As November approaches, the excitement of campaigns rings through the air especially in the New York. Some of us ladies and gentlemen; trying to be inclusive have seen and fell in love with the ladies from the glamorous show "Sex In The City". Well, the show became political when Cynthia Nixon one of the central characters announces that she will be running for Governor of NY on March 19th, 2018 through an Ad on Twitter. Talk about the age of technology! In her two-minute announcement, Nixon focused on her long-term fight for better public education where she reminded voters that she along with her three children attended New York City public schools.
She also touched on the city's deteriorating subway system which is something that we, Fordham students deal with almost everyday living in New York City.
After her announcement, things started to heat up between Nixon and returning candidate Andrew Cuomo who has been governor of NY since 2011. Most noticeably, a new piece came out where she twisted a phrase that caught the media's attention.
Nixon said during her rebuttal to the annual Legislative Correspondents Association dinner, "Vote for the Homo, not Cuomo"! People were baffled at such a phrase. The interesting part is that this joke sprouted from the 1977 New York City mayoral race featuring a homophobic flyer attacking Ed Koch, the rival of Cuomo's father Mario. As many of us know, such a phrase would spark out roars in society going back 20 years. This would be damned for such direct attack on the LGBTQ community even though they did not have as much recognition in politics or society today. If we pick up a history textbook every now and then, we would learn that from the 50s and on, America was riddled with the fear of the "Red Scare" and conservatism taking over politics so this phrase would definitely raise questions.
However, in present-day America, this phrase by a candidate running for governor is taken with a grain of salt and was greeted with smiles rather than scrutiny as was Koch joke back in 1977. From the looks of this new headline, times have changed as to how we internalize certain phrases. There are going to be rejection towards Nixon's outburst but the fact that there has not been more robust action taken says a tremendous amount about how we have changed and adopted as a nation. Or maybe our politics have taken a turn where things can be said and no one cares enough to acknowledge it. I leave it up to you my fellow Rams, what is your input on the phrase "Vote for the Homo, not Cuomo"?
