Time is indeed another country. Last year, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo was a hero of the pandemic, his daily Covid briefings compared to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats for their calming humanity.
This year, Cuomo — who announced his resignation today — is another villain of #MeToo, accused in state Attorney General Letitia James’ report of sexually harassing and assaulting 11 women and in other circles of berating, bullying and brutalizing male and female employees alike.
These two sides of the soon-to-be former governor are mentioned in the media as if they existed on different planets. Instead they are two sides of the same coin. They are all of a piece, just as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — hero of 9/11 and yet a man who announced his divorce from Donna Hanover to the press before he told her — is all of a piece. They are what they are, as we are what we are. The reason we sometimes appear to be other than ourselves is because as I’ve said many times on this blog context drives perception.
In a crisis against a monster — be it Covid or Al-Qaeda — we are fearful and desperate enough to want the tough, take-charge guy who’ll bulldoze his way through the problem. But those who are born for the storm rarely win the peace. The overbearing pride that finds its larger-than-life stage in catastrophe becomes just that — unbearable — in personal relationships. No employee of any or no gender should be subject to the boss’ screaming fits or sexual predation for fear of losing a job and other reprisals.
What is most astonishing in all this is how Cuomo — who in many ways was a competent governor, one who championed women’s issues — could think he could get away with it. But then, men tend to compartmentalize their lives, don’t they? As long as a woman isn’t in his circle, she’s fair game. And they count on some women, who derive their status not from any sisterhood but from their proximity to male power, to enable them .
Still, it’s unfathomable that Cuomo wouldn’t have been at least more Machiavellian in his pursuits. But then blind arrogance is the rule of the day, isn’t it? And that hubris has transformed Cuomo into something out of Greek tragedy.
“He has brought shame on his family,” my uncle, a Republican who likes the governor, said. Cuomo has also weakened the Democrats in a perennially blue state, opening the door to State Sen. and former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and — here’s a bit of irony — Giuliani son Andrew to run for governor on the Republican side.
Somewhere, Trump — no stranger to sexual harassment chargers — is laughing. But I wouldn’t laugh too hard. Context shifts for us all.