The REALity is, like another poster pointed out, it appears that those that live in the northeast corridor, whether "Republican" or democrat, are brought up in an environment of big government, with severe limits on their Constitutional rights (i.e., the anti-gun Sullivan Laws), and liberal leaning on all sorts of social issues (abortion, gays, etc.) - to the point that these people actually THINK their way of life is NORMAL.
To the rest of us out in "Red State" America, it most assuredly is NOT normal, or acceptable in any way.
That is why we will do our utmost to prevent RINO's and democrats from becoming President.
As I stated above, there are portions of public property in which security concerns have led to the authorities cutting off access to parts of streets and sidewalks. So my Constitutional Right to peaceably assemble has been taken from me.
Is that an example of how us Northeasteners have gotten used to living in a way that does not avail us of all of our Constitutional rights?
I'll live with it. Common sense tells me that my need to peacably assemble any closer to the NYSE than I can already get, or to walk up Park Row instead of Lafayette Street or St. James Place, is less important than the security concern. Given that I live at the center of arguably the biggest bullseye on the planet outside of Israel.
What an outrage. Yawn.
There is such a thing as thinking outside the box. Never mind. You wouldn't care. Some of us actually like living in NYC, and don't even care to denigrate other parts of the country, in spite of seemingly commonly-held attitudes about the stereotypical rudeness & judgmental nature of NYers who look scornfully upon the rest of the country.
But I will say I get AWFULLY tired of hearing from red-staters (and some blue-staters too) who go on about New York being Socialist. On the thread about the impending transit strike some nice soul said something about how it couldn't happen to a more socialist bunch of azzhats, or something to that effect. Real nice. Maybe they don't care what its impact on business will potentially mean for the rest of the country--probably themselves included--and maybe they don't care that for some it'll literally be a matter of life & death. It's the problem of us socialist azzhats.
I suppose we're supposed to maintain terrific attitudes about the rest of the country when those are the sorts of things directed at us. Maybe I'm just not conservative enough for people like that. Maybe because my idea of advancing the conservative agenda doesn't include spiking a thread about a politician with ridiculous labels like babykiller & faglover.
Perhaps Mike Long or Thomas Ognibene is reading this, though probably not. Regardless, this sort of thing is what I thought conservatives were supposed to leave to the undignified, and mostly on the left. You people are doing wonders for my estimation of what conservatism means to the people who seem to be more interested in hating liberals--an obvious exercise if ever there was one--than having discussions about how to come up with solutions to problems, particularly problems caused by faulty & shortsighted liberal policies. From where I sit, Rudy Giuliani was a mayor whose record is an example of that. But you can't please everyone, especially those, apparently, who would seemingly have had a problem with any NY politician merely because that's where they served.
If there's a more capitalist place on the face of the earth, please tell me where it is. The CAPITALIST nature of NYC dwarfs any Socialist aspects of our local government, entitlements, high taxes, etc. etc. If you need to think of us as Socialists, I cannot dissuade you. But perhaps you'd care to perk up yr ears whenever you hear the term "Wall St." It's not just a term. It's a place. It's here. A couple of blocks from where I live, thank you very much. And I tire of hearing about what Socialists we are.
We are nothing of the kind. Sorry to have this appear to be directed at you personally since I'm not sure that you were one of the posters who made this reference, but you have sure made some that are very much in line with the attitudes of posters who have said such things.
And if there's anyone who has any ideas about how we could be more capitalist than we already are, I'm all ears.