Posted on 11/04/2004 5:37:57 AM PST by publius1
A Blue City (Disconsolate, Even) Bewildered by a Red America By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: November 4, 2004
Striking a characteristic New York pose near Lincoln Center yesterday, Beverly Camhe clutched three morning newspapers to her chest while balancing a large latte and talked about how disconsolate she was to realize that not only had her candidate, John Kerry, lost but that she and her city were so out of step with the rest of the country.
"Do you know how I described New York to my European friends?" she said. "New York is an island off the coast of Europe."
Like Ms. Camhe, a film producer, three of every four voters in New York City gave Mr. Kerry their vote, a starkly different choice from the rest of the nation. So they awoke yesterday with something of a woozy existential hangover and had to confront once again how much of a 51st State they are, different in their sensibilities, lifestyles and polyglot texture from most of America. The election seemed to reverse the perspective of the famous Saul Steinberg cartoon, with much of the land mass of America now in the foreground and New York a tiny, distant and irrelevant dot.
Some New Yorkers, like Meredith Hackett, a 25-year-old barmaid in Brooklyn, said they didn't even know any people who had voted for President Bush. (In both Manhattan and the Bronx, Mr. Bush received 16.7 percent of the vote.) Others spoke of a feeling of isolation from their fellow Americans, a sense that perhaps Middle America doesn't care as much about New York and its animating concerns as it seemed to in the weeks immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center.
"Everybody seems to hate us these days," said Zito Joseph, a 63-year-old retired psychiatrist. "None of the people who are likely to be hit by a terrorist attack voted for Bush. But the heartland people seemed to be saying, 'We're not affected by it if there would be another terrorist attack.' "
City residents talked about this chasm between outlooks with characteristic New York bluntness.
Dr. Joseph, a bearded, broad-shouldered man with silken gray hair, was sharing coffee and cigarettes with his fellow dog walker, Roberta Kimmel Cohn, at an outdoor table outside the hole-in-the-wall Breadsoul Cafe near Lincoln Center. The site was almost a cliché corner of cosmopolitan Manhattan, with a newsstand next door selling French and Italian newspapers and, a bit farther down, the Lincoln Plaza theater showing foreign movies.
"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."
"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.
His friend, Ms. Cohn, a native of Wisconsin who deals in art, contended that New Yorkers were not as fooled by Mr. Bush's statements as other Americans might be. "New Yorkers are savvy," she said. "We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say."
"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."
Dr. Joseph acknowledged that such attitudes could feed into the perception that New Yorkers are cultural elitists, but he didn't apologize for it.
"People who are more competitive and proficient at what they do tend to gravitate toward cities," he said.
Like those in the rest of the country, New Yorkers stayed up late watching the results, and some went to bed with a glimmer of hope that Mr. Kerry might yet find victory in some fortuitous combination of battleground states. But they awoke to reality. Some politically conscious children were disheartened - or sleepy - enough to ask parents if they could stay home. But even grownups were unnerved.
"To paraphrase our current president, I'm in shock and awe," said Keithe Sales, a 58-year-old former publishing administrator walking a dog near Central Park. He said he and friends shared a feeling of "disempowerment" as a result of the country's choice of President Bush. "There is a feeling of 'What do I have to do to get this man out of office?'''
In downtown Brooklyn, J. J. Murphy, 34, a teacher, said that Mr. Kerry's loss underscored the geographic divide between the Northeast and the rest of the country. He harked back to Reconstruction to help explain his point.
"One thing Clinton and Gore had going for them was they were from the South," he said. "There's a lot of resentment toward the Northeast carpetbagger stereotype, and Kerry fit right in to that."
Mr. Murphy said he understood why Mr. Bush appealed to Southerners in a way that he did not appeal to New Yorkers.
"Even though Bush isn't one of them - he's a son of privilege - he comes off as just a good old boy," Mr. Murphy said.
Pondering the disparity, Bret Adams, a 33-year-old computer network administrator in Rego Park, Queens, said, "I think a lot of the country sees New York as a wild and crazy place, where these things like the war protests happen."
Ms. Camhe, the film producer, frequents Elaine's restaurant with friends and spends many mornings on a bench in Central Park talking politics with homeless people with whom she's become acquainted. She spent part of Tuesday knocking on doors in Pennsylvania to rustle up Kerry votes then returned to Manhattan to attend an election-night party thrown by Miramax's chairman, Harvey Weinstein, at The Palm. Ms. Camhe was also up much of the night talking to a son in California who was depressed at the election results.
When it became clear yesterday morning that the outlook for a Kerry squeaker was a mirage, she was unable to eat breakfast. Her doorman on Central Park West gave her a consoling hug. Then a friend buying coffee along with her said she had just heard a report on television that Mr. Kerry had conceded and tears welled in Ms. Camhe's eyes.
Ms. Camhe explained the habits and beliefs of those dwelling in the heartland like an anthropologist.
"What's different about New York City is it tends to bring people together and so we can't ignore each others' dreams and values and it creates a much more inclusive consciousness," she said. "When you're in a more isolated environment, you're more susceptible to some ideology that's imposed on you."
As an example, Ms. Camhe offered the different attitudes New Yorkers may have about social issues like gay marriage.
"We live in this marvelous diversity where we actually have gay neighbors," she said. "They're not some vilified unknown. They're our neighbors."
But she said that a dichotomy of outlooks was bad for the country.
"If the heartland feels so alienated from us, then it behooves us to wrap our arms around the heartland," she said. "We need to bring our way of life, which is honoring diversity and having compassion for people with different lifestyles, on a trip around the country."
