I want to write a follow up to Miguel’s last post.
I have talked about my past, where I grew up, where I lived. I mention it again in this post, in detail, because in today’s political climate, it is relevant.
I grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood in Miami, Florida, in the shadow of the University of Miami, where my dad went to law school. My mom’s side of the family is from the Philadelphia/Camden County New Jersey area. I spend my summers and Christmas breaks in high school in and around Philly. My only college co-op was in Philly at one of the many petrochemical refineries in that city. I moved to Terre Haute, Indiana for college, and lived there for five years. My wife is from Terre Haute, my in-laws still live there and we go back a few times a year. After college I moved to Rapid City, South Dakota for grad school and completed my Ph.D. My first job out of school was just outside of Chicago in the Southwestern Suburbs. From there I picked up and moved to Omaha, Nebraska for a short while. I then had a career change and hauled off to Huntsville, Alabama.
I have claimed residency in South Florida, the Northeast Megalopolis, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and the Deep South.
Going to a private college prep high school, there were people who didn’t understand why I wanted to go to rural Indiana for college. They were almost disappointing in me for not sticking to the East Coast or going all the way to California. I remember coming back to Miami or visiting family in New Jersey from South Dakota and people not knowing the state I lived in. I heard something to the effect of “North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana… one of those big flat states out west” from more than a few people. I had people ask if we had running water and if people in South Dakota really lived in Tipis. I’m not kidding.
Going to the Deep South was even worse. I had to justify why I would move to Alabama. “Why would you go to Alabama, can’t you find an engineering job somewhere else?” Then I have to explain that Huntsville is known as Rocket City, USA, there are more rocket scientists in Huntsville than anywhere else in the world, and everything the US government uses to launch objects into space, for war and peace, comes out of Huntsville.
None of that matters to the die hard anti-Southern bigot. I was in Pittsburgh airport, flying back to Huntsville, going home from a business trip. I’m in line talking to the person next to me, just chatting. She asked where I was going.
“Alabama.”
“Heading out or going home.”
“Heading back home.”
The guy in front of me looks at me, and says in a heavy NYC accent “You’re from Alabama, you don’t look like your parents are cousins” and laughs.
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One of the things that the Jews learned from the Holocaust is that we weren’t European. It didn’t matter how much we assimilated. If we adopted German or Polish or French last names and spoke German or Polish or French in our homes. We were Jews and were never really their countrymen.
The hysterical fallout of the 2016 election of Donald Trump has made it crystal clear to me that we may speak the same language, wave the same flag, use the same passport, but to the Blue strongholds of the Northeast and Pacific Coast Megalopolises, we aren’t their countrymen.
The Hill argues that the enlightened Liberal areas of the country are “held hostage by flyover states.”
The Daily Kos is celebrating the suffering of poor people in Appalachia.
The rest of the Liberal coasts have been doing nothing but calling the land in between racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and every other hateful thing they can.
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I don’t much care for New York City, it’s too crowded, too expensive, and smells like piss. But I’ve never hated people from NYC.
The open, naked hatred the Coastal Metropolises direct at the land between is shocking. It has been made quite clear that they think nothing but the worst of us and don’t want to even try to try to understand life outside of their bubble.
Miguel said “I have this nagging feeling that if they could tent & treat flyover country like a house full of termites, they would not think about it twice.”
I’d have to agree. From what I’ve seen in the last few weeks, I think the only reason Hillary supporters haven’t started to build a Dachau in Nebraska to start their final solution to the Trump supporter question is that they don’t know where to get any vegan kale and quinoa salads in Omaha to feed their workforce.
I was born and raised in Indiana. I’ve lived in other countries and many states. Currently reside in the DC metro area. The disdain they have for the places between is bordering on unhinged. I get to move back to Texas in about 6 months. I can’t wait. Because there, the people don’t hate the edges of the country. For the most part they couldn’t care less, they’re busy living and surviving. It might be the difference in the collectivist vs. individualist mindsets that direct their politics.
Did the NY guy look like his parents were cop killers?
I really wanted to say “You’re from New York? You don’t look like a gay, mafioso, off Broadway screenwriter” but my Midwestern nice kept that inside.
Their idea of being part of a workforce is sitting in a locally owned coffee shop (commune-grown coffee beans only!) and blogging about how intolerant everyone is outside their bubble of Williamsburg (Brooklyn).
