NY Governor Andrew Cuomo: “Suppose they gave a war and nobody came”
On April 13 there would be a lopsided back and forth between President Trump and NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. It’d revolve around who was the master of states’ respective domains, the President or each respective Governor? Trump would declare his powers as being absolute and Cuomo would liken these sentiments as ones emanating from a king figure.
On that same day, the Governors of NY, RI, PA, CT, MA, NJ & DE would announce the creation of a partnership between these states aimed at the future reopening of their economies. On the west coast, CA, WA and OR would announce a similar plan. It’s a worthy argument to state, that these actions by these Governors might’ve very well driven the president a bit over the proverbial edge.
On April 14, the following words would be uttered by New York’s Governor:
“” I was thinking after the President made his comments and looking at some of the remarks and looking at the tweets, reminded me of a poster I saw when I was in grade school. Saint Gerard Majella, Queens, New York, Catholic school – red blazer, gray pants, white shirt, little clip on tie…but. I was in grade school and there was that poster, that came from a Sandburg poem, I think. “Suppose they gave a war and nobody came,” and I was looking at the poster and I didn’t really get it, because even then I was very literal. “Suppose they gave a war and nobody came.” So, I’m looking at the poster and a priest came up behind me and said, “What’s wrong, Andrew?” I said, “I don’t understand that. Suppose they gave a war and nobody came. How could that happen? Then you wouldn’t have a war.” He said, “Well, that’s the point. The point is, what would happen if people just refused to engage? They just refused to fight.” I still didn’t get it, because and he said, “You know, sometimes it’s better to walk away from a fight than engage it. Sometimes it takes more strength, frankly, to walk away from a fight than engage it.” “”
Later in the day, President Trump would state, “I will be authorizing each individual governor, of each individual state, to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state in a time and a manner as most appropriate.”
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Prior to his statement, as outlined above, the Governor would discuss the nation’s founding fathers and the ideas on which our country is founded upon.
“The federal-state relationship is central to our democracy. This has been a topic discussed since our founding fathers first decided to embark on this entire venture, right. This is basic federalism, the role of the states and the role of the federal government. And it is important that we get this right. Our founding fathers understood, and we have to remember today that the balance between the state and the federal, that magnificent balance that is articulated in the constitution is the essence of our democracy. We don’t have a king in this country. We didn’t want a king. So we have a constitution and we elect a president. The states, the colonies, formed the federal government. The federal government did not form the states. It’s the colonies that ceded certain responsibility to a federal government. All other power remains with the states, it’s basic to our constitution and that federal-state relationship.”
“Hamilton, who in many ways was representative of this discussion of the balance of power. State governments possess inherent advantages which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy, ascendancy, a beautiful word, over the national government and will forever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments on the states, that their liberties indeed can be subverted by the federal head is repugnant is repugnant to every rule of political calculation. Strong language, but that was the permits. So, there are laws, and there are facts even in this wild political environment.”