September 30, 2014
The Blogger rants: the hardline corporatist governor of New York State is not getting my vote this year and it’s time for us to fight and defeat ersatz Democrats like him along with their corporate sponsors
The children repeat the crimes of their fathers precisely because they feel morally superior to them. -Rene Girard
Yes, I’m going to join with all the other commenters and pile myself on top of New York State governor Andrew Cuomo, now that everybody understands the nature of his biggest weakness. His strong win in the September 9 Democratic Primary was a resounding defeat. The thing is, this race was closely watched across the country because it convincingly demonstrated that a new something that is actually very old and powerful is rising among the electorate. Meanwhile, the corporate establishment, represented by Andrew Cuomo, is terrified.
Cuomo racked up a 59.92 percent vote total against an unknown challenger named Zephyr Teachout, who had no political experience and no money and who only managed 33.08 percent. But suddenly even the corporate media is writing Cuomo’s political obituary, stunned by the emerging political reality that they don’t like one bit. It appears that a significant number of voters are beginning to realize that we are being systematically looted to death by corporate traitors, and the voters are starting to identify the politicians responsible.
And it has become blaringly obvious that Andrew Cuomo has been making a serious political error by pandering to the radical right fringe when he should have been accommodating the majority center. Instead he chose to smirkingly dismiss the Liberal mainstream majority voters as irrelevant. Thus ends the carefully crafted illusion that Andrew is a master of politics who learned from the errors of his father, former New York governor Mario Cuomo.
Ungracious Andrew Cuomo (With Sash) Pointedly Ignores His Primary Opponent Zephyr Teachout (Left) At A Parade In NYC
The first interesting thing is that this last Democratic gubernatorial Primary was purely an issue driven election. Most elections are about competency, that is, the ability of the candidates to handle the office and represent the interests of society as a whole. For the majority of voters in most elections, issues take a back seat to competency, how candidates handle the issues during the campaign is usually seen as an indication of their overall abilities.
Voters did not have to consider competency (not anyone I talked to around here) because no one believed that Zephyr Teachout had any chance of winning and becoming governor. Thus voters could compare Ms. Teachout’s middle-of-the-road common sense American positions with Cuomo’s extreme radical corporatism without worrying about her political experience as compared to his. I swear I detected a sense of uncommon freedom among voters in this election, a sense that they could express their true thoughts at the voting station for once instead of biting their lips and choosing the lesser of two evils.
Zephyr Teachout Logo Made By An Enthusiastic Admirer
It would be easy to dismiss Ms. Teachout’s stunning results as purely a referendum against Cuomo himself, and that’s sorta kinda how the corporate media is spinning it, an electoral reaction to Andrew’s abrasive personality. Well, you know there was some of that, although that wasn’t a major reason that anyone I talked to filled in the box on the ballot for her and not him. But for most Democratic voters who voted for her, personality was at most secondary to Ms. Teachout’s firm opposition to the creeping scourge of corporatism embodied by Andrew Cuomo.
At this moment there is no mistaking the rising tide of anti-corporatism unless you close your eyes, put your hands over your ears and chant La La La. For instance, you might recall from last June how House Majority Leader and rising media star Eric Cantor went down in spectacular flames in a Republican Primary in Virginia to an unknown college professor named David Brat. Incumbent Cantor spent 24 times as much money as Brat, $5.7 million to $238,000. Apparently money wasn’t the deciding factor in this election… or was it?
The corporate media, always quick to coverup uncomfortable truths, attributed the Virginia upset to the issue of immigration reform, specifically, Cantor wasn’t radical enough, but that explanation didn’t quite make sense. Their other big line was that Cantor didn’t campaign hard enough, which is ridiculous. So that leaves the question, how did Brat win with no money?
Eric Cantor And David Brat
It appears that the grassroots Re-pub electorate was galvanized by anger at Wall Street and corporate looting. Our crusty old friend Ralph Nader explained that Brat ran as an “anti-corporate conservative:”
Repeatedly, Brat said he was for "free enterprise" but against "crony capitalist programs that benefit the rich and powerful." David Brat pointed out that Cantor and the Republican establishment have "been paying way too much attention to Wall Street and not enough to Main Street." Brat supported "the end of bulk phone and email data collection by the NSA" and other government agencies on constitutional grounds. Professor Brat attacked the Wall Street investment bankers who nearly "broke the financial system," adding the applause line: "these guys should have gone to jail. Instead of going to jail, where did they go? They went to Eric Cantor’s Rolodex." An advocate of ethical capitalism, with religious-Christian overtones, Mr. Brat went after the deal-making in Washington, such as Cantor’s close relationships with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.