Mario is back. Sort of.
Two years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo — son of the great liberal who soared to fame a generation ago with a poetic rebuke of the nation's blindness to the plight of the poor — delivered a State of the State speech that could have come from the lips of Ronald Reagan.
Cuomo had just assumed office, and his first major speech was a cold and bloodless one. He may have sounded remarkably like Mario in timbre and cadence, but in his necessary plan to close a $10 billion budget deficit, Cuomo did nothing less than break faith with his father.
In 2011, the son waxed passionately about cutting taxes for the wealthiest New Yorkers and their businesses, but not about the people who, in his father's words "sleep ... in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show." The words poor and poverty did not fall from his lips.
But that was then, as they say, and now is now. And for whatever reason — be it presidential ambition or a bona fide belief that "it is the need of the time," as he said during the rousing conclusion of his call to make New York the "progressive capital of the nation" — Andrew Cuomo found his father's voice.
"Andrew has come all the way home," said Conservative Party boss Mike Long, who had lauded Cuomo in 2011 for some of his hard nose prognoses and prescriptions but seemed a bit dyspeptic on Wednesday. "This was a speech Mario Cuomo could have given."
Close, but not quite. Whether it's "Mario enough" to placate the liberals who dominate Democratic presidential primaries, or whether the state has the resources to realize his entire vision, this is the "pragmatic progressive" case that Cuomo seemed to be making:
That you can't have a truly robust economy if you don't do something about the increasing number of people and places that aren't able to participate — and worse, are a drag on everything else.
It's not as if Cuomo hasn't pursued a progressive agenda, at least selectively. He eventually reversed course and pushed Republicans into raising income taxes on millionaires. He kept his promise to win approval for gay marriage. He prodded lawmakers to take an historic step forward to drain the ethical swamp that had helped create the nation's most dysfunctional state government. Now, it is anything but that — even if Cuomo needs to do even more to rein in corruption.
Cuomo didn't seem to lose touch with fiscal reality and economic imperative. His speech still was laced with exhortations to help businesses and other taxpayers save money by streamlining services and stoking competition. He also talked much about economic development, especially in bringing together academia and business to attract investment and create marketable products here instead of in other states.
But beyond the focus on gun control that received the most attention, Cuomo made the critical connection, often lost in the shouting that passes for debate between the left and right, between social equity, environmental stewardship and economic growth. These are the "three E's" of sustainability, the pillars of building a fully successful community. This is not the traditional liberal rationale for "doing good."
Yes, using words like right and wrong, Cuomo drew on his "inner Mario" to make the moral argument for not jailing more and more black and Hispanic young men on minor drug charges; for focusing funds on the poorest and poorest performing schools; for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, or $14,600 a year, in a state where average child care costs alone top $10,000; for toughening laws meant to prevent gender, racial and other forms of discrimination; for dealing with global warming that may have contributed to the destructive force of Superstorm Sandy; for spending $1 billion more on affordable housing.
But more significantly, and more pragmatically, Cuomo pointed out that every one of these social failings have serious economic consequences. Helping women and minorities to reach their full potential as students and employees promises better things for their families, communities and potential employers. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in New York, whatever impact it may have on the ferocity of the next storm, will improve the chances of developing industries based on green technology, some of it being advanced at institutions that taxpayers already are funding.
Why not, Cuomo asked, sounding more like a venture capitalist than a social crusader, increase our return on investments we are and should be making?
Whatever his motives, Cuomo understands that we need to spend and tax, but to do so more wisely to satisfy the skeptical middle of the state and nation's electorate who are interested less in ideology than ideas that work. What matters is whether he can make everyone and every place in this state more productive, regardless of their race, gender, neighborhood and local leadership, or lack of it.
If Cuomo uses his immense clout to do that, blending the idealism of his father with his own pragmatism, he'll get a lot of votes wherever and whenever he runs.
Lawrence C. Levy is executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. His email address is lawrence.levy@hofstra.edu.