What The Hell America!

Ever since he was elected state attorney general in 2006 and especially during his nearly decade-long stint as governor, Cuomo has cultivated an image of himself as someone uniquely adept at managing complex bureaucracies and messy politics. For Cuomo and the slavish aides who surround him, no one is better at the arm twisting—and dark arts—that are required to get anything done in a state as notoriously dysfunctional as New York. In truth, that’s a myth Cuomo himself created. He is not a cunning dealmaker, skilled manager, or inspiring leader—but he is masterful at selling himself as all of the above. As Democrats slowly mount a resistance against Trump’s second administration, there is no worse person to elevate than a shameless self-promoter with an inflated sense of his political gifts and accomplishments. 

When Cuomo officially announced his campaign for governor two months ago, he implied that he deserved a spot in the pantheon of Democratic leaders of the last century. “F.D.R., John Kennedy, L.B.J., Mario Cuomo, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama taught us what it meant to have a true progressive government: It wasn’t about rhetoric, but results,” Cuomo said. “They focused on issues that mattered to people in their day-to-day lives, issues that were relevant to them, and then they actually made life better for people. And that is what Democrats must do once again.” 

If that seems arrogant to you—and it should, given that the only non-president in that field is Cuomo’s father, another former governor of New York—then consider this shorter spin on the same subject from 2019. After turning his fire on state progressives, who were attempting to push through a raft of legislation after retaking the legislature, Cuomo said, “I believe I am the most progressive, or one of the most progressive leaders in the state.” Then, pushed on his recent criticism of the state’s actual progressives, Cuomo shrugged and echoed Louis XIV. “I am the left,” he said.