To Fall from a Low Place Is Not “Tragic,” but Sad

The Case of Andrew Cuomo

© MTA of New York

With the abrupt resignation of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, second-generation holder of his state’s highest office once held by his late father Mario, the media has reached for high metaphor. Andrew Cuomo’s fall is “tragic,” it is being claimed, a “Shakespearean fall from grace” from a high height (here, here, here, here, and here).