In a media interview Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tagged his opponents as “extreme conservatives” and said that they “have no place in New York.”

Who are these “extreme conservatives?” Opponents of gun control, abortion, and homosexual marriage, that’s who:

“The Republican Party candidates are running against the SAFE Act… Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the State of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”

Let’s deconstruct this for a moment. New York’s ultra-draconian “SAFE Act” permanently outlawed all military rifles developed in the past sixty years. It created State Police surveillance of all ammunition sales, and a required that the State Police keep a database of all ammunition purchases. It criminalized the possession of firearm magazines that were legally purchased decades ago without compensating the owners. It was passed at 2 A.M. with no committee hearings and no debate. Legislators were given 15 minutes’ notice to vote on a 39 page bill — not enough time to read it. And Cuomo waived a legal requirement that a three-day waiting period for public input occur before the legislation took effect.

And if you think that violates the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution… you “have no place in the State of New York.”

Do you oppose abortion, which the science of biology absolutely proves kills a nascent human being in utero — largely to maintain culture of reckless promiscuity? Then you’re an “extremist” who has “no place in the State of New York.”

Do you oppose homosexual marriage, which did not exist in any culture in the history of mankind until 20 years ago or so? You extremist! You have “no place in the State of New York.”

The idea that a sitting governor of the fourth-largest state in the nation can tell people he disagrees with politically that they have “no place” in the state he governs is breathtakingly frightening. I cannot recall any American governor anywhere essentially telling American citizens to shut up or get out of his state. What about the constitutional rights to free speech, free association, and freedom of the press? What ever happened to the Madisonian idea that the rights of political minorities are to be protected from the tyranny of the majority? Whatever happened to all the incessant leftist rhetoric about “diversity” and “multiculturalism”? I guess “diversity” doesn’t apply to conservatives, does it?

How is this any different than saying “The Jews have no place in the Fatherland?” How is this any different than saying “The kulaks have no place in the Soviet Union?” “How is this any different than saying “The capitalist pigs have no place in the Peoples’ Republic of Kampuchea”?

Answer: it isn’t different. Every dictatorship marginalizes, delegitimizes, and dehumanizes its opponents before it strips them of their rights and crushes them.

If you’re under the mistaken impression that the U.S. is still a free country, and New York is still a free state… you’d better read Cuomo’s comments again.

God help us.

Thomas Lifson adds:

New York State is currently running a national ad campaign urging companies to move to New York and open new businesses there, in order to receive a ten year tax holiday. These television commercials (seen regularly on Fox News Channel among others) need to be amended to indicate that no businesses owned by or employing people who believe in the Second Amendment or in the sanctity of unborn life are welcome in the state.