http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/reasonstoloveny/15361/index.html#1 reason- Because Bush is not our fault...
No. 1
After every malapropism, every inadvertent display of incuriosity, every heartbreaking show of incompetence, we can remind ourselves we had nothing to do with Bush’s reelection. It’s some consolation, small though it is.
In fact, the city actively tried to prevent his election. In 2004, one-third of John Kerry’s campaign funds came from New York, and in the end, nearly three-quarters of the city, or 74.3 percent, voted for him. (In Manhattan, this number was a staggering 81.7 percent; only in Staten Island did a majority break Bush’s way.) New Yorkers who hadn’t attended a protest since college got on buses to Pennsylvania and Ohio, knocked on doors, tried to swing things our way to nudge the country into a bluer state of mind. We fantasized about secession. “New York to country: Drop dead.”
The war? We decided we wanted someone else in charge of it, if not to end it, even if we bore the brunt of September 11’s casualties. The tax cuts? No thanks, even if New Yorkers are among the wealthiest citizens on planet Earth. Privatizing Social Security? Please. Even New Yorkers, whose very fortunes rise and fall with those of Wall Street’s, aren’t that evangelical about or trusting of the market.
Our rejection turned out to be prescient, but the sense of validation that our predictions have come true is cold comfort. Soldiers are still coming home in coffins; the Treasury is bare; a hurricane destroyed New Orleans and Bush could barely be made to notice. Of course our president is suspicious of government. He has no idea how to run one. At least New York, the ultimate meritocratic city, had the good sense to figure this out. We prefer self-made men and women in this town.
—Jennifer Senior
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