The original "Two Americas" Speech. Mario Cuomo on Reagan

[Tom Rinaldo]

John Edwards very effectively drives home the point about economic inequities in America today with his trade mark "There are Two Americas" Speech, but in honor of "All Reagan, All the time week", I thought this would be an apt time to remember Mario Cuomo's "Tale of Two Cities" keynote address to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, where he contrasted Reagan's "Shining City on the hill" with the other darker American city, where children still lived in poverty.

Here is part of that speech, along with a link to the full transcript and an audio of it:

"Ten days ago, President Reagan admitted that although some people in this country seemed to be doing well nowadays, others were unhappy, even worried, about themselves, their families and their futures. The president said that he didn't understand that fear. He said, "Why, this country is a shining city on a hill." And the president is right. In many ways we are a shining city on a hill.

But the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city's splendor and glory. A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there's another city; there's another part to the shining the city; the part where some people can't pay their mortgages, and most young people can't afford one, where students can't afford the education they need, and middle-class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate.

In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it. Even worse: There are elderly people who tremble in the basements of the houses there. And there are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show. There are ghettos where thousands of young people, without a job or an education, give their lives away to drug dealers every day. There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city.

In fact, Mr. President, this is a nation --. Mr. President you ought to know that this nation is more a "Tale of Two Cities" than it is just a "Shining City on a Hill."

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/cuomo1984dnc.htm

[PAMod]

1. I was 17 when he made that speech, about to vote in my first election

Cuomo's words reaffirmed in my mind that I was a Democrat, even when all around me were growing more and more conservative.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. It was a great moment

And it was among a handful of truly great political speeches that I have ever listened to. I felt very proud to be a Democrat that night. Twenty years later and it seems like little has changed, though the basic speech itself works better delivered with a Southern rather than New York accent in todays political reality.

[kcwayne]

3. How prescient Mario was

The man who believes that trees pollute the environment, the man that believes that the laws against discrimination against people go too far. The man who threatens Social Security and Medicaid and help for the disabled. How high will we pile the missiles? How much deeper will the gulf be between us and our enemies? And, ladies and gentlemen, will four years more make meaner the spirit of the American people?

Mario predicted the freepers and Bush II. The proof is now clear, the extension of those policies did make the spirit of the American people meaner, much, much meaner.

[I thought so.]

4. My Republican father...

was impressed then. Thats where rhetoric gets you. He still voted Reagan. Speeches don't work now. Perhaps there was a time when they did. Not now. This is why Dean lost. The voters want something else.

If you want to be inspired, read Truman's acceptance speech in 1948.
The left and the right deserted the party,but He still won.

Google will reveal all.

[Justice]

12. So...what do voters want?

[TexasSissy]

5. Cuomo could turn a phrase, couldn't he?

Talk about a master communicator.

What's Cuomo doing these days? I never hear of him anymore.

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. Cuomo was on Larry King last night

That's what inspired me to look for his speech. I also saw him on air talking about Reagan on another show earlier. Both gracious AND pointed. I'm not sure what he is up to really. Maybe a half year or more ago I tuned into a local public radio station in upstate New York that seemingly had a weekly talk show where Mario and the host talked about politics and the state of the world. I always have been "annoyed" with Cuomo for NOT running in 1988, and letting Dukakis get the nomination instead. How history might have differed...

[Jai4WKC08]

7. Mario Cuomo is a total star

I SO wanted him to run in '92. Eventually came to support Clinton (after voting for Jesse Jackson in the FL primary when Tsongas dropped--it was a tortured route ;) ). But Cuomo was always my first choice.

Cuomo just recently wrote a book about Lincoln, I think. Don't know what else he's been up to, but I have seen him doing the cable news routine a few times, so he's still working for us. I also recall a recent Newsweek article where he recommended Clark for VP, so he's still A-OK in my book. :)

Great Cuomo quote, from a Hardball interview back last fall: "Wes Clark is a man of whom you can ask a question, and he will look you directly in the eye, and give you the most truthful and complete answer you can imagine. You will know the absolute truth of the statement as well as the thought process behind the answer. You will have no doubt as to the intellect of the speaker and meaning of the answer to this question....So you can see, as a politician, he has a lot to learn."

[BootinUp]

8. That is a great quote

I like it more everytime I read it. :)

[Adelante]

9. I worked on a few Cuomo campaigns over the years

He is a true gentleman and in my opinion the greatest orator we have today.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. That's why I wish we were hearing a lot more from him.

I hope he lets Kerry appoint him to the Supreme Court, or sumpthin...

[incapsulated]

11. I remember that speech

Cuomo was outstanding.

Why, oh, why didn't he want to be a Supreme Court Justice?

*sigh*

[Adelante]

13. Remember this from the '96 convention?

"Listen to me, listen to me, please. Listen to me, please. Forget a lot of this political argumentation. Forget about new Democrats, old Democrats, conservative Democrats, liberal Democrats, neo-liberal Democrats. The truth is ageless. Either we make it together, all of us of every faith and color, straight or gay, with or without disabilities, whatever our accent, whatever our task, wherever we are in this great land, whether we are rich, struggling, desperate, either we make it, all of us together, or there is no America worth the gifts that God has given this blessed place."

I was there, tears streaming down my face.

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. A weekend kick to aid in Reagan detoxification n/t