What lies behind Cuomo’s posturing? It is fairly obvious to those who have been following his moves these past few years
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f birds of a feather flock together, why aren’t Governor Andrew Cuomo and his progressive allies in the legislature a cohesive cluster?
Aside from a few months back in 1964 and another few in 2009, New York’s state senate has been in Republican hands ever since the days before World War II. Even as the state turned increasingly Democrat, the state senate remained the GOP’s last bastion of power, pushing back on the tax-and-spend tendencies of the governor and the lower house of the legislature, the New York State Assembly.
The stars were perfectly aligned for the Democrats in last year’s election, however, and they finally seized an overwhelming majority in the senate. Along with Cuomo, the two chambers went on a lawmaking spree earlier this year. In a capitol known for lengthy debates and lethargic legislating, it seemed as if every other day produced another progressive bill presented to the governor to be signed into law.
Cuomo and his new friends passed laws with the intention of making New York the vanguard of liberalism. It seemed that Cuomo’s notorious 2014 statement that conservatives “have no place in the state of New York” had finally come to fruition.
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