Cuomo defends Christopher Columbus statue

[Beet]

Does this mean he's going to position himself as a relative moderate?

I've always thought that the conventional wisdom that you have to run to the far left was wrong, and very damaging. It was a myth in 2015-16 (Even Jim Webb would gotten a decent 15-20% of the vote as long as he stayed in, IMO) and it's a myth now. Just like it was a myth that only a far-right conservative could win the GOP nomination in 2010-16, even though none ever did. Sure, the "progressive" lane is one lane, but not the only one. It's quite possible that with half a dozen candidates all running to the left one candidate who hews to the center might just take it.

I think it's more important that a candidate not appear corrupt, and looks like he or she is on the side of "the people" than whether they are progressive on everything. And that's the bigger problem for Cuomo (besides his support for gun control and his coastal-blue state origins): his reputation for corruption. What other skeletons does he have in his closet?
 These SJW issues like statues are perfect for politicians like him to Sister Soulja off of.

[Beet]

SJWs will be the death of the Democratic party I swear. (no I'm not talking about people who simply believe in equal rights). I'm talking about the extreme leftists who will shout you down if you say anything that they disagree with

Can people please shut up about this term or acting like the people described by it have any influence in the party or electoral politics? I have never heard of a Democratic politician or activist rant about how people who won't have sex with trans people are transphobic, complain about white people wearing Native American Halloween costumes, or dreadlocks or hoop earrings, or lecture people about appropriate use of pronouns. There are no actual SJWs of any influence whatsoever. All they do is engage in circle jerks on Tumblr and put out whiny newsletters at silly liberal arts colleges.

Ironically the most SJW-style language I've heard from a major politician was Donald Trump, when he pronounced LGBTQ at his convention speech. It was very effective signalling that he wasn't some "religious bigot," even if he ends up doing all their policies and appointing all their judges. Hey, at least it's a secular face doing it.

[Beet]

Devil's advocate here. Columbus may have been brutal but his voyage joined the eastern and western hemispheres in a way that they had not been in the past. The whole development of the modern world owes something to Columbus.

This. Everyone was a brutal butcher back then (and still are now, judging by the threats of certain men). Do you think if the Incas had discovered Spain they would have been gentle? What's memorialized isn't the morality of the man but the significance of the voyage.