic. His constant presence was hailed by the media as heroic, coverage much in the same vein as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani post-9/11. 

Perhaps mirroring old Rudy’s trajectory, Cuomo’s image has flipped on its head a half-decade since the pandemic. Following the footsteps of his fellow abrasive Italian-American, Andrew Cuomo has become a pariah in New York City and a proportionate swath of the state his father and he governed. In the wake of investigative findings on his administrative Covid mismanagement, sending countless senior-citizens to their deaths by mandating elderly care facilities accept infectious patients, and credible allegations of sexual harassment (much in Giuliani’s nature too), by 13 individual women bringing the death knell to his Gubernatorial tenure in 2021, Cuomo’s run for Mayor this year has made his cataclysmic demise evermore apparent.

Campaigning has caused our disgraced antecedent Governor to become increasingly unhinged. He’s spectacularly fallen from grace and thus, in colloquial terms, is “crashing out”, each instance of such more belligerent than the former. Having resoundingly lost the June Democratic Mayoral primary to perceived upshot socialist challenger, Zohran Mamdani, a grumbling Cuomo is desperately clinging to any guise of power he can find. He sees the polling deficit and anticipates a conclusive defeat in the November 4th General election, to which his anger has profoundly boiled over. Lashing out in cartoonishly racist bouts, suggesting the Muslim Mamdani would cheer on a terror attack during a recent appearance on radio host Sid Rosenberg’s podcast, generating a ridiculously xenophobic AI ad targeting Mamdani along with his voters, as well as calling diversity a “weakness” on an MSNBC interview, where he was also seemingly unable to differentiate between two Black anchors. Cuomo’s stooped to new lows in drastic hopes it can somehow boost his practically nonexistent support. Ghastly faux pas such as these, nonetheless, have done nothing of the sort. 

Pardon my French, but it’s fucking insane to witness in real time, a figure belonging to a once-ingrained Democratic family, an ex-Governor of the state, and Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, running a formerly dignified reputation ever deeper into the ground. Shredding any minute semblance of goodwill held by decent New Yorkers, his life as a politician is barreling figuratively toward the 6-foot-under threshold. Through copious folly of his own doing, the late Mario Cuomo’s son is reducing a legacy which at one time existed as a bastion in the Democratic party, to more synonymous with bombastic Islamophobia and racism, haphazard chauvinistic management, and outright calamity, than competent leadership or poised administration. It appears a safe bet that Andrew Cuomo will not have the distinction of a local bridge named after him, as his father did. If the aforementioned cumulative scandals haven’t tainted the now-Independent Mayoral candidate enough, morphing into Itamar Ben-Gvir when losing to a mild-mannered Muslim fellow, who merely emphasizes the abundant need to lower working New Yorkers’ exorbitant cost of living, surely doesn’t help rehabilitate anything. 

To the statement of his incinerated public support, one could querulously argue to the contrary with considerable backing among the elderly, conservatives, and the billionaire class. With that, they’ll hear the music before long. Cuomo’s descent into madness could nearly be characterized as an intentional complete sabotage of the dynasty he belongs to, if only he weren’t so deathly serious about the ordeal. To Andrew Cuomo, he alone is an all-knowing being, and with this long-perceived notion is practicing a strategy he believes entails winning at all costs, whereas realistically, the creep is pissing away any fragmented respect from sane-minded people possibly remaining. Reality, however, is not an egomaniac’s strong suit; Cuomo does not exist on such a dimensional plane. 

The vileness spouted appears unbecoming from the dominant presence in a political dynasty, but it isn’t because said dynasty has ceased to exist. Consequently, Andrew Cuomo has no decorum left to show for it. In June at my polling location, I came face to face with the man himself as he exited and I entered an elevator. Having worked in high-end food service, I instinctively cordially said “Goodmorning, Mr. Cuomo”, to no response. Unbothered by the snub, I understood the man’s coldness as paramount to his character, it is partial testament to his floundered public perception. His demeanor was simply what New Yorkers have seen time and again, just not a nice guy. Filling out my ranked ballot in the booth after, all I hoped frankly was to never see the man up close, and more importantly, nowhere near running New York again. 

Find your voting station today, and cast your early ballot before 5 PM tonight, or Tuesday until polls close.