Gaslighting until the bitter end

When I was a little boy, one of the big treats in the summertime was your parents piling everyone into the family station wagon and driving up Route 9 to a place called Gaslight Village.

It was a small amusement park right near Lake George that featured rides and games. The signature piece of the village, however, was an old vaudeville-style opera house where live shows were performed.

Gaslight Village closed in 1989, but if they ever decided to resurrect the place, there’s no question Andrew Cuomo should be appointed mayor. Why? Because, even as everyone and I mean everyone abandoned his ship and called for its sinking, Cuomo was “gaslighting” until the bitter end.

Now, some of you might not be familiar with that term, gaslighting. I must admit, when it started being bandied about a few years ago, I myself had to look up the definition. “Gaslighting” is when a person talks to you as if the things you know are real are not. For example, I pick up a rock and deliberately hit you with it. When you protest what I just did, I tell you that you’re mistaken and that while I did throw a rock, it was you who ran into it.

A timelier example might be a governor putting his hands on a multitude of women and then telling them either; a) I didn’t do it or b) I did do it, but you took my hands being on your body the wrong way. See? He didn’t do anything wrong. It’s you. You’re nuts. That’s textbook gaslighting.

I was at the gym on Tuesday morning when the governor decided to quit his job. I was stunned, knowing what he was about to do, he still sent his high-priced lawyer out in front of the cameras first to claim it was all a set-up. What struck me with her, was she said both the highly respected lawyers who investigated Cuomo had an ax to grind. I thought, “Gosh, if that were true, why didn’t you tell us about it back in March when the governor begged the attorney general to investigate him, and she announced her team?”

The answer is obvious. Both lawyers are quality people, and it didn’t serve them back in March to trash them.

When the lawyer was finished with her, “you should have ignored the 11 victims and listened to other people who like the governor” defense, Andrew Cuomo did it again. Blaming the victims and his age and politics, being Italian, his parents and he even found a way to toss Chuck Schumer in there (something I’m sure old Chuck appreciated). Gaslighting away with a message that was as simple as this — “Yes I did it but that’s not me so in reality I didn’t do it.”

Yes, you did. You did do it. The very sexual harassment law you passed, the training which all of us at our jobs are required to take, makes it clear that you did it. If you put your hands, mouth or whatever on another person and they don’t like it, that’s sexual harassment. Period, end of story.

It was fascinating watching the faces at the gym watch him do this song and dance. Then, when he finally said he was leaving, audible cheers.

So, what now?

For starters, if he committed a crime that should be dealt with. Quitting his job should not be a get out of jail free card. Second, every single person working in that executive chamber who enabled, covered up and helped this man harass young women, should be held accountable. How do you do that? Unemployment is the first thing that comes to mind. I also think it is very fair for future employers to weigh very heavily the past actions of those individuals when considering them for an open position.

Too harsh?

They helped a man with unlimited power, harass innocent young women. If the victims dared to raise an objection to being objectified, these trolls on state payroll slung dirt to discredit them. Think about that. Open your mouth and complain that the boss put his hands on you, and we will destroy you.

Yeah, I’d think twice before hiring Melissa, Rich and the gang from the second floor on Eagle Street.

I take no joy in writing this column today.

It stinks what happened down there and I blame myself and the rest of the media for playing our small part in it. Heaping praise on a politician because of his slide show during a pandemic, while not pressing him on the book deal and death toll and the rest of it. Yeah, the media helped raise this man on top of that pedestal he just toppled from.

So, we get Governor Kathy

Hochul. Good. Of all the things we have to worry about in this world, her playing grab-ass with the staff is probably not among them. I can only wonder how many women in their twenties and thirties who work at the capitol building breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday when the Mayor of Gaslight Village announced he was leaving?

My money says, more than a few.