Public Speaking 101

I’ve been musing over New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent (and highly publicized) comments about the Republican party:

Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives, who are right to life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that is who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York. Because that is not who New Yorkers are.

I’m a lifelong New Yorker, for better or worse. I was born here, and with the exception of a (wonderful) ten-year stint in Kentucky, I’ve lived here ever since. My impression of New York is that it’s a diverse place. My hometown was a two-college town, upstate but filled with the more cosmopolitan and cultural influences of the colleges and their largely downstate student population. My present home is in a larger city that also hosts a very good state university. It’s not the Bible Belt, that’s for sure. But neither is it a monolithic bastion of the liberal left.

I don’t identify myself in the terms of the governor’s remark. I don’t think of myself in political terms generally, and when I do I find that no issue-centric definitions fit me. The alternatives all seem too black and white. I’ve been investigating how to go about changing my party affiliation to Independent because there seems so little real difference between the two major parties anyway. Needless to say I don’t belong in Mr. Cuomo’s ideological camp either.

What I wonder is, how does a public servant reach the point of such baldly stated prejudice, such overbearingly prescriptive snobbery? Unfortunately there are plenty of politicians who cross the line between serving the public and thinking they own the country. It’s not theirs to alter and shape as they wish; it belongs to the people. All of us. Let’s hope that Mr. Cuomo’s remark is bold and revealing enough to spare us his influence on a national scale in the next presidential election.

With or without gubernatorial invitation, I would love to leave New York. But it’s not about the politics, which to a greater or lesser degree are the same everywhere. It’s that I’d love to live someplace with more than 52 sunny days in a year… Someplace without salt-blasted and pot-holed roads, long and colorless winters, and high taxes… Someplace that’s gaining rather than losing population and therefore offers more educational options for my children. That would be my dream. Mr. Cuomo’s self-revelation just adds fuel to the fire.