Rocky Road
On the 100th anniversary of Nelson Rockefeller’s birth today, E.J. McMahon, director of 
the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for New York State Policy, puts the blame of New York’s decline on his shoulders.
Before serving as vice president, Rockefeller was New York governor from 1959 to 1973. He died in 1979.
Here’s some of the points made in today’s op-ed piece in the New York Post.
“When Nelson Rockefeller was born 100 years ago today, New York state was America’s economic powerhouse – with its best years still ahead.
“By the time Rockefeller died in 1979, New York was a state in decline, struggling to cope with an exodus of people and businesses stemming from the overwhelming burden of state taxes, debt and spending he had imposed during his 15 years as its governor.”
“State and local government across the country expanded rapidly during the 1960s and early ‘70s – but under Rockefeller, New York’s government growth was exceptional.”
McMahon also writes that Rockefeller’s expansion of government was successful because he was a gifted politician.
“Rockefeller would have done far less damage in New York if he hadn’t been such a gifted and energetic (not to mention wealthy) politician – certainly among the most consequential of the state’s governors. Quite aside from his gubernatorial record, his achievements on the national and international stage, capped by two years as vice president, would suffice to make his centennial a noteworthy milestone.
“But Rockefeller’s admirers are seizing the opportunity to go even further – glossing over his spendthrift record to recast him as a centrist worthy of emulation in the 21st century.
The revisionist view is typified by the historian Richard Norton Smith, now working on a Rocky biography. In yesterday’s New York Times, Smith wrote that Rockefeller deserves to be seen as a “futurist,” a man whose “zeal for big, bold ideas put New York in the vanguard of civil rights, mass transit, urban housing, labor law, mental health” and other areas.”
| 
Email This
Advertisements
Nelson Rockefeller was a great governor…his
vision for the state university left new york
with one of the very best state schools in the nation
the decline of new york was not his doing..you need
to look to the administrations of hugh carey and
mario cuomo to see new york decline…when Rockefeller
was governor, and I had the distinct pleasure of
working for him as Assistant Director of the statewide
youth campaign…New York was still a powerful
engine of growth….the reason new york is no longer
that way is because we have not had a governor with
that kind of vision and bold ideas..and the global
economy has wrecked havoc on upstaet manufacturing towns
so don’t blame Rocky….
The Consultant says that the global economy has caused havoc upstate? NO. New York’s super-high taxes and union giveaways have caused almost all the havoc upstate, and downstate, too.
NY is the most costly state in the nation in which to live, to do business, and even to survive in. Upstate is almost a wasteland because of poor state governance.
Besides McMahon’s article, The Post also has an editorial today slamming Rocky. The Consultant is a Rockefeller-Javits Republican, and maybe even a John Lindsay Republican, as bad as that was. The Consultant is right about Carey, Cuomo and others like Pataki his last two terms, but the Rocky Republicans (liberal Republicans) share the blame.
Another topic—Bill Hammond in the Daily News has a good op-ed today on Skelos, the property tax cap and the State Senate Republicans. Skelos seems to be coming around.
Overwhelming taxes, debt, and spending. Enormous state government growth, setting the ongoing precedent. Total capitulation to unions. Edifice complex. What GREAT state school – Cornell? Sorry.
I would have to disagree regarding the state university system. New York has many good state schools but lacks a real flagship state school and for whatever reason does not do a good job of attracting out-of-state students or keeping in-state students in state. Moreover, the name recognition of the SUNY schools is not particularly good around the country.
If you go to the University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin or Michigan or just about half of the big ten schools, University of Deleware, etc. you will find tons of New Yorkers attending those institutions. The fact that college age kids are willing to attend out-of-state state schools and pay considerably more money, while few out-of-staters come to SUNY Buffalo, Binghamton, or Albany demonstrates that the New York state universities need some improvement.
Of Governor Rockefeller, one must take the whole man. He was an anti-Communist in good times and bad. He was for racial equality without shilly-shallying. Many pols of that day equivocated or worse on those issues, but not he. Honor is due.
He was also a tax and spender. Mr. McMahon’s analysis is generally correct. That Rockefeller was followed by governors who spent without priorities (at least Governor Rockefleer had priorities)does not alter that the decline from the Empire State of Al Smith, Herbert Lehman, and Tom Dewey to the regime of Devid Paterson began with Governor Rockefeller.
As for the status of SUNY, as I understand it a policy decision was made not to have a flagship campus such as Ann Arbor, Bloomington, or Berkeley, but rather to offer a college education to students throughout the state. This policy might have been mitigated had the City University NOT gone into extraordinary decline under the Open Admissions program. CCNY or Brooklyn College, or Hunter College could have easily been developed into schools to compare with the top state schools. But it was ixnay on the estbay and SUNY Purchase for the future.
Still, the Cold War was won, and Governor Rockefeller helped. And that Barack Obama is a viable candidate for President indicates that the improvements in race relations for which Governor Rockefeller worked are more nearly upon us. The Obama candidacy may also be a sympton of the mediocre education system that is another legacy of the Rock.
