Gillibrand & NY's Urban-Rural Divide
The last 48 hours were fascinating for someone like myself, fascinated by the stark divide between America's urban and rural cultures.
Kirsten Gillibrand, who will become our next Senator from New York on Sunday, is deeply connected to cosmopolitan New York City.
She was a securities lawyer; special counsel to Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development; and her husband comes from England.
But Gillibrand also has Upstate roots: she's loyal to some of the cultural traditions of New York's small-town world. Hunting is only one marker of her "bi-cultural" background.
Within the Five Boroughs, the reaction to her red-state tendencies has been fierce. Before she had been officially named, Gillibrand had liberal opponents lining up to dethrone her.
I'll admit it: I was taken aback. I thought the obvious backing of New York's Democratic elite -- Schumer, Paterson, Clinton, Lowey, etc. -- would be enough to establish her progressive credentials.
Not so. The liberal blogs have issued a collective shriek of rage.
The punch line is that the next eighteen months will be fascinating. Upstate New York has a real voice in Washington DC. Will it be silenced in the next election?
posted by Brian Mann @ 1/24/2009 01:11:00 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I've been a hunter for 50 years, own 7 longguns, and would gladly register each one. I oppose public sale and ownership of assault weapons. I'm a registered Democrat, and, like Sen. Gillibrand am hard to pigeonhole.
Kirsten is a victim of her own mythology. Two years ago, running against Sweeney she had to distance herself so completely from her NYC connections that she seemed at times to have come from a birch bark lean-to. Less so in her race against Sandy Treadwell. This identity crisis should pass as she scurries leftward on same sex marriage, immigration and guns. Speaking of guns, somebody really ought to get word to Scott Simon to ask Dan Schorr only topics he's thoroughly briefed on. His confusion of Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Carolyn McCarthy slipped by the editors and went uncorrected.
Brian,
What is a "red state tendency"? Will you please stop referring to the red state-blue state baloney? Dividing the states into R-B misses so much variation among voter opinions I don't know where to begin... This oversimplification has been debunked by serious academics [see Morris Fiorina at Stamford U], yet it still persists amongst reporters.
Second, what do you mean that Senator KG's husband is from England? The rural-urban divide you're so fixated on exists on the other side of the pond too and has for many years. Is the hubby from rural or urban England? Are we to assume (as I think you're implying) that he's "urban" and thus as unlikely as Sen. KG to support "red state" issues, whatever they might be.
JP
This upstate/downstate thing is sort of interesting. While I am only vaguely familiar with Ms. Gillibrand, I think of her as just another bourgeois politician masquerading as some hip "upstater." And hell, Hudson's only upstate if compared to Westchester! Would it be impossible to find somebody from the real upstate (read The North Country), who is not a member of the propertied class, who understands the Appalachia/Harlem reality, and could truly represent the other half of the state. I think Charles Schumer is a good man, a wonderful representative, and has worked hard north of Lake Placid. However, balance would be awesome.
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