Posted on 01/06/2015 7:28:02 AM PST by Kaslin
How precious in the sight of progressives was one of their saints, Mario Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York who died last week at age 82. He was a model of progressivism and a gifted rhetorician.
In most media accounts, references were made to two speeches Cuomo delivered in 1984, one at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco where Walter Mondale was nominated for president, and the other at the University of Notre Dame where Cuomo spoke about abortion and the "proper" role of religion in politics.
The thing about progressivism is that it resembles floor wax -- all shine and no depth. In his Democratic convention speech, Cuomo referenced Ronald Reagan's line about America being a "shining city on a hill." Cuomo responded, "A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House or the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there's another city; there's another part to the shining city. ... In this part of the city, there are more poor than ever. More families in trouble. More and more people who need help but can't find it. ... There are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter where the glitter doesn't show."
This is boilerplate Democratic rhetoric we've heard since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. After Democrats Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Obama, are fewer families in trouble? Are there fewer poor people, especially since Johnson's "War on Poverty" promised to end it? Statistics reveal there are not, so why do so many embrace progressive ideas? If something isn't working, why repeat the errors?
As Reagan noted, government too often adds to problems; it doesn't solve them. Government doesn't create jobs; a thriving private economy does. Government welfare mostly doesn't incentivize people to escape poverty, but too often sustains them in poverty and addicts them to government handouts.
On the issue of church and state, Cuomo bisected the subjects in his Notre Dame speech. While he said he accepted Catholic teaching against capital punishment, he rejected its opposition to abortion. In this, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin expressed opposition to both issues while eloquently arguing that the Catholic Church believes that each is part of a "seamless garment" of life and that all life matters and should not be taken by individuals, or the state.
This is another flaw of progressivism. Progressives are happy to embrace church teachings when it favors their political agenda, but reject them when those teachings don't conform to their politics.
My one encounter with Cuomo came after a column I wrote following his 2007 debate with former Speaker Newt Gingrich at Cooper Union in New York, the site of a famous speech by Abraham Lincoln. I said that Gingrich clearly won the debate and made a mockery of Cuomo's liberalism.
Cuomo called me and after identifying himself launched into a tirade that lasted about 90 seconds. He then hung up giving me no opportunity to say much more than "hello, nice to hear from you."
Vanity. Vanity.
Most obituaries and news reports called Cuomo "inspiring." A New York Times editorial correctly noted: "For all his idealism, Mr. Cuomo's years as governor were dogged by economic recession that blunted his hopes to leave great programs and innovation as his legacy. He had to cut services and scratch for scarce revenue."
Inspiration is good if it motivates people to do for themselves and improve their lives. Otherwise, it's nothing more than floor wax.
May Gov. Cuomo rest in peace.
His death should be noted in passing. But his ideology and words should be buried along with him, frankly. In this respect, there is nothing worthwhile to pass along.
One reporter summed up his legacy very nicely:
“Mario Cuomo was someone who was ready with a question for every answer.”
He was not a super Mario.
Really sad if a Catholic priest prays over this abortion lover’s rotting corpse. They should line his casket with today’s harvest from Planned Parenthood’s New York abortion mills.
Rest in peace?!? Isn’t there something about a millstone about one’s neck if he should lead the flock astray? Isn’t that more of what he did?
The late talk show great, Bib Grant summarized Mario Cuomo’s legacy with this:
“Hey Mario, azienda me...tu se profiono sfacim!”
The millstone was for causing an innocent child to sin. At any rate, it's bad form to spit upon the dead no matter how many Bible verses one misunderstands.
Matthew 18:
The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
1At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Causing to Stumble
6“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
7Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
8If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
9And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
A New York Times editorial correctly noted: “For all his idealism, Mr. Cuomo’s years as governor were dogged by economic recession that blunted his hopes to leave great programs and innovation as his legacy. He had to cut services and scratch for scarce revenue.”
“A New York Times editorial correctly noted: “For all his idealism, Mr. Cuomo’s years as governor were dogged by economic recession that blunted his hopes to leave great programs and innovation as his legacy. He had to cut services and scratch for scarce revenue.”
If only they could have spent more money on the problem.
Frankly, I don’t wish that he rest in peace. Let him burn in hell with his ideological forebears like Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Mao, and his contemporaries like Pol Pot.
This man Cuomo, was simply a democRAT hack who destroyed NY state, with his imbecile son finishing the job he started.
“Now that Mario is dead, what will Luigi and Princess Peach do?”
Got me there! I was WAAAAYYY off between the “flock” and the “child.”
Nonetheless, one less enemy to fight. Good riddance.
True, but. I am struck by the thought that the term “private sector” was coined by John Kenneth Galbraith to contrast unfavorably with “the public sector” - meaning nothing other than government. The reality is, and has been for a very long time, that the opponents of liberty have been conflating the terms “society” and “government”:Common Sense
by Thomas Paine (1776) Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
What Thomas Paine so aptly points out is that the proper name of so-called “private sector” is society. Not “private," but - contrary to “liberal” rhetoric, very far from being “government” as well. We desperately need to take back the language.
My apologies for my abrasive wording. It just gets old with folks making contextually incorrect statements from the Bible - the Left does it all the time to "justify" its malfeasance and we encourage them when we do similar.
Once again - I am truly sorry for my methodology.
Good day.
No sweat. Such is the nature of our modern media that it’s difficult to convey nuance and tone. I could probably do better myself to take the time to be more clear. We will endeavor to persevere.
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