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.
"frequents Elaine's restaurant"
For all you ignoramuses out there, let me enlighten you. Elaine's is the northern name for the franchise Wendy's. Aren't you glad I informed 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."
This line really got me.
Just because we're against gay marraige doesn't mean we're afraid of or hate gays. This Ms. Camhe believes that we're two year-olds who are afraid of the bogey man.
BS
What an elitist *itch.
damn, where's my coffee...
The county I live in (Western NY area) went 65% for Bush - 35% for Kerry). The same for almost all rural counties in these parts...
I was thinking back what compelled me to get involved actively and recall it was all the money the democrats were pouring into their campaign. George Soros for one outraged me. Looking closer on FR, I realized the outright deceit and slander they were mounting against the President and more... people were buying it!
I know now that I have to stay involved at a state and local level. NJ democrats are the worst of the worst. From this last campaign process, I know that selfless volunteers motivated by fair play will prevail. We've all learned that if you do something... compelled to do something because it is right the rewards will be beyond anything imaginable.
And on FR, we have an opportunity to find out who we are and what we believe: the article really states the NYC has isolated itself from the rest of the country. The truth is there in the NY Post. Terry McAuliff called it 'the Mad Magazine of Journalism'.
How did Pennsylvania vote?
They may have to move the billboard.
I replied 'Disappointed -- my friends and neighbors weren't as smart as the rest of the country -- there should have been more red.'
I saw horror on some of the faces in line, and flashes of smiles on others.
The comments in this article are utterly ironic, considering how New York has become the kind of place where Americans used to send Christian missionaries.
Says the person literally living on an island where 85% of the residents voted for the same candidate...
Someone should remind these New York liberals that they are only 350 miles from Montreal and 500 from Toronto. If they don't own cars, Greyhound and Amtrak are available, as is Air Canada. For somewhat more money, they can go to Paris, Berlin, Brussels, or Amsterdam. (They do not need to go to our allies in Britain and Italy.)
"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.
This total paternalistic contempt for everyone who doesn't think like themselves is why liberals will never win election in the US.
Item A in why we need to saw off the northeast at the Hudson River and give it to Canada.
Interestate 80 is quite a ways north of Philadelphia, so when you drive across PA on it you pass through voting districts that supported Bush by a combined margin of something like 80%-20%.
BIN LADEN'S POST ELECTION HOPES & DREAMS:
He hoped to look at a map of America, solid blue (really
yellow) with one or two red states here or there which he
could send his minions to attack.
WHAT BIN LADEN SAW POST ELECTION:
HE SAW THE WHOLE DAM* COUNTRY IN RED, (the part with all
the ammo) THE WHOLE DAM* COUNTRY AT WAR WITH - - HIM!!!!
Thanks.
My Dad told me long ago that Democrats are "wired different" than most people. Without resorting to names, I think I can live with that description. They are wired different (as in wires crossed, short in the wire, etc).
"Do you know how I described New York to my European friends?" she said. "New York is an island off the coast of Europe."
I wonder if Rula Lenska is one of her European friends?
This article should have had a 'Barf Alert.'
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! New Yorkers---known for their INTOLERANCE of anyone and everyone---touting their "diversity and compassion". WHAT a JOKE!!!!
read later
Everyone has to know that they have a part to play. I got out the Republican vote in rural Ceres Township,PA. The organization of the Bush camp was amazing. Mr. Tabor, a Texas attorney, co-ordinated the effort.
I think it's important that Freepers realize that there are many people in "enemy" territory(be it Europe or NYC) who agree with us. There are many more conservatives in NYC than there are in McKean County, PA.
Thanks for your hard work in a difficult environment!
All I got to say to these worthless SOBs eletists is FU and Haw Haw - your snobby better than thou attitude doesnt play in south and heartland. You dont send your sons and daughters off to fight for this country, and never had, all you care about is getting your damn cup of cappaccino and attending your little dinner parties and art exhibits. Go to hell liberals/communists well take care of the country you just shut the hell up.
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