It has been a couple of weeks since my last essay and I have a lot of catching up to do. However, in my opinion, the story of NY’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, is an important one to examine.

I will be the first to admit that a lot of unfortunate mistakes have been made in this past year’s handling of the COVID virus. This whole thing is a once-in-a-hundred years event and many decisions were made with incomplete and imperfect data. In a lot of cases even the experts were making it up as they went along and there is much room for forgiveness if wrong calls were made. I, myself, still have very mixed feelings about masks and things like restaurant closings. However, there is a wide difference between making a mistaken call and just plain criminal negligence. Unfortunately, a report from NY’s attorney general, liberal Democrat Letitia James, suggests that Cuomo is guilty of the later and that his incompetence cost lives.

AG James’ carefully worded 76-page report estimates that the actual number of COVID deaths in the state’s nursing homes was not the reported 8,700, but closer to 12,743 or nearly 50% higher. It clearly shows that Cuomo’s March 25th order directing nursing homes to accept residents who were known to have the coronavirus was foolish and disastrous. Further, Cuomo was warned of the danger and decided to ignore the warning.

Both in New York and New Jersey coronavirus deaths in nursing homes are around a staggering 12 percent. Compare that to Florida where the nursing home deaths were around 1.6 percent because Florida’s governor forbid nursing homes to accept patients with the virus.

What makes this even more sickening is that Governor Cuomo has been the recipient of media praise and even won a daytime Emmy for his daily, self-serving press conferences. He also wrote an equally self-serving book praising his own leadership throughout this pandemic. However, last summer, the New York Post was taken to task for having the audacity to question Cuomo’s leadership. And, as per the standard Democrat response, anything that went wrong couldn’t possibly be Cuomo’s fault. It had to be the fault of President Trump or Republicans. Then, Cuomo blocked any attempts to investigate his numbers.

Back on March 2, when the virus was tearing through New York State, Cuomo told New Yorkers not to be worried. To quote him: “The facts defeat fear,” or “The reality is reassuring,” or “It is deep breath time,” or “This is not our first rodeo.” He even said “We should relax because that’s what’s dictated by the reality of the situation.” Later in March, on the 29th, he warned “Coronavirus in a nursing home is like fire in dry grass.” Then he put the virus into nursing homes.

Governor Cuomo recently said “Incompetent government kills people indeed.” He has most certainly proven that. But, more than that, he is a clear example of what is wrong with the Democrats today: Make terrible decisions and then, when everything goes wrong and you are confronted with those decisions, deny you made them and blame others. Don’t recognize facts and never accept responsibility.

Sadly, Cuomo’s actions will probably cost him nothing and, tomorrow, he will probably continue along as before. But there is the problem with all government today. When President Nixon resigned he stood up and accepted responsibility for his own actions. Today, it is deflect and blame others and accept responsibility for nothing.

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