“Start spreading the news,
I am leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York. “

Frank Sinatra, New York, New York

 

 

Here in upstate New York we’ve recently had our primaries. You need to understand the burden of the upstater. As I travel and am asked where I’m from, my reply of “New York” is always followed by the caveat that I am from “upstate”, because I want to make clear that it’s not the same as being from the City. Up here we’ve always tended toward different values. With the exception of Tompkins County (New York City West), you’ll find most of the countryside up here plastered with pro 2nd amendment signs, Gadsden flags, and though I don’t really understand why, even the occasional confederate banner. Outside the major cities, politics generally run red, people go to church (or at least would if they weren’t so busy!), and not a few have at least a gun or two. When Ted Cruz spoke about New York values, we may have been a little offended, but we understood exactly what he meant… kind of like someone insulting your crazy cousin. It’s possible to love your state, even the Big Apple, and still be a little ashamed of what it has come to.

Some have become so frustrated with the dichotomy between downstate and upstate, with upstate usually coming up on the short end of the stick, that they have suggested splitting the state in two. Downstate would be the new smaller New York, and upstate would become a new entity, “New Amsterdam”, in homage to our Dutch forefathers and Henry Hudson I suppose. Such secessionist movements exist in many states, but for the most part are an arena for those who like to strike a radical pose without any real chance of changing anything. Just the same, if nothing else, calling for secession at least shows the world that you don’t share the values held by your downstate step siblings.

All that being said, it is disheartening that the recent primary results have shown the state to be remarkably homogenous. Republicans across the state, downstate and upstate, have chosen the second most narcissistic and inept candidate still in the race as their champion… only to be outdone in far greater numbers by the democrats statewide who chose the first most narcissistic and inept for their own. With these primaries New York, all of New York, may have propelled the nation to having to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to lead our country. Having set aside our erstwhile contrarian persuasions we have bowed to the values of our downstate overlords, and set up a race where the principles we claim to hold have no representative. Of the wide array of republican hopefuls we have chosen the one least in line with what we pretend to look for in our candidates. Whether it be 2nd amendment, pro-life, traditional marriage, free trade, limited government… Trump always comes up well down the scale on conservatism. In the few days since the primary he has advocated moderating the GOP platform on abortion, criticized North Carolina for their “rest room law”, and sounded like a Democrat in promising to raise taxes on the “rich”.

On the Democrat side, I am certainly no fan of Bernie Sanders’ political agenda, but it seems he is sincere in his beliefs, and at least an honest man. Hillary and her cohorts seem to be unable to define a difference between a socialist and a democrat, and honestly, that’s probably because substantively there isn’t one. So given the choice between an old man with a misguided conscience, and an old woman with no conscience at all, New Yorkers across the state made the obvious New York choice; we’re with Hillary!

IMHO: Ted Cruz’s derogatory comments regarding “New York” values were in reference to Trump’s admission that his own values, given the fact that he was from New York, tended to be liberal and not conservative. Trump was ironically able to twist that to his advantage with low information voters, and effectively herd the New York electorate away from Cruz to a landslide victory in New York. It should not really come as a surprise to us here though, because even in upstate, we do seem to lapse into “New York values”. We are a state that seems particularly susceptible to “star power”. Hillary zeroed in on us for her senate run as a state that would elect her for her celebrity regardless of her qualifications. We have a governor who was elected because his name is “Cuomo”… c’mon folks, what other reason could there possibly be! Only jaded Manhattan, unimpressed by stardom refused to kiss the Trump ring. And we are a state that even in it’s most conservative bastions is far less principled in it’s conservativeness than other states. We even have our own brand within the GOP, “New York Republicans”, the original RINO’s. We value brashness, impatience and in your face disrespect. We don’t much worry about courtesy, and probably use our middle finger as much as anywhere else in the nation. As such, Trump is a natural fit for us. In much the same way that America fell in love with Archie Bunker, the character Carrol O’Connor played in the sitcom “All in The Family”; people love Trump for the character he portrays without realizing that the joke is on them. The chief reason voters give for voting for Trump is that he tells it like it is, though what he says is continually inaccurate. Besides this we now have the assurances of Ben Carson and Paul Manafort that there are two Donald Trumps, and that his rally persona is different from his real life persona… is that another way of saying that it’s all an act?
And so my apologies to Mr. Cruz and my conservative brethren across the land for our “New York values”. It’s time to admit to ourselves who we apparently are up here in “upstate”. Conservative values will be relegated to the back seat. Take down your “Safe Act” protest placards, your “Cuomo has got to go” signs, your Gadsden flags and your phony conservative facades; and enough of this “New Amsterdam” crap; we are for Hillary, we are for Trump… we are New York.

 

 

“When the itch is inside the boot, scratching outside
provides little consolation.”

Chinese Proverb

 

 

It’s hard to figure what Americans want. I’m not sure most of them even know. Jerry Seinfeld joked about how men watch TV; in describing their perpetual channel surfing behavior, he explained that men don’t care what’s on TV, they only care what else is on TV. We have come to that place with our government. We don’t care what we’ve had, what we have… we only wonder what else we could try that might be, well, something new. It doesn’t matter if it’s a better idea, just if it’s a different idea.

