Video: Cuomo delivers his Keynote Address to the 1984 Democratic National Convention
Iconic three term New York Governor, Mario Cuomo died Thursday at the age of 82 years-old. The Democratic leader, known for his liberal views shined in the spotlight when he delivered his keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention.
Although he was governor for 12 years, Cuomo never ran for president. The media asked why Cuomo never decided to run. He told reporters, “I said I didn’t want to run for presiden. I didn’t ask you to believe me.”
Today, Cuomo’s son, Andrew Cuomo, is the 56th and current New York Governor. He said in his inaugural speech, “My father is in this room. He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here.”
Mario Cuomo’s passionate speeches made a mark throughout political history. In the 1984 Democratic Convention he said,
“Mr. President, this is a nation — Mr. President you ought to know that this nation is more a “Tale of Two Cities” than it is just a “Shining City on a Hill.”
Maybe, maybe, Mr. President, if you visited some more places; maybe if you went to Appalachia where some people still live in sheds; maybe if you went to Lackawanna where thousands of unemployed steel workers wonder why we subsidized foreign steel. Maybe — Maybe, Mr. President, if you stopped in at a shelter in Chicago and spoke to the homeless there; maybe, Mr. President, if you asked a woman who had been denied the help she needed to feed her children because you said you needed the money for a tax break for a millionaire or for a missile we couldn’t afford to use.
Maybe — Maybe, Mr. President. But I’m afraid not. Because the truth is, ladies and gentlemen, that this is how we were warned it would be. President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. “Government can’t do everything,” we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. Make the rich richer, and what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class.”
