Life in the Political Backwater

Let me set the mood for you

You live in a townhouse in the middle of a major American city. There are at least three competitive Senate Races within an hour and a half of where you live. There are countless House Races within a day's drive from you and you are active in one of these races.

Welcome to the Political Backwater of New York City?
Make the jump

Now you might be questioning how the fuck is New York City a Political Backwater? I will tell you how, because we are so in the middle of everything that goes on the American politics that we put on the pedestal. New York City is no longer a place, it is a concept. The City has been reduced to a talking point for the left and right. For the right: 9-11 9-11 9-11 9-11...you get the picture. For the left remember a few months back when that total failure Michael Chertoff called the Empire State Building "a office building" the Brooklyn Bridge "a bridge" and cut the City's funding from DOH and increased it for Louisville? It really didn't affect the lives of the people living here. The place itself is the backwater.

The fact that I am still in high school furthers the fact that I am personally living in a political backwater, no matter how unabashedly liberal all of us are. As a leader in progressive education we are a liberal school among liberal schools. We are active in what ways we can be, living in the Bluest of Blue districts, if it be campaigning for Gillibrand in NY-20 or phone banking for Menendez in NJ-Sen. But when we get old enough to vote, we will be voting for Nadler, Engle, Rangle, Maloney or whoever replaces them in the future. We will put all kinds of money into political campaigns as we represent 4 of the 5 top donating zip codes in the last presidential cycle. But what do we get in return? We become a talking point.

Of course the fact that most of what is done by this administration is so vastly opposed by the majority of New Yorkers doesn't stop them from doing it in our name. New York remains one of if not the top terror target for Ted Baxter's declared "Islamofascists." I know I would rather have liberty. I would rather have Habeas Corpus then a little security. We don't want to have the GOP here, Remember the Day of Anarchists during the 2004 GOP national convention? My dad was arrested and sent to Gitmo-on-the-Hudson, Pier 57. All because they wanted to make New York City a talking point. The place is the backwater; the concept is the highest form of political discourse in the nation today.

I offer one quote by the great Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little temporary security would deserve neither and loose both"