…“Here’s a thought, let’s put Sarah Palin in for VP!”… “Hey let’s put a black guy in for leader of the free world, we never had a black guy… his politics don’t matter!” … “Let’s get a bunch of Tea Party kooks to run, doesn’t matter how stupid”… “Isn’t it time we had a woman for President? Hillary will do, never mind her baggage!”… “Hey did you hear what Trump said… let’s make him President!” …” No, Democratic Socialism, it’s different!”

One almost dare not ask what’s coming next. Now I have nothing against having a conservative woman for Vice President, even one that’s a little bit red-neck, nothing against a black president, I like Tea Party candidates, and maybe it is time we had a woman for President. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going outside the world of politics to elect our leaders, and– well, no, not socialism, I can’t go that far!… but I have nothing against old jewish guys! That being said, there’s more to a good idea than just being different.

For over 200 years the US was the envy of the world. The combination of freedom and opportunity was a magnet to immigrants, and the system of checks and balances integral to our Constitution seemed to have provided this nation with as perfect a marriage between a people and it’s government as has ever existed throughout history. Ah, but even perfect marriages sometimes falter! One spouse becomes unresponsive and the other becomes unhappy. Someone’s eye starts to wander, and then their heart. Where commitment, communication, and a little counseling might have gotten them over the rough patch, they blame each other, and soon the only answer to the unhappiness seems to be to “see what else is on”. But seeing what else is on won’t ultimately bring happiness anymore than scratching the outside of the boot will assuage the itch on the inside. The unhappiness is on the inside. Likewise, arbitrary changes to the system of government that made the US the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth, will not make us a better country, the problem is on the inside. We like to focus our dissatisfaction on things outside ourselves. In a faltering marriage we pretend we were never in love. In a faltering nation we pretend we were never something special, or at least that we aren’t now. And so we tear ourselves apart; we condemn what we once extolled; we humanize our heroes, and then we demonize them. And when we have brought the exalted low, that gives us permission to throw it all away.

And so, as we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, we might be better advised to look for the lifeboats. Social media is replete with jokes about wondering where the real candidates for President are, as if it were not we the people who came up with this bunch. We like to have heroes, even when they are not very heroic, and even more we like to have villains, who we transform into Satans; but the truly disturbing question is, what kind of people choose these kinds of heroes? What kind of majorities choose these kinds of villains? When did we begin to celebrate crudeness as candor? When did we redefine dishonesty as sophistication? When did bullying become a virtue? When did we decide it might be reasonable to abandon the economic engine that made us the richest nation in the world, to follow the advice of a 74 year old who’s never had a real job, and say, “what the heck, why not socialism… might be worth a shot!” You can tell a lot about people by the heroes that they worship. Flawed people prefer flawed heroes; we create our gods in our own image, so that we can feel more comfortable with our own low standards. We banish our idealized gods to mythology, and superheroes to the movies; our true leaders, our real idols look a lot like us, and we prefer it that way.

IMHO: We never like to blame ourselves. If we can’t find a way to blame someone else, our last resort is to blame our past selves. When a marriage gets rocky we’ll start by blaming our spouse. If that doesn’t fly we’ll blame our past self, “I made the wrong choice, this was never my destiny, I was never really in love…”. Rarer than Diogenes’ honest man is the individual who won’t shift the blame to another person, or even a past tense of themselves. How often have you heard someone own the blame entirely and admit that the only thing wrong with their marriage is that they’re not doing it right? With such an attitude comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes work. When it comes to relationships we are mostly all lazy, and rather than do the work we’d rather cast our lot to the wind and hope fate will send us something less demanding.
There’s nothing wrong with our system of government. It was a miracle when it was designed, and it remains miraculous; we’re just not doing it right. Burning down the house instead of fixing it will leave us all homeless, and entertaining a bevy of political oddities in the hopes that one will be the magic elixir that fixes everything is folly, and a scratching of the outside of the boot. All the lies, the bickering, the name calling, the finger pointing, the hatred… all signal that we have given up on the work it would take to be a virtuous people who would produce a virtuous government. We opt for something less; we opt for domination, we opt for winning at all costs; liberty we have found to be too laborious, so we consign ourselves to the ease of tyranny.
The salvation of a troubled nation is not magical, and we vainly search for a magician to scratch our itch. As with marriage, healing comes from love. Love for our heritage, even with the mistakes we’ve made. Love for the land, love for the people, love for our destiny and the goodness we have brought to the earth. We can shed a tear for our sins, and repentance is a powerful force, but self-loathing is only suicidal. Perhaps after 240 years the miraculous has grown tedious, and we no longer see the wonder; but we have something here worth saving. It’s not popular to say it anymore, but I love America.

 

 
“…My native country, thee.
Land of the noble free.
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.”

My Country Tis of Thee