Yes, in the midst of a GOP mercilessly throwing 24M off of healthcare without so much as a CBO score and a POTUS looking to dig up every spare atom of carbon, and nearly three and a half years in advance of the election, The Young Turks are preparing to bring down one of the likely candidates for the Democratic Party. Apparently, Cuomo is the great scourge of our time. Of particular note is his support for charter schools in the past and his less than stellar relationship with teachers’ unions.
I live in Cuomo’s NY. Not only that, I am a public school teacher in Cuomo’s NY. I have watched in frustration as he has undermined teacher autonomy and input and supported policies that do not empower me as a teacher. Having lived in Cuomo's NY, and dealt with the frustrations of policies I do not like and political games I've abhorred, I say this: I would take him in a heartbeat as our nominee and campaign for him.
Corporatist? In the area of carbon emissions alone, that corporatist has overseen the banning of fracking, the push for solar, the implementation of an EV rebate, the goal of cutting emissions 80% by 2050, efficiency programs for appliances, green lending programs, home efficiency and more.
Was he responsible for these? No. The people of NY have built powerful political will and demanded it. When Zephyr Teachout ran against him in the 2014 primary and gave him a run for his money, HE SHIFTED LEFT. His latest move to make college tuition free for families earning under $125,000 would never have happened otherwise. Not only that, he has hobnobbed with the corporations in getting this done. Solar is about big money and the fracking ban was only doable because gas wasn’t as profitable as it once was.
But… Yes, BUT… He DID shift left and he DID bring corporations to the table to make money doing better things rather than worse.
There is a giant chasm between powerful people wielding power within the system and powerful people trampling the system.
Democrats working for carbon emissions cuts and creating free college tuition? BRING IT.
The left that booed Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at the Democratic Convention and voted for Jill Stein in November weakened Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Without being able to demonstrate that they bring the left with them, they have less power. Yes. The purity left has helped to strengthen yet another “corporatist” Democrat-Chuck Schumer.
And you know what? BRING HIM ON TOO. Just this past week, his corporate focus helped bring us $15M increased funding to ARPA-E, despite the fact that Trump slated the clean energy research agency for total elimination. What might have driven “corporatist” Schumer? Saving a corporate interest in Long Island called Brookhaven that depends on ARPA-E funding. 3000 home town jobs. In clean energy technology. BRING IT.
Bring on powerful people wielding power in the right direction.
We must speak up and out. Expertise, knowledge, and power are important. The left must stop shunning power and must stop demanding purity. We have a rapacious GOP to stop and we have Democrats who broker deals, bring diverse interests to the table and will be moved by our political will, if only we demonstrate that we will sit at the negotiation table rather than simply destroy that table.
The Schumers and the Cuomos of the world are not people I want to have over to dinner. But if they go wreak on the rest of the nation the terror of emissions cuts, fracking bans, free college tuition, and jobs in clean energy technology that they have wrought on New Yorkers, I say BRING IT.
