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| Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo before a mayoral debate |
New York City, 1977.
With Reggie Jackson calling shots, the race for mayor was on between Cuomo and Koch.
Mario Cuomo had decided that he wanted to be the mayor, before becoming three-time governor of the state. The race against Ed Koch got so close that Cuomo's 19-year-old son Andrew (Andy) got involved.
Andy was bold, Andy was brash. He wore his hair high, and his collars even higher. One could never have too much starch, after all.
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| Andrew Cuomo, circa 1977 |
But starch was no match for the wrath of Koch, who pummeled Cuomo by nine points, commencing his first of three terms as New York City mayor.
It seems young Andy didn't go down without a fight, however. In the midst of his father losing the Democratic nomination, Andy sunk lower than a rat on the F train by attacking Koch's sex life.
Back then, Koch was in the closet (along with many other 50-something single guys). He certainly didn't need some douchebag outing him in the middle of Queens Boulevard. But that's exactly what Andy Cuomo did, when one Saturday night he and his goons plastered this anonymously written flyer up and down the Boulevard of Death:
Did Andy do it out of desperation for his father's dying candidacy?
Probably.
But that doesn't explain, nor extinguish, the raging homophobia inside of young Andy. Fear can win elections, but not before leading to desperate doings.
It was this type of fear that Andy (now Governor Andrew Cuomo) exploited some 30 years later in a desperate attempt to turn the public against New York State teachers.
Yes, teachers.
Let me explain.
Cuomo, forgetting that he was a Democrat, tried to "break" the teachers union, who opposed non-unionized charter schools, something Cuomo's wealthy donors could not abide. Teachers were also against someone like Andy Cuomo deciding how they would be evaluated, a draconian, impractical system that is sadly still in place today.
On New Year's Eve 2014, with teachers protesting outside of his Albany mansion and Mario on his deathbed back home, Cuomo declared:
I understand the union’s issue; they don’t want anyone fired. But we have teachers that have been found guilty of sexually abusing students who we can’t get out of the classroom. We have a process where literally it takes years and years to get a bad teacher out of the classroom.The last time this blog checked, New York does not have an epidemic of perverted teachers in classrooms. Sure, there are some, but there are also some perverted priests, doctors, and yes, politicians (see Weiner, Anthony). And if Governor "I used to be the attorney general" Cuomo was aware of "guilty" sex abusers working with children, why didn't he have them arrested, or at the very least, remove their teaching licenses?
Further, in case you're not convinced that Cuomo wrote the infamous Koch flyer, his words about teachers in 2014 sound remarkably similar to those which polluted Queens Boulevard back in 1977.
As a public service, The Pen is Mightier the Person was able to magnify the Koch flyer to a degree where its author's identity is obvious:
In case your reading glasses just failed you, here is the above text, which makes some eerie and familiar references to teachers:
There are much worst things in store for New York State if Koch ever became governor. If Koch ever became governor he would force schools, both private and public, all over the state to hire homosexual child-molesters as teachers. He has already shown, at the very least, that he has no objection to homosexual child-molesting in the public schools. Recently some New York City public school teachers went on record publicly identifying themselves and coming out in favor of the "right" of male teachers to commit sodomy on underage boys. The only reservation these teachers have is that sodomy should not take place in the school itself and it should not occur between a teacher and his own students.
It seems Andy was just as concerned about perverted teachers in 1977 as he was in 2014. But don't think for a second that Cuomo's concern sprang from some gallant desire to protect children from abuse. No, Cuomo's concern was all about getting and keeping power - for his father in 1977, and for himself in 2014.
Like any cynical politician, Andy Cuomo tries to use fear to enrage and activate the electorate. Fear of gays, fear of predatory teachers - these are fair to inflame when the governor's mansion is at stake.
Cuomo recently fired up this fear once again in his Democratic primary race against Cynthia Nixon. This time, Cuomo had his goons in the New York Democratic Party mail an anonymous flyer to Queens Boulevard, and many parts beyond:
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| Conceived by Cuomo, paid for by the New York Democratic Committee |
In the spirit of the Jewish New Year, Cuomo thought manipulating legitimate fears of anti-Semitism was a good way to win a third term as governor. The problem with this, among many other problems, is that Cynthia Nixon is so anti-Semitic that she's raising her kids as Jews.
Since 1977, Andy Cuomo has used slime to ensnare voters and elevate his ego. Sadly, New Yorkers only have themselves to blame, as voter turnout has been pathetically low.
And though Nixon's chances of beating Cuomo are about as good as hitting three home runs in a World Series game, if enough people vote for the Homo and not the Cuomo, civility will win the day once again.
