Two authors, two crises

In 2020, Andrew Cuomo penned “American Crisis,” on his handling of an ongoing pandemic. In 1776, Thomas Paine began his pamphlets, “The American Crisis,” urging the American Revolution. Compare and contrast. Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

Cuomo: “When the pressure is on, you really get to see what people are made of.”

Paine: “Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better...However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves.”

Cuomo: “In retrospect, I wonder if I could have accomplished achieving credibility with the public and getting them to understand the need to close down even faster than 19 days...I believe I moved as quickly as I believed and felt I could...but it is impossible to know.”

Paine: “When any necessity or occasion has pointed out the convenience of addressing the public, I have never made it a consideration whether the subject was popular or unpopular, whether it was right or wrong; for that which is right will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by mistake it may obtain the cry of fashion of the day, will soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem.”

Cuomo: “It is a difficult balance to do the right thing rather than the popular thing when your position is dependent on support of the people.”

As Cuomo’s father once said, you govern in prose.