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.
What a bunch of snotty egotistical suckers.
Actually thanks from my wife and I to the rest of the country from someone who is behind enemy lines.
And not to nit pic TheBigB, isn't PA part of the blue nation? :)
These comments drip with the elitist arrogance that is exactly why the left is losing the culture war in America. Narrow, judgmental intolerance with the insistence that the world must march lockstep with their ideology.
IMO, the greatest hypocrisy of the Kerry candidacy was when he started wearing the American flag on his lapel. This lady's comment about NY being an island off Europe was dead on-they hate us precisely because we ARE Americans.
Beg to differ with the elitist.....We now only have gay neighbors but a few of us (Cheney included) have children that are gay. There are several families in our community with diverse ethnic background and we even tolerate those who chose to co inhabitant.......This gal doesn't know what she's talkin about!....Bet she's never even had a neighbor from the heartland....... One who has the ability to think/reason logically and not just feel.
"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."
Oh, no. No no no, please. Stay home.
Isn't this the definition of a "D@mn Yankee"? :D
All these people are in favor of diversity, as long as we are just like them.
Yep. And please consider the source. The NYSlimes...
"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."
This is stunning even for these weenies. Wow, they are going to wrap their arms around the heartland....ooh, yick....
But I sure would like for that bus trip around the country the come thru my neck of the woods...that'd be fun.
By the way, why is this bimbo hanging around the park? Why isn't she at home educating her children and fixing dinner for her husband who is off at work, in his small business?
later
As a Lower Manhattan teacher, I can assure all you Red-Staters that there are millions of us here in NYC who share you values, patriotism, and love of God and Country. Unfortunately, our fair city attracts alot of people who are of a different persuasion and, when you reflect on it, a goodly number of them are Red State ex-pats.
Don't paint all of us with the same brush. We turned out in droves, despite knowing the Electoral Vote futility of it, to help win the popular vote for GWB.
"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."
I don't know ANY Republicans who dishonor diversity or lack compassion for people with different lifestyles.
But we don't seem to weigh these issues in the same way libs do. I think WE more or less assume we're all different...and we should respect those differences. The difference(s) is in the foundations of our attitudes. I think Republicans/conservatives say- "WE're ALL Americans" I think libs/Dems say "I'm an African-American, Gay-American, Pro-choiceAmerican, Italian-American" etc.etc...
They talk about bringing people together- tolerance etc...while we just go about the business of living...together.
Awesome! Thanks for the hard work!
It's a perfect relationship. The rest of the country pulled for NYC after 9-11 and now NYC is all for itself.
"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."
In other words, if they really make an effort, they can show all of us "flyover" rubes, the error of our ways. This reminds me of an incident years ago, when a ship hauling garbage from NY City was stranded at sea, because no other state would take the garbage. The Mayor at the time, said that other states should be grateful to take NY's garbage since the city contributed soooo muuuchh to the nation's culture.
Well, as we say in VA, if you love NY, take 95 North.
"three morning newspapers to her chest while balancing a large latte..."
"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 think I see a little bit of the problem.
However, in other areas of Brooklyn, in Staten Island and in Queens there were hundreds of thousands of Bush voters who hate these people even more than FReepers do. You can take that to the bank.
What amazing ignorance.
I currently live in Houston...a likely target...My relatives live in Abilene, Texas (Dyess Air Force Base and three colleges), another likely target...I lived in Tulsa during the Oklahoma City bombing. Do we have schools, hospitals, and businesses in the heartland? Do we have roads, airports, and trains in the heartland? Are there humans living here? If so, we are JUST as likely to be struck by terrorist threats/attacks as New York or any other "blue" city. The threat of terrorism is universal...the philosophy of dealing with the dangers by attempting to elect a passivist moral weakling like John Kerry seems to be "understood" only by the left.
I think it's interesting how these disappointed, short-sighted people are zeroing in on terrorism as the main reason they voted for Kerry, when it's clear from pre-election discussion that gay rights, abortion rights, and many other leftist pet causes probably had as much or more to do with their decision than the war in Iraq.
Bewildered? Welcome to my world, latte girl!
<<<<>>>> I was raised New Yorker -- Upstate in Oswego --- not the City. The values and perceptions are all different from the City. New York State is not in my retirement plan in 17 months. The self absorbed, ungrateful City people are a stain on the State. I am sorry that you are surrounded by the City degenerates and wish you well for your future!
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