I have to agree with the article. Most of the “conservatives” in places like NYC have jobs that require them to get their hands dirty. I really can’t explain it, but a lot of city workers (Fire, Police, Sanitation, etc) are conservative (a NYC Conservative is similar to an old Blue Dog Southern Democrat). You’ll see a lot of construction guys that are conservative even though they are card-carrying union members. Within the city itself, these people are generally hated but the disdain that exists for anyone outside the city is still fairly universal. “Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?” is a commonly heard explanation for why “those people” are yokels and just “don’t get it.” It must be a coping mechanism for why the city-dwellers can’t afford non-subsidized housing or something. The younger ones generally don’t own vehicles and rarely get out of the city. I find it comical when I have family or in-laws visit (my wife’s side is from the same NY area). They are always amazed by the vast open spaces of the Western US and uncomfortable with the culture in these beautiful areas.
My cousin is a NYPD sergeant. When I put a gun on my hip before we walked out the door, it kicked off a long (and sometimes comical) conversation about gun laws in AZ. He had never heard of “Constitutional Carry” and had a hard time wrapping his mind around it even though he is one of those aforementioned NYC conservatives. I could go on about my wife’s sister-in-law asking if we could not have guns in the house when they were staying with us (and my wife responding with, “Which hotel would you like to stay at?”). It really is a different world. There are 2 America’s and all of the Mainstream Press is based out of those snobby coastal type places which just reinforces the bubble in which the city-dwellers live. I don’t expect it to change and I don’t expect it to end well.
John Edwards was right about exactly one thing: there really are two Americas. There’s the United States… and the Democratic Party.
Born and raised in downstate NY. The suburbs of Long Island specifically.
And, everything you say is absolutely correct.
The world ends on the other side of the bridge. Yes, if you have a major professional sports team, we may acknowledge that you exist, but everything else is nothing but a bunch of rednecks dating their cousins.
I was lucky enough to actually spend some time in other States and countries, and let me tell you, there is ZERO chance I will ever live in the NY metro area again. None, zip, zilch.
Forget the masses of humans, the high costs and taxes, and the over-burdensome overreaching government, it is the attitude that really gets to me. For some reason, everyone in the NY metro area seems to think they have to so great, and no one else could possibly be happy anywhere else. And they think that everyone wants to live in NYC for some reason.
Much happier, and saner, since i left.
Born and raised here in Western New York. Upstate seems to be viewed mostly as a nature preserve/playground for folks from “the city” to use on their vacation time, and those of us living here seem to be regarded as hicks and rednecks, mostly because everything west of Albany is basically the midwest/appalachia. We have a lot more in common up here with people from Ohio and Indiana than we do with anyone from NYC. When I was in college, I knew a lot of people from downstate and almost all of them mocked us up here and would even say stuff like “you’re not REALLY from New York”. I never understood why they thought they were above us, why living in a large city suddenly means you’re better than people living in the country. One guy in particular mocked us as all being rednecks because “no one in the city drives a pickup truck”. The incredible hubris of NYC’ers has caused me to preface all conversations with people from other parts of the country with “I live in New York State” so as not to be confused with people I have nothing at all in common with.
J. Kb.
My Odyssey is somewhat similar to yours. Raised mostly in Eastern Idaho, and with a degree in nuclear engineering, I’ve traveled around a good part of the country including sojourns to the northeast, midwest, southeast southwest, and Pacific northwest.
One thing I would add is that rural areas, even in the liberal strongholds are distinctly different both culturally and politically from the urban areas. Also, and this is a bit frightening, is that those urban elites who insist on making our decisions for us have absolutely no clue what it takes to make their urban utopia livable. Even with some hard whacks with the “Awesome Clue Bat of Reality”, such as couple of region wide electrical blackouts, and hurricane Sandy, they seem to believe that their precious cities can run on kale and unicorn farts.
Well said, J.Kb. One of the defining New York City things to me was just something I heard a New Yorker say on TV. I think it was immediately post 9-11-01. He referred to such a thing happening, “in the capital of the universe”.
Excuse me? Not the capital of the US or the financial capital, or something a bit less grandiose, but the capital of the universe? But that’s the mental condition there. And I think Miguel really nailed it with the observation, “I have this nagging feeling that if they could tent & treat flyover country like a house full of termites, they would not think about it twice,” except I think they’d feel more compassion for the termites. People for the Ethical Treatment of Bugs would protest to protect the termites.