Michael Brick and Brian McDonald contributed reporting for this article.
These people in blue areas in America don't understand.
You need to come to us and not the other way around.
You're the ones that are:
Strange
Intolerant
Ignorant to the rest of America
Stuffy
Uncomfortable
Anti-American
Anti-God
Anti-Family
Anti-Military
Anti-Israel
Anti-Prosperity (Unless it's your own)
Until you can find a candidate that is comfortable changing that trend because he/she believes and understands it, get used to being losers.
That is what you've become:
BIG LOSERS!
"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."
"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.
His friend, Ms. Cohn, a native of Wisconsin who deals in art, contended that New Yorkers were not as fooled by Mr. Bush's statements as other Americans might be. "New Yorkers are savvy," she said. "We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say."
"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."
How many more of these whining articles are we going to have to read? No, NYers, you are NOT the center of the universe. Most of us don't care any more or less about NY than we do San Francisco. You have made your own socialist/communist corrupt system of government, now deal with it.
Hubris is always followed by folly and then destruction. The problem here is, they are awakening to the fact that they are in fact, much different. But instead of trying to figure out really why they are different than us, they rely upon stereotypes and more the same arrogance and pride.
From a former Chicagoan turned Southerner...
Welcome to PA. We wouldn't be BLUE if we could get our deer to vote.
I was thinking more of a satellite nation of the old USSR. Her first problem: too many Eurotrash friends.
"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."
Well, well. Another example of tolerance and diversity in NY liberals.
"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.
His friend, Ms. Cohn, a native of Wisconsin who deals in art, contended that New Yorkers were not as fooled by Mr. Bush's statements as other Americans might be. "New Yorkers are savvy," she said. "We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say."
We are smart, you are stupid. End of story. LOL!
"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."
You are, but the time frame is Stalinist Russia.
Dr. Joseph acknowledged that such attitudes could feed into the perception that New Yorkers are cultural elitists, but he didn't apologize for it.
"People who are more competitive and proficient at what they do tend to gravitate toward cities," he said.
Cultural elitist and a snob too!!
Like those in the rest of the country, New Yorkers stayed up late watching the results, and some went to bed with a glimmer of hope that Mr. Kerry might yet find victory in some fortuitous combination of battleground states. But they awoke to reality. Some politically conscious children were disheartened - or sleepy - enough to ask parents if they could stay home. But even grownups were unnerved.
I kind of like the cultural elitist snobs unnerved, and their "politically conscious" children away from the debilitating effects of their socialist teachers!
<> She spent part of Tuesday knocking on doors in Pennsylvania to rustle up Kerry votes then returned to Manhattan to attend an election-night party thrown by Miramax's chairman, Harvey Weinstein, at The Palm.
Ah, to have been a fly on the wall at that bash!! ROTFLMAO!!!
"What's different about New York City is it tends to bring people together and so we can't ignore each others' dreams and values and it creates a much more inclusive consciousness," she said.
Oh yeah, NYC is renowned for it's sense of brotherhood and "help thy neighbor" attitude! Did this woman just leave her electroshock therapy session?
Well, THEY are isolated-- even physically (on an island). And as with most lefties, they are inclusive ONLY if you share their beliefs. Otherwise, they vote you off the island.
Spending 20 years as a professor at a very liberal college, I can assure you: if you don't think like them, your opinions don't count. Diversity doesn't exist. 'Diversity' and 'inclusion' are Orwellian double-speak terms to mean 'left-wing' and 'politically correct.' Conservatives scare them, in reality, because true conservative will actually debate them. They abhor true debate as a vampire does sunlight.
As a part of this election's mandate, everyone please make it a point to let fewer lefty PC spoutings go undebated around you. The time to open up true debate and confront this kind of verbal snobbery and socialism must ramp up.
Does anybody see the humor in this??
These guys do not get it. If the rest of the country does not believe as you do they are not wrong, you are.
A lovely post. Thank you chris1 for your efforts. Those of us without your skill set are indebted to you. The GWB volunteers were amazing. Congratulations for a job well done.
Welcome home.
I bet she gets some very insightful thinking from these people.
This women needs to hop on a bus and take a cross country trip.
She is so clueless, it's almost scary.
Me too, I was born on East 67th Street, my parents were both in the fashion industry, I went to art school in Manhattan, lived in Greenwich Village, and even worked at the Village Voice for a time (BTW, yes, I'm married with children).
You can't get more NYC than me, and I've ALWAYS been a Republican. 90% of these dipsh*ts moaning about "my town" and "who are these people" aren't even from here. They're cranky lefty misfits from all over the world who come here to be miserable together.
If I'm not mistaken, NY state on Tuesday had more GOP voters than 47 other states, trailing only CA and TX.
The arrogance of these people is amazing. Nobody is as smart as they are.
Excellent and inspiring report from the ground. Thanks for you work.
you hit it entirely. Kerry and his freak party will never understand this.
Since they started arriving, my taxes have DOUBLED, to the point where they are as much as my P&I mortgage payment.
So they hire all these companies to manage their house and yard, then expect the schools to babysit their kids from sunup to sundown. I don't care how many people they hire -- as long as they have a few bucks left to spend in my store.
I do care that the cost of babysitting their kids has caused my taxes to skyrocket, though.
This is why I thank God every day I no longer live in the city of my birth.
Do you know how I describe the United States to my Canadian friends? I tell them about a giant billboard along the westbound side of Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, just over the Delaware River from New Jersey.
This billboard gives an accurate description of the U.S. today:
Welcome to Pennsylvania -- AMERICA STARTS HERE
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