I don’t think Cuomo grasps the anger.

I don’t think he cares.

In the mathematics of his world, there are the people he needs to get elected, and everybody else can go to hell.

It is the way of the Democratic tyrants. Encircled by children, we will see it today in the president, a man who hates a good half of the people in his country.

Just as Cuomo hates the people in broad swathes of the state he inherited from his father.

Is “hate” too strong a word?

Not at all.

It is the only word that fits. The conduct, mood, speech and actions of both men seethe with condescending contempt for large proportions of the people they were elected to serve.

This is demonstrated in the vilification of those who disagree. Cuomo in recent days has repeatedly used the word “extremist” to describe those who disagree with him on gun control. Last night, in referencing naysayers, he said that his approach was “intelligent” and used “common sense,” the obvious implication being that those who felt differently had neither intelligence nor common sense.

His Washington counterpart says “Republican” and “NRA” as if they were curse words, as if he were speaking of inferior beings.

Both Cuomo and Obama have a dictatorial arrogance in their governing style. New Yorkers were reminded of that yesterday, and Americans will be reminded of that today.

In New York, the supposedly popular governor seemed to neither recognize nor care that his cram down of the harshest gun control laws in the country was deeply unsettling to hundreds of thousands and even millions of his constituents.

As military veterans fumed, “This isn’t what I fought for,” and law-enforcement officers contemplated resigning or retiring rather than enforce the Cuomo dictates, the governor celebrated. A deep, heart-sick, nauseated angry response leapt forth from the upstate breast, and Cuomo again labeled as “extremists” those who disagreed with him.

The sincerest, deepest feelings – the fundamental patriotic values – of untold thousands of New Yorkers were profoundly bruised, and there was nothing but gloating indifference from Albany.

That was an insight not into Cuomo’s political priorities, but his values. It was clear he had nothing but contempt – a palpable hatred – for people whose rights he had tromped and whose trust he had violated.

Whereas a true leader would have reached out in compassion and communication, even if there could not be agreement, Cuomo’s surly end-zone dance sounded amazingly like, “kiss my arse.”

And that has an effect.

When you humiliate people, when you push them into a corner, when you take from them something precious, and you show them imperious disrespect, you elicit their anger.

You provoke them.

You make them feel that they have no options, that their situation is desperate.

Which may be the purpose.

Maybe the desire of the CuomObama complex is to push an unstable person or two into inappropriate or violent conduct, as a pretense for yet another crackdown on civil rights.

A true leader can tell people, “no,” without stripping them of hope, without alienating them from the society or marginalizing them.

In Albany and Washington they have done just the opposite. They have given no respect and they, consequently, receive no respect.

And increasing numbers of good, tax-paying, salt-of-the-earth Americans feel hated by their government’s most senior leaders.

Sadly, their perception is not mistaken.

Sadly, it is obvious that the governor and the president hate a fair number of their constituents – mostly the ones who made the mistake of voting Republican.

And the returned hatred is genuine and palpable.

That’s not the result of the partisanship of our society. It’s the result of the arrogance of our leaders.

People may obey dictators, but they sure as hell don’t like them.

And vice versa.