Mitch Perry
PHILADELPHIA – 1984 was a lousy year for Democrats. It was “Morning in America,” with Ronald Reagan annihilating Walter Mondale in the general election that fall, taking 49 states in the Electoral College.
They did put on a good convention that year, for what it was worth. There were sterling speeches in San Francisco’s Moscone Center from Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and most memorably, Mario Cuomo. The New York governor played off of Reagan’s metaphor of the country as a “shining city on a hall,” saying it was more a “tale of two cities.” He also used a “wagon train” analogy to point out the differences between Democrats and Republicans.
Mario Cuomo passed away on New Years Day. On Thursday night, his son Andrew, the current governor of New York, gave tribute to that speech, and gave his own 15-minute address that was one of the most crowd pleasing in the early proceedings before the main event with Hillary Clinton a few hours later.
Cuomo said the Cleveland RNC offered plenty of fear, but no new solutions. He said it was clear that the GOP’s plan is to “fan the flames of fear and offer a scapegoat for our problems.”
“The Trump campaign is marketing a great distraction, using people’s fear and anxiety to drive his ratings. Their message comes down to this: Be afraid of people who are different — religions, colors, language. Stop immigration and the nation will automatically rise.”
He then brought the audience to a roar when he attacked the premise of using fear to motivate an electorate.
“Fear is a powerful weapon,” he said. “It can excite and motivate and get people to yell and scream. Fear can even bring you into power. But fear has never created a job, educated a child, and fear will never build a nation. Fear is not strength. Fear is weakness — no matter how loud you yell — and our America is never weak.”
Cuomo then hit some classic Democratic party themes when he said Republicans derided them as “dreamers,” countering that by referring to policies enacted by former Democratic presidents like JFK, LBJ and Barack Obama.
At one point, Andrew, like his father, was considered presidential timbre. A former head of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, Andrew Cuomo’s trajectory went off course after he lost a bitterly contested Democratic primary race for governor in New York in 2002. He made his comeback by winning the governorship in 2010, and was re-elected in 2014.
But in his first term, Cuomo was blasted by progressives in New York for being too cozy with Republican legislators, and he was faced with a Democratic challenger in 2014. He survived, and now is again pushing for liberal policies, as he boasted Thursday, while linking to his father.
“Mario Cuomo was a dreamer too, but our progressive government is working in New York. We raised the minimum wage to $15 because we insist on economic justice. Enacted paid family leave because all workers deserve dignity. Are rebuilding our middle class by working hand-in-hand with organized labor. Protecting the environment by banning fracking. Fought the NRA and won, and outlawed assault weapons to keep them from the hands of madmen. Passed marriage equality and GENDA, not because the Supreme Court said we must legally but because we believed that we should morally.”
After making the case for Clinton (who he worked with while at HUD), Cuomo brought it back to his late father.
“And that was my father’s timeless message in 1984. He was the keynote speaker for this nation’s better angels, and he was beautiful. And Pop, wherever you are — and I think I know where — at this time of fear, help this country remember what truly makes it great: that we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
