There are a few routes to success as a politician. Sadly, most of them crowd out the people who might make the best politicians. Andrew Cuomo represents a good example of one archetype. He is not the worst leader the world has ever seen, but he has flaws common to that archetype, and these have recently been cruelly exposed.
It is not easy to succeed at politics, whether local or national, large or small, democratic or autocratic. Even those who succeed struggle to sustain that success. Enoch Powell, a classic example of a different archetype, is credited with quipping that all political careers end in failure.
To understand why success is tough to achieve and usually ephemeral, we need to try to understand personalities and systems. To even want to be a politician requires an unusual personality type. It needs supreme self-confidence, resilient against constant attack. It needs some vision, a platform that can carry a message that will inspire followers. It requires the ability to lead a team, involving detailed planning, coaching, courage and much besides. And it needs some charisma to convey a message of content and of trust.
In most societies, success requires lots of other things as well, factors which narrow down the list of candidates and eliminate most of the potential talent. In the USA especially, it requires vast sums of money. Donors are needed to build and sustain name recognition, and investments of time and money are needed that are beyond ordinary people. Once a reputation has been established, the investment of time does not go away but it does become possible to become rich – which provides its own pitfalls.
Another prerequisite is often the head start from a network or position. It helps to have royal blood or a title or a father who is an army general or a business titan or a gang leader, or a bit of luck gaining exposure on a talent show or other media outlet – itself often far from a meritocratic process. In more traditional societies, nearly all opportunity is inherited. In the west, we scoff at the “big man” of Africa or the nomenklatura of Russia, but the leaders of our own countries often have rather similar profiles.
Andrew Cuomo ticks nearly all of the boxes to have a chance of success. Most important, he is the son of a successful politician. His dad was governor of New York State from 1983-1994. This gave Andrew an enormous head start. Name recognition was handed on a plate, and so were a huge bank account and a massive list of potential donors and operatives. Whereas most newcomers need a vision that explodes into public consciousness, Andrew’s could evolve from a satisfactory starting point of continuing the legacy of Dad.
Growing up in a political family offered other benefits too. Some of the personality traits, like the salesman’s knack of being able to recover from being knocked down, might be inherited or developed during childhood or simply copied. Watching how Dad coped with adversity will have developed resilience in the son. Sadly, the less salubrious aspects of the paternal template will have been transferred as well.
In recent months, the Cuomo template has been laid bare, good and bad. On the plus side, his communication skills early in the pandemic were outstanding and truly valuable. In contrast to Trump, his measured daily news conferences became required viewing and a source of comfort. It was clear he was using his influence to prioritise and to marshal resources. His compassion was authentic, and his work rate exemplary. He kept a clear focus even when provoked and showed considerable courage.
But the cautionary tale was waiting in the wings to bite him. The classic politician has a personality type that exudes hubris, and Andrew Cuomo chose to cash in on his celebrity by writing a hubristic book. He did it while the pandemic was far from defeated, and the need for a tidy story led him to spin his questionable decisions regarding nursing homes.
In reality, Cuomo was probably between a rock and a hard place when it came to nursing homes. It was only a year ago, but we forget how deep were the ignorance and panic when the pandemic struck New York so brutally. The hospitals could not cope, and patients who seemed to have recovered had to be sent somewhere. It was hard to see any other solution than to send them back to their nursing homes, and trust that their contagion had reduced and that the homes were able to quarantine these people satisfactorily. It was a risk, but what else could he do?
The problem was not the decision but the book. The book needed a tidy story, so the figures were massaged. And this left Cuomo open to attack should his popularity wane.
What is now obvious was that many people were waiting for a chance to attack a vulnerable Cuomo. His leadership style has been one of bullying. He has managed the message and ruthlessly supressed opposition. He has built his own brand by appealing directly to the people and then exploited it by forcing others into subservience to him or to risk attack. He has cultivated key elements of the press, trade unions, donors and other interest groups. Power comes above all else.
His current personal crisis was catalysed by revelations of another vulnerability, when many women have come forward accusing him of making them uncomfortable. In the age of “me too”, this is toxic for a Democrat.
So we have seen a familiar pattern for people of his style. He rides triumphantly on a seemingly smooth sea, until the sea is revealed to be anything but smooth underneath. One point of vulnerability quickly becomes a storm. Past bullying catches up with him as everybody can’t wait to pile in.
Now he faces enquiries from a torrent of accusations by women, a review of his potential cover up of the nursing home scandal, and other abuses of power, cheered on by De Blasio, Kim and others who have suffered bullying over the years.
But there is another takeaway, one that suggests that it is too soon to write Cuomo off. People with his skillset fight ruthlessly to the end using all means at their disposal. Favours are called in, procedural tricks are utilised. It helps that he has carefully failed to cultivate any successor, instead choosing tame surrogates as deputies. He can point to enduring support among those in the electorate who have bought into his brand.
There are eerie similarities with another brilliant but ruthless politician from another part of the world, Bibi Netanyahu. The personality types are similar. The Netanyahu story is further advanced than the Cuomo one, and might provide good clues as to how the Cuomo one might develop. Bibi is still standing after facing years of constant attack and many apparently damning revelations. Do not count out either man yet.
Supporters of both men would argue that we should accept the good with the bad when it comes to this sort of leader. The same bullying and bending of the rules and brand building and courage can be a recipe to really get things done, especially in crises. Netanyahu can rightly be proud of his country’s vaccination record. Distasteful as it is to many of us, he has also advanced the narrow political interests of his base. Cuomo has also achieved a lot for New York.
Personally I don’t buy that version of events. I like to believe that there are routes to success that include more integrity. If we had a politics that was not stacked against talent, we could hope for more role models of talent with integrity.
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