Editor’s Note: Today’s post comes from contributing editor Bob Beach, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Albany, SUNY. As one of Points’ resident New Yorkers, today Beach covers Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement that the Empire State hopes to legalize recreational marijuana in 2019.
On December 17, at a speech at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, speaking in front of members of the New York City Bar Association, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo previewed his 20-point “Justice Agenda” for the 2019 legislative session. The December event was merely a preview of a governor’s State of the State address (which took place this Tuesday), but both speeches outlined a bold progressive agenda centered on a number of issues related to social justice, many of interest to readers of this forum.
The references to a Rooseveltian moment for Cuomo during the December speech (though not in the State of the State Address) were hard to ignore. Institute director Harold Holzer reminded the audience that they were in the birthplace of the New Deal. As they approached the 90-year anniversary of FDR’s tenure as governor, Holzer invited the current Governor to the podium “to answer the question: What would FDR do today?” Cuomo himself then made several clear references to FDR’s influence throughout his speech.