In a Suburb, a Microcosm of the Nation

New York Times ^ | November 7, 2010 | PETER APPLEBOME

[reaganaut1]

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y.

You can pick your own microcosm representing last week’s Tuesday Night Massacre, but the 19th Congressional District in the northern suburbs is as good as any.

One day John Hall, a co-founder of the rock band Orleans, was still the one — a staunchly liberal, environmentally minded representative first elected in the Democratic surge in 2006, whose campaign benefited from concerts by musicians like Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Carole King.

And then, suddenly, he was tossed out in favor of Nan Hayworth, a Tea Party-backed retired ophthalmologist and free-enterprise absolutist whose goals include repealing or gutting the health care overhaul, abolishing the inheritance tax, extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone no matter how wealthy, and radically downsizing government.

Just don’t suggest that it seems schizophrenic. “It’s a corrective,” Ms. Hayworth said. “To use the word ‘schizophrenic’ implies we’re just going from one extreme to the next. This is a rational response to the clear knowledge that we have a federal government that is doing things that are very bad and damaging to our economy and our future.”

She was picking at her French toast and bacon at the Mount Kisco Diner, having been accorded rock star treatment from supporters, whom she greeted with a natural ebullience that suggested someone for whom a second career in politics was hardly a stretch.

“You can’t accumulate debt in the ways they have without imperiling the enterprise that has made us the strongest and most productive nation in history,” she continued, tapping a finger on the Formica and speaking in rapid-fire, polysyllabic bursts. “Are we perfect? No. But we are the greatest nation ever to exist. I do believe in American exceptionalism with all my heart, and that’s why I ran, because American exceptionalism comes from free enterprise.”

[reaganaut1]

Where DID all these conservative/libertarian women come from? (I'm pleased.) I never heard of Nan Hayworth, but I like her now (although the NYT writer is clearly horrified.) Maybe conservative women who fly under the radar and escape the ridicule and demonization of the left and its media allies are more likely win. The Rats spent much more energy defeating Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell.

The article goes on to say that her father made Nan Hayworth a conservative by having her read Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" in high school.

[GeronL]

You do not make someone a conservative, they have to realize the truth themselves.

[ken5050]

I’ve known Nan and her husband casually for years..very classy, and very smart lady. One point that may be of interest. The author compares her, correctly, to Sue Kelly, the former representative... The district was redrawn after the 2000 census to move the southern part ( Chappaqua) into Nita Loewy’s district, so that the Clintons would NOT have a congressman who voted three times to impeach him.. (kinda hard for constituent services, doncha know)So the 19th was actually more Republican..and Kelly held the seat, until narrowly defeated by Hall in the first Dem wave. If it had been kept intact..Hall would probably have won with too much difficulty..sometimes being “too cute” comes back to bite you ont he ass..

[Elwood P. Doud]

“... free-enterprise absolutist whose goals include repealing or gutting the health care overhaul, abolishing the inheritance tax, extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone no matter how wealthy, and radically downsizing government.”

Don’t you love when the NYT thinks they’re making someone sound bad, and are clueless that they’re increasingly making them sound good?

[goldstategop]

In states like NY, the Democrats took things more granted than they did in places like DE and NV with high-profile races - and they lost big.

The country does not like who the Democrats are or the ideas they represent.

[Cacique]

btt