Was America ever great?

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder poses the question: “Exactly when did you think America was great?”

He competes with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as Cuomo once told us: “We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great.”

Let’s review that question. But first, let’s admit these politicians are simply trying to dilute the impact of “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), because President Trump wields that slogan at the moment (Presidents Clinton and Reagan did before.)

Holder tells us Trump’s supporters yearn for the 1800s — when African-Americans and women could not own property or vote. That seems a stretch to me. But, hey, you can say anything in politics.

Cuomo says MAGA ignores the pain people endured in our past. He points to the eras of slavery, discrimination, segregation, and sexism. He is right that these were painful times for millions.

But all great questions have at least two sides. Was America great when it allowed slavery? Of course not. Was it great when it ended it? And then engaged in civil war over the issue? Yes.

Was America great when it allowed decades of vicious discrimination against African-Americans. Of course not. Was it great when it tackled the discrimination head on? When it did battle to end segregation? When it forged civil rights legislation? Yes, that seems like a period of greatness for the country.

Was America up to great things when Washington attacked the devastation of the Great Depression? When government threw measure after measure against this monster? Yes, I think it was a great and noble effort.

Was the country great when it created our Social Security system? It seems so to me.

Was America great when it welcomed millions of immigrants over many years? When it spent millions to help them assimilate?

Was America great when it sent its young men and women to Europe to help conquer the Nazis? To free the French, Dutch, Belgians? To rescue the British from Hitler’s threats? We did not have to do this. That we did was in many ways great. 

Was America great to create the G.I. Bill — to reward its soldiers and their families? Was it great to help rescue post-war Europeans from despair with the Marshall Plan?

Was it a great epoch in our history to leave soldiers in Europe after WWII? To protect Europeans from invasion by the ravenous USSR?

Was America great to lead the way in forming the UN? And NATO? Was it great to try to keep Cuba from poisoning the Caribbean and Latin America with more communism? Many feel it was. Count me among them.

Was it great of America to wage the Cold War against the oppression of international communism? I hate to imagine how many people would live under the despicable rule of communists today. Had America not been willing to fight them on various fronts.

Was America great to help Israel from its founding to today? Given the world’s history of butchering Jews, I would say yes. This is a morally great effort.

Was America ever great? Is the proverbial glass half-empty or half-full? What lenses are best to peer through, to view this country’s history? Which end of the telescope should we press our eye to? To evaluate America?

Dale Carnegie wrote “Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars.”

They are both out there. We can be aware of both but favor the stars. Or we can focus most of our attention on the mud.

It is your choice. As for me, I’ve always loved stars.

From Tom…as in Morgan.         

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.

Sometimes being an elected official can be challenging because you are forced to make difficult decisions. At times, I have had to vote on legislation that if enacted would have both a positive and negative effect on my district and the constituents I represent. In the past, voting on the state budget often created this dilemma because different policies frequently were included in a single budget bill. For example, school-aid increases were often placed in a revenue bill that increased taxes. This year’s state budget, however, created no such dilemma for me. It was, for the most part, awful and therefore an easy no vote.

The $175 billion state budget that was passed early in the morning of April 1 could appropriately be described as the NYC/Cuomo budget because all of the major initiatives contained in the budget were the priorities of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Democrats. Not only did it contain questionable policy initiatives, this year’s budget also continues New York’s long tradition of taxing and spending — the same policy that has caused millions of people to move out of our state over the last decade. On top of all that, there was little to nothing in the budget for upstate New York.

Gov. Cuomo calls this year’s budget the most liberal budget he’s done. Few, with the exception of the recently-elected self-described Socialist, would disagree. First, this budget includes $1.2 billion in taxes that will increase to $4.4 billion by 2020. These taxes are broad-based and include additional sales tax on internet sales, an increase of the auto-rental tax, a tax on vapor products, and the extension of the millionaire’s tax among others. While these taxes are substantial, they pale in comparison to the fees that will be imposed to bail-out the NYC transportation authority, a subsidiary of the MTA. While not necessarily directly affecting Upstate, the governor successfully advocated for NYC congestion pricing in the budget which would impose a toll on any person who drives into Manhattan below 61st Street. While the amount of the fee is currently unknown, the congestion pricing plan will need to raise enough revenue to fund $15 billion for MTA capital projects.

The budget also included other policies that have been championed by Cuomo and NYC liberals such as: expanding the state’s tuition assistance program, otherwise known as TAP, to illegal immigrants; implementing a ban on single-use plastic bags and allowing counties and cities to opt into a 5-cent fee on paper bags; laying the groundwork for public campaign financing; and, mandating that all workers get three hours of paid time off to vote on Election Day. The Governor and his allies in the legislature also included a number of so-called criminal-justice reforms in this year’s budget which might prove the most dangerous of all the policies included in this year’s budget.

 While this budget will be remembered for what is in it, we also must recognize what was left out — and unfortunately what was left out were policy priorities for upstate New York. This year’s budget cut Aid and Incentives for Municipalities by $59 million and instead mandated counties to restore that funding; provides no year-to-year library aid increase; offers no broad-based mandate relief; provides no base increase to the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program and also cuts the Extreme Winter Recovery program by $65 million; provides no tax cuts for small businesses; and fails to offer any additional oversight of our state economic-development programs. 

Opening the budget process up so that lawmakers from Upstate could have made their case for these programs may have resulted in a better budget for Upstate but the 3-people-in-a-room rule prevailed and all 3 had NYC interests in mind. My colleagues and I will continue to press back and remind them that there are more than 8 million New Yorkers north and west of Westchester County and that we deserve better.         

William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us or (315) 598-5185.