Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York was riding high on the basis of his response to the pandemic in his state. He was popular with Democrats across the nation -- and was even being discussed as a possible future presidential nominee for the party.But that was before it was learned that he had hidden many nursing home deaths from the public in an effort to make his administration look good.
That was before at least seven women came forward with credible accusations of sexual harassment.
And that was before it was learned that he created a tacit work environment for his employees -- attacking them and calling them names at meetings infant of other employees.
Some Democrats have come to his defense. But sadly, their argument seems to be that Cuomo should not resign because Trump (and some other Republicans) got away with even more egregious wrongdoing.
That is true. Republicans seem to be indifferent to the wrongdoing of their officials -- believing retaining power is more important than values or morality.
But Democrats are different. They actually have values, and they expect their politicians to adhere to those values. That is why Governor Cuomo needs to resign (or at least assure voters he will not run for another term). He is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party.
The following is part of an excellent op-ed by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post:
While it is possible that New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) will ride out the burgeoning scandal involving multiple complaints of sexual harassment and concealment of nursing home deaths due to covid-19, Democrats are trying their level best to dump him. More than a dozen members of his state’s Democratic delegation, including Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demandedFriday morning that Cuomo leave office. By the end of the day, New York’s two U.S. senators, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, had also called on Cuomo to step down. This echoed similar calls from Democratic state legislative leaders.
This is what a responsible party does. Its members assess the magnitude of credible evidence of wrongdoing, the severity of the alleged conduct, and the moral and political cost of defending a scoundrel, and then put decency and good governance ahead of tribal loyalty. This is not a weakness; it affords them moral authority and reaffirms the trust that voters place in elected officials.
The Republicans time and again have shown that they would never do such a thing. They exonerated disgraced former president Donald Trump twice despite replete evidence of impeachable conduct. They did not demand he leave the race in 2016 after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced; they supported him again in 2020 despite learning he had made payoffs to women with whom he allegedly had extramarital affairs and was accused of rape by E. Jean Carroll (Trump denies Carroll’s allegation). The same Republicans who dinged Neera Tanden, President Biden’s withdrawn nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, for spicy tweets excused four years of vile, racist, misogynistic language from the head of the party. And, despite his role in sparking a violent insurrection, Republicans still support him as the leader of their party. . . .
The irony is that the GOP used to fancy itself as the party of personal responsibility and public rectitude. Now it is a party of professional victims, wallowing in the myth of anti-White racism, incensed when presented with the concept of implicit bias and ready to smear women of color nominated for key posts for the same conduct that Republicans tolerated from White men. . . .
It is not hard to see why the difference between the parties regarding their willingness to police their own has become so stark. Democrats embrace and rely upon multi-racial democracy, so they feel compelled to defend it. They think government can be a force for good; they therefore have an interest in throwing out the crooks, the louts and the serial liars. . . .
Sadly, we have only one major party that is fit to govern in a constitutional, multi-racial democracy that demands accountability and self-control from elected officials. The other party has deteriorated into a group of apologists for sexual violence, racism, insurrection and habitual lying.
