James Hohmann, a member of the Washington Post’s brigade of anti-Trump reporters but far from the most unbalanced one, takes up the question of how liberals could have been so blind about Andrew Cuomo. Why, for example, did Ellen DeGeneres call herself a “Cuomosexual” and why did Chelsea Handler write a “love letter” to Cuomo for Vogue?
Hohmann’s answer is basically this: Liberals hate Donald Trump and were desperate to find a hero they could rally behind as an anti-Trump. That’s why they found so much to like, not just in Cuomo but also in Michael Avanetti, arguably an even more, um, problematic character.
I agree with Hohmann’s answer. However, it bothers me that he seems okay with it. He treats the Cuomo worship produced by the Trump hating as a normal manifestation of “human nature.”
It’s okay to hate Trump or any other president. But it’s neither okay nor normal when that hatred leads to infatuation with a guy who, as Hohmann acknowledges, was known to be sending super-spreaders of a deadly virus into nursing homes, thereby causing thousands of deaths.
Anyone who took his or her hatred of Trump that far should be considered discredited for all time. The shockingly misguided hero worship of Cuomo cannot be written off as “human nature.”
Hohmann concludes his article as follows:
This era of toppled statues and self-toppled leaders is full of reminders that people who are popular today might become toxic tomorrow. Even as we understand that these tragedies are common, we will continue to pine for heroic narratives.
Maybe. But it’s scandalous that such pining led to creating a heroic narrative for Andrew Cuomo even as New Yorkers were dying in large numbers thanks in part to his irrational policy on nursing homes.
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