The Post-Journal

Two Guys From Queens

Jun 21, 2025

Rolland Kidder 

There must be something in the water in Queens for it seems that, as to politicians, that Borough of New York City produces a certain breed of them.

Two that come to mind are Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump. Though neither now live in Queens, this is the place where they “cut their eye teeth” when it came to business and politics.

Having spent a few years in Albany (now many years ago,) I had a “bird’s eye view” of politicians from across the state. Queens was known then as a scrappy place where people grew up battling, in one form or another, for everything from political turf to business advantage.

Life there seemed to be right out of Darwin, where competition was rampant and only the strong survived. And… survive they have!

Donald Trump won the Presidency and then lost it, and then regained it again, despite some sexual improprieties that in court judgments have cost him a lot of money. Andrew Cuomo won the Governorship of New York only to lose it in a sexual harassment scandal (which he has never admitted to,) and now seems poised to re-enter politics as Mayor of the City of New York as front-runner in the primary election being held there next week.

I guess that you could describe the political style of these two men as “in your face politics.” Always be on the offensive, keep changing the narrative, keep your name in the headlines, never admit guilt or wrongdoing, and you will ultimately be rewarded with success.

What they also seem to have in common is a “top down” approach to governing. They both act as though they are smarter than everyone else in the room, and they will tell you how things are going to go down. They are also known for making promises that are hollow and unfulfilled.

When running for Governor, Andrew Cuomo promised to appoint a special Task Force on Natural Gas Drilling in the Southern Tier and abide by their recommendation. Once elected, he called his then brother-in-law, Bobby Kennedy Jr., about the issue. Kennedy was anti-fracking and anti-natural gas–so Cuomo ignored his promise and his commission’s recommendation and shut down natural gas drilling in the state. That moratorium is still in effect though millions in the state depend upon natural gas to heat their homes.

Similarly, Donald Trump promised that he could solve the Ukraine/Russian War in 24 hours if elected President. He made a similar promise that he would solve Israel’s war with Gaza. Both promises are still unfulfilled.

Promises are made not to be kept, but to win elections. That all comes from the hard-scrabble lessons learned in Queens.

It is interesting how politics seems to have been “turned on its head” now as one former Governor of New York from Queens is poised to be elected Mayor of the City of New York, primarily because it is expected that he will be the strongest and toughest in challenging another man from Queens who sits again in the Oval Office.

Yet, it could be that these two guys will get along. Their style of governing is the same, and they have a common bond with Bobby Kennedy Jr. who is now in the cabinet.

However, it works out between Cuomo and Trump…the Borough of Queens should be a winner.

                                             The Post-Journal

Are We A Government Of One?

                                                            May 31, 2025

 

Rolland Kidder 

To be honest, I have been dismayed recently by the actions of both political parties in what I would call a surrendering of our country to a “government of one.”

Starting first with the Democrats, it is clear that in deference to the desires of a former President–they deferred into looking more closely at the ability of Joe Biden to run again for that office.

It is now clear that there were many warning signs prior to Biden’s failed debate performance last June, and that he should not have been the presumptive Democratic nominee for President. Because of the power of the Presidency, Democrats in high places essentially “rolled over,” hoped for the best, and didn’t act until it was too late.

They erred in so doing, and more viable candidates for the highest office in the land were thus thwarted in seeking that office. To put it bluntly, one of our major political parties failed the country. The power of the Presidency, the power of one — overpowered the traditional political process of the Democratic Party.

Now, we are compounding the problem by what seems to be the virtual abandonment of the Republican Party in opposing in any way the current President. Members of Congress, when President Trump says “Jump!”–they respond, “How high?!”

There appears to be little or no backbone in the Republican Congress when it comes to proposals from the White House. It can be 145% tariffs today, and 30% tariffs tomorrow. It can be taking a gift of half a billion dollars from a sheikh in Arabia so that our President can have a plush airplane with a gilded interior, or have him telling American Universities that they must parrot the messaging of the federal government or be shut down.

Whatever comes out of the White House now is apparently infallible, and the law of the land is to be set by executive decree.

However you look at it, I see in all of this a demeaning of our constitutional government. The Constitution was written to give the congress, the executive and the courts equal jurisdiction over our affairs as a nation. If any branch of the government was to have a leading role, it was to have been the congress through the power of the purse strings.

Now we stand in awe, apparently as helpless as sheep, while in the dead of night the House of Representatives rubber stamps the White House by ripping down a great part of the government previously created by other Republican and Democratic administrations to pay for unneeded tax cuts accelerating the deficit. All put altogether in a “one big Beautiful Bill!”–whatever that means.

I doubt that many members of Congress even knew what was in it. It was too much for at least one Republican member of the House from Long Island who fell asleep that night somewhere in halls of Congress and didn’t wake up for this monumental vote.

It seems that maybe the whole country is asleep. When will this end? It has taken over 200 years, through fits and starts, successes and failures, but, for the most part, with good intentions, to build this country making it the leader of the free world.

Now we seem to be giving it all up to be ruled by a government of one. We shouldn’t be going down this road. This is not what made America great.