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A Blue City (Disconsolate, Even) Bewildered by a Red America
NY Times ^ | 04 November 2004 | Joseph Berger

Posted on 11/03/2004 7:39:23 PM PST by Lorianne

triking 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 than 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: kerry; nyc
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To: wiley

I'm an unapologetic New Yorker. I love my hometown but it's becoming increasingly more difficult to tolerate the intolerant ravings of my friends and neighbors.

I drove from New York to California last Fall. Once I got beyond the suburbs of the Northeast, the climate changed dramatically. In every diner, gas station, grocery store and motel there were large posters of the World Trade Center, captioned "Never Forget". The spirit of friendship and unity extended to me in every "Red" county I visited made me proud to be an American and even more proud to be a New Yorker. The images we see every day on the Today Show demonstrate the genuine affection that Americans feel for New York, as Katie, Matt and Al interview "Red State" tourists outside their studio.

It's embarrassing that New Yorkers who have never traveled beyond their narrow-minded province deride and disparage fellow Americans they've never met and will never understand.

Never Forget! Unfortunately, many of my fellow New Yorkers have defective memory chips implanted in their skulls.


141 posted on 11/04/2004 5:06:25 AM PST by joeystoy
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To: philo

I'll tell you what sticks out in my mind about NYC. Back in the 60's a young lady was being brutally killed in the street and people heard it happening but refused to do anything. They didn't want to get involved. Don't want to get involved in America but want to be involved in the world. They can move back to Europe for all I care.


142 posted on 11/04/2004 5:06:27 AM PST by MadAnthony1776
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To: Lorianne
I can attest to this, most New Yorker's don't have any understanding of what people think or believe outside of the tri state area.

Just yesterday at lunch, I tried to explain to some of them that the overriding issue, that drew record numbers of conservative Christians to the polls, had to do with moral beliefs.

Attempting to communicate to them that the "anything goes" lifestyle of city living just does not sell outside of the urban areas was like trying to stop a dog from smelling another dogs butt.

They validated my thought that most liberals are good natured people who are ignorant and naive, living in a world clouded by the fog of their own ideology.
143 posted on 11/04/2004 5:06:53 AM PST by PigRigger (Send donations to http://www.AdoptAPlatoon.org)
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To: okie01

"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.' "

The one's who do your fighting for you to keep you safe at night did vote for him, you buffoon. And most of them come from the heartland.


144 posted on 11/04/2004 5:07:31 AM PST by wiley
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To: CWW
Those are my exact thoughts as well.

Well said.

145 posted on 11/04/2004 5:08:48 AM PST by hawkaw
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To: gogogodzilla

Big cities in East Asia are exciting, modern, and much less socialist than their US etro counterparts. I was born in one - Hong Kong and still love it dearly even though it is now under China rather than Britain. They are worlds apart from US mega cities.


146 posted on 11/04/2004 5:56:12 AM PST by NZerFromHK (Controversially right-wing by NZ standards: unashamedly pro-conservative-America)
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To: hispanarepublicana

OOOh, --you wouldn't happen to have a pic of that, would you?


147 posted on 11/04/2004 5:59:11 AM PST by Mamzelle (Nov 3--Psalm One...Blessed is the man...!)
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To: hispanarepublicana

Lubbock is in touch with the rest of the country......

Now that is scary :)


148 posted on 11/04/2004 6:43:57 AM PST by TexanByBirth
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To: TexanByBirth

Honestly, it's ONE reason Texas Tech fans HATE the University of Texa so much.....because they're mostly such LIBERALS.


149 posted on 11/04/2004 6:53:15 AM PST by hispanarepublicana (Miss Free Republic High School-198?)
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To: TexanByBirth
Lubbock is in touch with the rest of the country...... Now that is scary :)

At one time during the GHWB administration, he said Lubbock was "the pulse of the nation" and would do "pulse of the nation" surveys here, I believe......

Then, GWB did a speech in which he criticized some liberal idea or another and said something like, "That just doesn't sit well with 'the boys in Lubbock.'"

150 posted on 11/04/2004 6:55:40 AM PST by hispanarepublicana (Miss Free Republic High School-198?)
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To: Lorianne
Whenever I read something like this, I marvel at the vision of our Founding Fathers who set up our Electoral College system.

They limited the amount of damage these huddled masses of deranged idiots could do to the rest of the country through the sheer numbers of concentrated fools.

151 posted on 11/04/2004 6:59:36 AM PST by Gritty ("Liberals are incapable of embarrassment–they’re like Arabs without the fighting spirit!-Ann Coulter)
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To: 1stMarylandRegiment

I woke up thinking about this. I'm in a red county in California, one hour north of LA. My bookshelves are filled and I have a good job (make way more than I have a right to, I think). Anyway! I am making a move to VA next month; I will live part time in PA and part time in VA. So maybe we who are not too bright will meet!


152 posted on 11/04/2004 7:05:48 AM PST by merry10
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To: Lorianne

"I just had a great idea! Starbucks should have a special on disconsolatte !"

Hey, that's one of those comments that pops out of the blue but sums up everything! You are a genius!


153 posted on 11/04/2004 7:09:18 AM PST by FastCoyote
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon; Rabid Dog

My daughter's speech therapist told us she did not like Bush, and she is jewish. I told her well, to each his own. She is good at what she does, but totally wrong on this. One of the first words my daughter spoke verbally - she is profoundly deaf - was "BOOOSH". On the street corner the other night in Thousand Oaks, CA, she added her voice to the many shouting for 4 more years for BOOOSH!


154 posted on 11/04/2004 7:10:26 AM PST by merry10
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To: Lorianne

Ha! Ha! that was a good one! :D


155 posted on 11/04/2004 7:11:25 AM PST by WifeMotherDaughterSister (Just reading, writing and math today...so Mom can Freep.....)
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To: ApesForEvolution

LOL,you bring a tear to the eye. Too funny.:D


156 posted on 11/04/2004 7:12:41 AM PST by WifeMotherDaughterSister (Just reading, writing and math today...so Mom can Freep.....)
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To: Lorianne

Yeah, went I got to work today at the saw-mill in my pick-up, I checked my brother-husband's gunrack to see if any screws where loose after trying to run over that crippled old lady crossing the road.

Then I checked my plastic Jesus on the dashboard and stuck some of my lotto tickets under him after saying a prayer. I kept a few of them to fold into squares to fill in the gaps between my missing teeth.


157 posted on 11/04/2004 7:16:43 AM PST by najida (Liberals are the ultimate arrogant bigot....but they don't even know it.)
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To: merry10

Way to go! Tell H. that she picked a good word! I don't get why any Jew wouldn't support Bush. He is Israel's best friend!


158 posted on 11/04/2004 7:17:37 AM PST by Rabid Dog (Make a difference in your community - Join your local Free Republic Chapter!)
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To: philo
people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say.

From my observation, she has it reversed -- midwesterners are more independent thinkers than the incestuous 'minds' of the city folk. Remember that rat (not dims) study where the rats turned perverted and nutty when they started living in too close proximity to each other (started into homosexuality, killing their young, etc.)?

159 posted on 11/04/2004 7:50:09 AM PST by expatpat
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To: merry10

Oh, Hayley! That is so sweet!


160 posted on 11/04/2004 9:07:31 AM PST by Roselani
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