I was nearly 10 years old during the 1977 New York City mayoral election. Old enough to remember, but too young to really understand. All me and my friends knew that is that it was coming down to Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo, two city boys, one Jewish and one Italian.
“Did you hear?” my friend asked me?
“What?”
“There are posters that say Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo.”
We laughed at the rhyming ditty. We laughed at the word homo. We laughed because that’s what we’d learned growing up in 1970s America: laugh at fags. They’re ridiculous.
It wasn’t just a 10 year old’s version of an urban legend either. The posters were real. For the rest of his life, Cuomo denied having had any involvement or knowledge of the ugly, homophobic smear campaign.
Koch won despite the controversy, and went on to become a three-term mayor of New York. He would never get married, never publicly admit to being homosexual, and never forgive Cuomo for the slur.
Cuomo would bounce back, however. During the height of Reagan Conservativism, he built a successful political career as an avowed Liberal. Instead of a bigot, he would come to be seen as one of the nation’s most eloquent voices defending the poor, minorities, and those who seemed to be on the outside looking in at the booming but uneven economy of the Go-Go 1980s
After a stint as Lieutenant Governor, Cuomo served as New York state Governor for 12 years, beginning in 1982, when he won the first of three elections by massive margins.
As governor, Cuomo helped redefine 1980s Liberalism. While bringing in elements of centrism, he also stood firm on certain ideals. For example, despite widespread popularity for the death penalty, he repeatedly vetoed bills by the New York state legislature calling for its implementation.
But perhaps Cuomo’s defining moment came not in what he did, but what he did not do.
In 1992, Cuomo was at his peak of national popularity. He had established himself as a national figure as early as 1984 when he delivered a scintillating speech at the Democratic National Convention. By 1992, Cuomo was in the midst of his third gubernatorial ter
m, and national polls declared him a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
But there was a major obstacle. President George H.W. Bush was rounding out his first term in the White House and he seemed nearly invincible. Riding the tide of jingoism surrounding the first Gulf War, Bush’s approval ratings were at record highs early that year.
Cuomo hemmed and hawed, earning the nickname “Hamlet on the Hudson.” Eventually, he declined to run, leaving the Democratic field wide open.
Soon thereafter, the national economy tanked and Bush’s numbers began to slide. Then billionaire Texan Ross Perot entered the race as an independent, siphoning off Republican voters and leaving Bush increasingly vulnerable.
The last man standing for the Democrats was none other than Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Much to the surprise of many observers, including Clinton himself, he managed to gain the party’s nomination.
Assuming Bush would be elected, Clinton had actually had his eye on the 1996 election, when there would presumably be no incumbent to run against; 1992 was supposed to be a dry run for Clinton, a practice campaign to train for ’96.
But once Cuomo was out, it was anyone’s game, and Clinton pulled it off. First he squeezed through the crowded Democratic field. Then he slipped by a fading Bush and erratic Perot, winning a majority of the electoral vote despite reaping only 43% of the popular vote.
Clinton of course was not a Liberal. He was a center-right politician who pulled his party right of center, where it has remained ever since. In so doing, he set the pattern that Barack Obama has followed: Con your Liberal base into thinking you’re center-left in order to get the nomination, then scramble back to center-right once you’re in office.
If Mario Cuomo, who died yesterday at the age of 82, had not dropped out at the last minute, and instead chosen to run 1992, there is a good chance he would have won the Democratic presidential nomination. Given the way things played out with the economy and Perot, he also might very well have won the presidency; any Democratic candidate would have been in a strong position.
Imagine that. A legitimate Liberal in the White House. The only one since Lyndon Johnson was elected just over half-a-century ago.
If it had been Cuomo instead of Clinton, things might be very different. We might live in a country where liberal and government aren’t dirty words. We might have a national political landscape with choices beyond center-right and far right. And a nation where people who think the likes of Clinton and Obama are somehow “left” would be rightly mocked for their ignorance and näiveté.
Maybe things would be different if Mario Cuomo had run in 1992. But then again, maybe they’d also be different if he or his people hadn’t put up those posters in 1977.
One never knows what kind of justice the universe metes out.