A Blue City (Disconsolate, Even) Bewildered by a Red America

New York Times ^ | Nov 4, 2004 | Joseph Berger

[TheBigB]

I have only been in PA for a few months...nice, friendly people. And my county is part of the very conservative midstate. :) As a born-and-raised Alabamian, though, I consider myself a red-stater no matter what!

"My hooooome's in Alabama..no matter wheeeere I lay my head..."--Alabama

[NonValueAdded]

Chirs, thanks for coming down and helping out here in Florida.

[jude24]

I go to a law school in upstate NY that has a lot of people from NY City there; the majority are from NY state. When Kerry lost yesterday, there was morning and rage -- the rage was directed towards "ignorant" "narrow-minded" "bigoted" "pickup-truck driving" Republicans who voted that way out of fear.

The conservative minority here tried to keep from gloating. Somehow, I think if the shoe were on the other foot, it would not had been this way.

[rhetor]

As another New Yorker . . . I second that.

[EA_Man]

The absolute obtuse condescension of the Left is on full display. What they call diversity is ironically the lock-step thinking that they mock.

What a parody!

[SuziQ]

"People who are more competitive and proficient at what they do tend to gravitate toward cities," he said.

I hope these sentiments get WIDE play in the media, so all of us rubes can get a true picture of what it was we helped defeat on Tuesday, and to NEVER let these people get into positions of power again.

[timpad]

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.

25 years of having their butts handed to them and they still don't see it. We lazy, incompetent dolts just refuse to be governed and cared for by our betters.

Thank you for this post, it's great news. The piece absolutely drips with condescension. They won't see the light, they won't change, and in 2006, we pick up 5 more Senate seats and it's on!

My God, we risked life limb and treasure for these people, and they still don't get it!

Hmmm...sounds familiar, like maybe, France? Insensitivity to and the dismissal of the efforts of others is a hallmark of liberals. Only they move the world.

But, we will go on talking about liberty and faith in spite of our Leftist masters.

[livius]

Great account, Chris1, and thanks for all you did.

I live in Alachua County (near Duval County) and we worked our little fingers to the bone, too. My county, heavily Dem because of the presence of the University, almost went for Bush! Dems outnumber Republicans 2-1, but the vote was almost 50-50. It's truly amazing what volunteers can do.

Incidentally, I found out that many of the people who worked for the Kerry campaign were not volunteers, but had been hired to do things that were being done for the GOP by volunteers. That was pretty revealing.

As for the attorneys, we had a ton of them here at the polling places, but that's because there's a law school at the U, and liberal attorneys with spare time are easy to come by here.

Thanks for bringing New York lawyer toughness to our occasionally too polite GOP here in Florida!

[Graybeard58]

There's too much in here to slam New Yorkers with. I prefer to say thanks to those New Yorkers who were sane enough to vote for "W".

I guess my sympathies are with those conservative folks in New York, who are in the minority there because I too live in a blue state (Illinois)

Let's add much maligned Californians while we are at it- lot of good conservatives there too

[Toespi]

"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."

What was wrong with the 50's?

[beeler]

Please try to wrap your arms around me, you liberal twit. You'll get your jaw broken with that crap where I come from.

[SE Mom]

"With all due respect, DIVERSITY is what is destroying this country! "

---

Uhm...I think that's what I was saying here:

"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."

[ruiner]

I agree. Its scary because the very people that attacked them aren't globalists.

Its basically like saying, "We're globalists, the rest of the country aren't globalists, the arab world is attacking us in part because of our globalization, but I wish everyone was more globalist because they just don't understand!"

[AnAmericanMother]

Awesome story!

The great thing about folks in the South (and in Texas which considers itself a separate republic still :-D ) is that they will meet you and evaluate you on a one-on-one level. Always the benefit of the doubt. If you're an honest, decent, good sort you can't have a better friend (if you're not - you can't have a worse enemy.)

(Of course, you do have to put up with a little bit of "you know, you're not such a bad guy for a Yankee" . . . but they don't mean any harm by it, just acknowledging that you don't fit the stereotype!) :-D

As they used to say in the old days, "Welcome South Brother."

[Safetgiver]

10 to one if they had their own country based on their elitism they would attack us and try to defeat us. It' for our own good, doncha know.

[Bull Man]

Have you ever read anything as self-righteous and arrogant as this? And they criticize Christian Conservatives as narrow minded? Oh and BTW – why do we tolerate the derogatory reference as “rednecks.” Isn’t that hate-speech?” Kind of brings into question their famed “tolerance.”

[B Knotts]

Obviously, and contrary to the Times' wishes, these are not actually typical New Yorkers.

It is bitingly amusing, though, that at least regarding the people cited in the article, their criticsms of misconceptions are more applicable to themselves than to those they are criticizing. They have a very warped view of America.

[sinkspur]

"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."

The mainstream media's already done that, lady.

That's why you elitists got your asses handed to you on Tuesday.

Stay clueless while the rest of America goes to work.

[Reaganghost]

These people are either stupid, brain dead or can't remember.

Exactly!

[correctthought]

Actually, PA is beautiful, my wife and I are thinking of moving there from NY.

And yeah very nice people.

Thanks red staters