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Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
I thionk many politicians play into the cultural issue and seek to divide, not unify. And this is for both Dems and Reps. The issues are no longer the issues- we are polarizing over life choices and ideas. Instead of looking for unity, and ways to work together, we’re looking for ways to keep one party or the other in power and their constituents down. I can hear the screams now but the Bush Administration mastered the technique and now we are seeing it go viral.
Gemini,
Gerrymandering = unfairly drawing political boundaries to bias the electoral outcome.
Btw – cool story on the W’burg thread. I admire both you and your parents.
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people’s money.”
—Margaret Thatcher
In light of what’s going to happen to entitlement spending with social security and medicare when the boomers start retiring/decaying I’ve got some worries about adding universal health care to the mix.
Bxgrl, I certainly don’t “lay the diversity problem just on NYC’s doorstep” – but this is a blog about NYC, with New Yorkers commenting, so that was my focus. I put on my “defend NYC” hat with non-New Yorkers like my great uncle who told me that “The only thing I know about Brooklyn is that it’s a place where you’re not supposed to go!”.
The Stalinist comment was tongue-in-cheek, like your comment about Legion in a padded cell, but I do think that it is important to have dissenting voices. Defending the process of truly competitive elections is important, especially when the outcome isn’t in doubt.
“That being said, once people look past their prejudices and biases, we seem to find we are more alike than different.”
Couldn’t have said it better.
Re polarization:
Hmmm…maybe culturally but I don’t think it’s all that strong electorally. Think cities and some rural areas have become more homogenized and suburbs more diverse.
I’m still heartened by the fact that many states will go against their usual party loyalty to vote for a stronger candidate (e.g. MA having Republican governors from the early 90’s till 2007).
WTF is gerrymandering? hahaha
6Years- not for nothing but fhave you ever heard people from other parts of the country talk about “liberal, socialist, unamerican new Yorkers?” After 9-11 we had tens of thousands of people come here from all over the country. The most common sentiment? Gee- I never knew New Yorkers were so nice! New York has been on the receiving end of a lot of abuse in fact, when I went to SUNY Binghamton, an upstate told me she was shocked at how normal I seemed for a NY Jew. She thought I would be physically different than the rest of the country and would have horns. I kid you not.
That being said, once people look past their prejudices and biases, we seem to find we are more alike than different. So let’s not lay the diversity problem just on NYC’s doorstep. And truthfully, when you say “in general elections I usually vote for any non-Democrat simply on the principle that no candidate in America deserves a Stalinist-style 95% reelection.” you’re indulging in the same smallminded, shortsighted behavior you accuse the rest of us of). Stalinist- jeesh. So ridiculous.
I do jester, but it’s in PA
I have a number of other power tools in the basement here though if you ever need to use any…router, chop saw, table saw…the basics
“Through relocation, however, we have sorted ourselves nationally into ever more homogeneous communities of people who think, vote, earn, and act more or less the same way.”
So true for both red and blue. So much for diversity! I’ve met so many people in NYC who can’t imagine having a conservative friend. They seem to think people in red-state America grow horns or something.