Posted on 02/20/2005 6:11:05 AM PST by SJackson
Weekends in New York can turn indigestible when politics dominate breakfast.
At an Upper West Side caf , my host greets me and my colleague, then orders a latte, the drink of choice for sophisticated young urban blue-state inhabitants. After an exchange of pleasantries, we both order the healthy choice.
Meet the Kerry-core: mid-30s, successful and glamorous, keeping in shape while meeting the demands of a successful professional life in the fast lane.
They keep up with the literary world on the metro and know which restaurant offers the newest version of California French-American fusion cuisine. No Hollywood movies for them: too commercial and superficial, the kind of culture that makes sophisticated Europeans loathe simpleton America for its shallowness. But they have seen the latest Broadway show and a Franco-Vietnamese film series playing in the nearby noncommercial movie theater.
My interlocutor is a thirtysomething TV journalist from a global network. With perfect nails, perfect hair and perfect command of her charm, she watches me eat my breakfast while her spoon hovers over her granola.
She could, no doubt, be a good professional contact. But my colleague spoils the moment by flagging my current affiliation (The American Enterprise Institute) and my sympathy for George W. Bush.
My colleague is a foreign correspondent for a European daily who eats eggs Benedict but thinks Michael Moore has "a lot to say": She is fine in New York. Me, I eat granola but cheer for Bush. It's worse than a crime; it's confusing to my host.
In her sophisticated understanding of the world, Ms. Latte thinks a PhD-holding, polyglot, granola-eating, urban-dwelling academic with spectacles from Europe (who, in addition, is Jewish) must be a liberal and must hate Bush. Anything different does not exist in her normative universe. It throws her off balance.
"You actually like Bush?" she says in disbelief. Here's a chance to exculpate myself. Instead, I gingerly respond, "I actually love Bush!"
With her lower lip trembling, my interlocutor goes for the jugular. "Bush is stupid. And whoever supports Bush is stupid." Which effectively makes this hopeful moment stillborn.
Not every breakfast must be with the like-minded, of course, but if all breakfasts were like this one, a swollen liver would be a distinct threat. Still, it offers useful anthropological insights on Democratic bitterness after the November defeat.
According to Ms. Latte, Bush is supported by duck-hunting, God-fearing rednecks who unreasonably hate foreigners and, religiously speaking, are still in the Middle Ages. Terrorism is a nuisance. Making it a top priority is a ruse to scare simpletons.
Why would I be on their side?
a) I am stupid.
b) I live in an ivory tower and am not aware of reality.
For help in revising my views, Ms. Latte advises that I drive down Route 66 and try to socialize with people I meet in rural post offices. I will inevitably discover their stupidity, their intolerance of foreigners and their religious fanaticism. And I will give up Bush.
Still, who your allies are is not always a good case for switching sides. After all, "campaigning" for Kerry were the MoveOn.Org crowd and Michael Moore. Toward the end, even Osama bin Laden advised Americans not to reelect Bush.
Ms. Latte feels comfortable in their company. I don't. I still prefer Christian fundamentalists to the Michael Moores, Gore Vidals and Noam Chomskys of the world. I might feel uncomfortable among duck hunters, but if they support this administration, let them shoot ducks. Foreign policy is what matters, not weekend hobbies or church prayers.
Ms. Latte decries Bush's failure to "promote dialogue and understanding" after 9/11: "War is not the answer!" she proclaims, explaining that Kerry, so much more sophisticated than those Midwest simpletons, paints the world in nuanced shades of gray, while Bush offers a black-and-white take on right and wrong. That's why he won: his supporters are as dumb as he is. They believe there is right and wrong in this world.
Which is why she lost her tranquillity in my presence. In her universe, someone like me is meant to be smart, not to support Bush.
These days a PhD is no guarantee of IQ. But unlike my sophisticated colleague, I know exactly how open to dialogue those who masterminded 9/11 are.
Bush did not start a war. He only chose not to surrender once that war started, because he could tell right from wrong. Ms Latte can't. She does not believe there's a truth out there. That's why her candidate lost.
Easier to call your opponents dumb for reelecting Bush than face the reasons Kerry lost. The November defeat becomes easier to digest.
Which I wish I could say of my breakfast. Next visit to New York, I'll wear a Kerry-Edwards T-shirt, go see the latest Franco-Vietnamese production, and most of all, avoid conversation.
The writer teaches Israel Studies at Oxford and is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Good article. I have also had people (well, the sort of people the author describes, the "right kind" of people) say incredibly insulting things to my face and get so enraged they completely lose it if I merely mention that I support Bush.
But I hope the author doesn't wear a Kerry tee shirt on her next trip. It's a free country, as we say, and it's her right to like Bush and proclaim it, regardless of the opinions of the elite. It just takes a bit of courage, but freedom has never been free.
Or maybe the next time she goes to NY, she should look up some NYC Freepers.
I live in New York City and have discovered on many occasions the power of the simple words "I admire Bush" to inspire tirades, tears and temper tantrums. It was disconcerting at first, but after a while I began to feel a sense of power. At any rate, trying to fit in by keeping a low profile is hopeless. Eventually, you'll hear some idiocy that makes you lose your cool. Be honest from the beginning and the advantage remains on your side.
People like Ms. Latte crack me up. I've known quite a few.
The part that really cracks me up is that they can, in one breath, say that people like us see everything in black and white and, in the next, say that is bad. They speak in SUCH terms of black and white that, examining their views, you'd never suspect that they believe anything is "shades of grey". In their minds, Bush is absolutely bad. People who vote for Bush are absolutely bad. People who take their religion seriously are absolutely bad. War in Iraq is absolutely bad. Extreme enviromentalist measures are absolutely good. So-called "Seperation of Church and State" is absolutely good.
I've never seen any evidence that some of these people understand what true nuance is. Nuance is merely an excuse to hold their black and white views in the face of contradictory evidence they simply do not like.
I realize that this will upset my Chabadnik friends, but thank goodness those west side, hollywood type are intermarrying themselves out of existance. THe goyim can have them. but then again we might still get the blame.
I found much the same reaction on business trips to New York if politics was discussed. Don't step back a milimetre - usually you can catch them in their inconsistencies and go in for the kill when you make it clear that all they're supporting is snuggling up to the likes of Saddam Hussein.
Regards, Ivan
Boy Ms Latte sure sounds like Juliet Huddy. HEHEHE
Aha! Something we finally agree on.
This article is maddening! What a wench that "foreign correspondent" is. Out of touch with reality, too, I might add.
That dumb bee-otch would have been wearing her latte on her blouse if she'd called me stupid for supporting Pres. Bush.
You know, I wonder to whom exactly this foreign correspondent would cry out to had she been in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon or on any of the planes on 911-- or on any of the buses or in the buildings that regularly blow up in Israel?
She doesn't appreciate either the threat of terrorism or the love of God it appears.
Being that Ms. Coffee Latte (or whatever she drinks) has such disdain and loathing for believers in God, I guess she feels invincible in her terribly self-centered world.
It must be so very difficult to be a giant like she is, having to walk around in life looking so far down at people all the time. Pity.
When Ms. Latte said that anyone who supports Bush, the writer should have silently risen from the table and left her for this personal insult.
Why ruin a perfectly good breakfast?
The problem with this ilk is that they have to refuse to believe there is no evil in the world. That is why everything is shades of grey. If they believe there is evil in this world they have nothing in there moral fiber to fall back on like we "retarded" Christians.
Sounds like sage advice.
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