The Problem Isn’t Just Cuomo, It’s the System That Made Him – By Natasha Lennard (The Intercept) / Aug 4 2021
Patriarchal violence in New York politics and beyond will not come to an end with the removal of a small number of predatory perpetrators, however powerful.
NEW YORK GOV. ANDREW CUOMO should have resigned or been removed from his position months ago. This much is obvious. It should have been sufficient that the governor oversaw a cover-up of thousands of pandemic deaths in New York nursing homes — deaths for which he bears major responsibility. Yet even when revelations of the nursing homes scandal coincided with reports from three women accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment in March, only a small cadre of New York’s most left-wing Democrats called for the governor’s impeachment.
The release on Tuesday of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ damning 165-page report, which offers substantive evidence that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women, appeared to mark a turning point. While the governor himself continues to deploy a vile mix of denial, manipulation, and pitiful cultural stereotyping to dismiss the serious and abundant claims against him, the vast majority of the Democratic establishment is calling for Cuomo to resign — including his longtime ally President Joe Biden, who was himself accused of sexual assault last year
Whether Cuomo’s seemingly inevitable and long overdue downfall will signal a broader turning point for Democratic politics remains to be seen. It should. If we want the political stage exorcised of figures like Cuomo, who are able to enact patriarchal abuse and quotidian cruelty with impunity for decades, while overseeing systems of racist and gender-based oppression, we must reject not only this governor but the entire politics of power that he represents: oppressive hierarchy, harsh austerity, and top-down control.
It’s imperative that Cuomo be held accountable for his personal violations, as should be the top-level staffers who, according to James’s report, helped maintain a culture of fear and intimidation in the administration. Yet patriarchal violence in New York politics and beyond will not come to an end with the removal of a small number of predatory perpetrators, however powerful. The downfall of prominent abusive patriarchs is crucial but insufficient to rupture the systems that allow sexual violence and patriarchal abuse to perpetuate on an endemic scale.
CONTINUE > https://theintercept.com/2021/08/04/andrew-cuomo-sexual-harassment/