Nice try. Had he died today, a satisfactory elegy. However, it’s been a long time and a more sober assessment is in order. A lot of Met fans were anti-communists, too, albeit working class, and did more for ending the cold war just by voting for Reagan, than Rocky ever did about it. CCNY, which can, from its frothy days, boast numerous Nobel winners, became an embarrassing, useless pseudo- institution of higher learning. Generations of our teachers and bureaucrats came out of that open enrollment school and others mentioned above and served to further scramble our educational, governmental, and political systems. It can be said that he died with his shoes on, but according to rumor, even they were placed there (each on the wrong foot) by an illicit paramour. Politicians like he and Lindsay set the table for the horrible dinners later served.
Republicans such as I are weak for Nelson in the same way Democrats are weak for Sweet Old Bill.
We take the whole person into account.
Yes, NR steeped taxes here. True: he built the State University. Also: he had that “edifice complex.” And wanted Westway, to the chagrin of environmentalists (and lovers of the snail darter).
I am envious of consultant because he had the great fortune to actually work for NR. What a time that had to be!
Read Connie Bruck’s “Predator’s Ball” for a wonderful anecdote about NR dealing with the late Steve Ross of Kinney Parking/Warner Communications.
Just remember to see your doctor regularly. NR died from the effects of low blood pressure: 25 over 70.
;>
And this:
Nelson Rockefeller privately and discreetly paid for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral.
NR was shocked and saddened.
In sum, as a human, Nelson Rockefeller was a great man.
Plus: he took care of Nancy Hanks.
29 years after his sudden and unfair passing, have any of you ever heard of one complaint about Nelson Rockefeller, from any woman?
He was a gentleman.
Mary Todhunter.
(nee Clark)
nelson was a good person ..someone who didn’t have to work
but chose to serve…someone who had regard for the little
people of which he was not one…someone who understood
the plight of poor people of which he was not one…
In the days of Barry Goldwater, Rockefeller was viewed
as a “liberal”...but he was a successful New York Governor
notwithstanding any labels…and you will all find that
governing from the middle is indeed the only way
to get results…neither the left nor the right
has the solutions..it is the practical politicians who
make the best leaders
Tim—He died of what? How about Megan Marshack?
Rocky seems to have died crooning that old Gene Autry classic, “Back In the Saddle Again.” And apparently he died with his boots on.
NR was a magnanimous human. Dyslexic, he learned as much as he could, while hiding his disability. Able to get away from it all, had he chosen that route, he nevertheless got involved—in Latin America, in our New York, and elsewhere. Bored with the governorship after three and a half terms, he chose to launch a private initiative for what he felt was the betterment of our country. Then, following a national political crisis, he accepted Gerald Ford’s offer to be vice president. He had nothing to gain. Not a thing. John Connally was jealous.
My fellow Republicans in California—and elsewhere—tried to take him down, in 1976. And they succeeded. Still, NR campaigned vigorously for President Ford, even as Bob Dole was the vice-presidential candidate—the only time in American history where a sitting vice president was not a candidate for election to his own office.
I’ll never forget NR at Dartmouth, his alma mater, gloriously giving the finger to the ugly, unthinking, scrufulous bearded hippies who were booing him in October 1976. His smile said it all.
God Bless Nelson, the Baptist, at 100.
Each time you enjoy the beautiful Diego Rivera art at Rockefeller Center, think of NR. And be grateful.
Then, when you go to MOMA, appreciate NR even more.
the governor did not like anchovies on his pizza..
I had to remove them before he ate a slice…with
my fingers
Am I wrong in remembering that Rivera’s mural, commissioned by Rockefeller at Rockefeller Center was destroyed with sledgehammers after the artist refused to get rid of a representation of Lenin?
I guess this was John D, Jr.
Nelson ate consultant’s fingers? No wonder his golf game is in distress.
The Consultant removed the anchovies while Bill O’Shaughnessey adjusted the governor’s bib.
Wahoo: forget Megan Marshak, who took the fall for NR’s demise on West 54th Street.
Ms. Marshak, North Hollywood Grant HS ‘71, was bf of my college roommate.
Do you remember Conchita Pierce?
Wahoo: yes, low b/p.
You must have been in a rush.
;>
cute guys cute!...I remember Nancy McGuiness in the 55th street townhouse which served as campaign hq before we
moved to the large offices….Nancy of course married
Hennry the K….my office space mates were….
catch this…next door..Jackie Robinson…yes THE
jackie robinson…george pataki and brad race
who became Pataki’s chief of staff…also we spent
great times with HAMP…that would be Lionel Hampton
and not to leave out Malcolm Wilson who first proposed
me as a member in the st andrews golf club…
1st jewish board member….thats because my grandfather
spent several years in Edinborough on his way from
Russia to the US…makes me a scottsman….Laddie!!!!
FOREEEEEE
All those years at Columbia, and you got a job as an anchovy picker, Mike? Glad to see your resume has improved since then. Sounds like you had some good times back then, Nelson’s food issues notwithstanding…
never went to columbia..my mom graduated with a degree
in chem…chief chemist for the donought corp of america
in WWII..she invented the powdered egg for the tropps
but I did go to NYU…second best …but then again
its just law school
Just a PARTIAL collection of MLK’s papers sold for over 30 million. That’s just part of the estate. Don’t know why the fam needed Rocky to pay for a funeral.