Recount: A Magazine of Contemporary Politics

The Divided States of America

By Sarah Davidson | Nov 8, 2004 Print

The disappointment of New Yorkers over the result of the presidential election was palpable this past week. Off-hand comments about moving to Canada, succession and the stupidity of Americans who re-elected the president were bandied about with as much concern as if people were talking about a baseball game. Despite the ethnic, social and economic diversity of the five boroughs – the quiet tree-lined drives of Staten Island, the historical neighborhoods of Flatbush in the Bronx, the center of commerce mingled with artists and institutions of higher learning in Manhattan, and the working class neighborhoods of Queens – New Yorkers were united last Tuesday in their desire to change the man who held the office of the presidency, and in so doing separate themselves from all those who did not make the same choice.

In the same way that the population of the country that provided President Bush the popular vote often views the residents of the states that overwhelmingly supported Senator Kerry, New Yorkers seemed to base their assessment of those who voted for the President, and the President himself, on emotions as opposed to concrete differences of opinion on how particular issues should be handled. That is not to say there were not a substantial number of voters on both sides who were aware of the issues, and voted based on the positions that each candidate took. But, with as little as a candidate is allowed to say for fear of alienating voters, and the manner in which a campaign is manufactured in sound bites and simplistic statements that prevent the populace from gleaning any true picture of the facts, it is no wonder people rely on emotions. 

Often voters could not vocalize what they wanted, except that they did not want what they had. New Yorkers did not like the Iraq war. We were killing innocent women and children, but they knew Kerry would not have pursued a policy that was substantially different. Education and health care were cited as important issues, but most could not say what they wanted changed at the federal level. Only among voters interviewed at polling stations where active students and professors were in line were issues like the environment and civil liberties broached; two topics where the candidates truly did exhibit substantial differences.

New York is more insular than one would first surmise. For all its diversity and learning there is little grasp of what goes on beyond its borders, within the nation as a whole. With the broad range of people here, there is perhaps more understanding of issues near and dear to the countries of people’s origins than there is of communities in other parts of the United States, and often more sympathy. True, emotions are at their peak at this moment, but comments like, “Next time they attack some place, don’t attack New York or San Francisco, take out Georgia,” or jokingly suggesting assassination as the solution to the election results, are as disappointing as anything uttered by any ultra conservative.

The world is a big and complicated place, and nowhere is it bigger or more complicated than the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the mid latitudes of the United States. The last thing any productive society can tolerate is intolerance. Despite what people think of each other, the first problem is that individuals believe that by having a political opinion that differs from one another they have to be against each other; that they have to pick a side and there is no cross over, and in that both sides are misguided.

There is more common ground than there are differences, but Americans have to overcome the divisiveness of the two party political system that has pitted them against each other in order to recognize that fact. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry acknowledged this division, and the need for finding common ground in his concession speech last Wednesday.

“Today I hope that we can begin the healing … We are required now to work together for the good of our country,” Kerry said. In the days ahead, we must find common cause. We must join in common effort without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion.” In a place like New York City, which talks about priding itself on the ability to be open minded and thoughtful, where the huddled masses have sought refuge throughout the nation’s history because of the possibilities that exist here and no where else, the expectation is that differences with the citizens of the country outside the city would not prevent New Yorkers from recognizing that common ground and working towards change from there.

Voting to change a man in office should not equate to vowing to hate those who support him. Although voters in New York City regularly spoke of hatred in the campaign originating in the Republican camp, an equal amount was offered in return, exhibiting what could also be construed as a fundamental reaction. Whether faith-based or arising from reason, a true believer is just that, unyielding and uncompromising, and in the end they eliminate the contributions of all those who fall somewhere in between. Just as Americans proved that support for President Bush reigned supreme over Sen. John Kerry, they also proved that the power of human emotion can reign supreme in matters of American politics, dividing as easily as it unites.

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