It's hard to know where to start.
The mind rebels at the notion.
Not since Mayor Marion Barry became ... well, Mayor Marion Barry, again, have we seen such astounding hubris in, not one, but two public figures.
It is perhaps fitting that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who sits in judgment over what the serfs in his miserable city-state of New York City may eat and drink, not to mention his countless other petty tyrannies and progressive Democratic government-control schemes, already behaves as if he is royalty. Some might call him Emperor Bloomberg. Still others call him Nanny Bloomberg, because he seeks to micromanage every facet of the lives of the little people unfortunate enough to live under his autocratic thumb. But the best term for him might be Duke. Bloomberg is the Duke of New York, a character famous from John Carpenter's "Escape from New York," which was notable because it depicted a post-apocalyptic scenario most New York State residents would welcome.
In the John Carpenter film, a nation beset by crime has given up on New York City. The island of Manhattan has been walled off. Prisoners are not governed in any way once inside. They are thrown into the gulag of New York and allowed to live out their lives as they see fit, eking out whatever existence they can amidst the crumbling, once-proud Gotham.
If that sounds at all familiar to you, it's because that's more or less what is happening in New York City now. The Big Apple is terra incognita to Upstate New Yorkers. Upstate New York, representing the overwhelming share of the state's geography, is much more moderate. One might dare suggest it even leans conservative. Upstate New Yorkers enjoy being able to defend themselves and, despite the worst that current governor "Kim Jong Andy" Cuomo has done to their Second Amendment rights, they still (sort of) do. That right is even more controlled in NYC than it is in New York at large, but that is changing, and will change more.
And it's all because of New York City.
The city, thanks to its dense population of liberal sheep, always bullies the rest of New York. In every election, the wishes of the people of Upstate, who represent the majority of New York's land, are dictated to by distant masters who venture out of Manhattan so seldom they think the rest of the state is a few cow pastures and parking lots. New York City politicians are responsible for running the once-proud Empire State into the ground, strangling business and ruining personal freedoms. New York ranks dead last, although sometimes competitive to liberal prison-camp California, in all indexes of personal and economic freedoms. New Yorkers' taxes are higher than in any state in the nation.
New York City is to blame.
Were New York to be walled off as in the Carpenter film, left to fend for itself, cut away from the majority of the state like the tumor that it is, very little would change for those living in New York City. Much would change for Upstate, as those living in it might finally have representative government that listens to their wishes and shares their opinions. Perhaps the current Overlord of New York City might have a temper tantrum at possessing fewer slaves to boss around, and perhaps not. One must wonder about any man or woman who wants that job, especially after Michael Bloomberg has done such a great job of making right-thinking people despise the city's ruler.
Now comes to the conversation Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner. The two men have a great deal in common. Both are disgraced politicians whose egregious behavior caused their careers to stall. Weiner is a pervert who likes to engage in virtual sex with other people, emailing and texting pictures of his genitals to half the state. Spitzer is a criminal whose very attractive prostitute (well, one of them) has appeared naked on the Internet and in men's magazines since her brief brush with lascivious political fame.
And both men feel entitled to political office.
It is thanks to the Internet and social media that most New Yorkers know what Spitzer's whore and Weiner's "manhood" (and I use the term loosely) look like. That these two perverts, these two lechers, these two liars now think enough time has passed that they can again run for office should worry us all. It means that our politicians have lost all sense of fear and shame (and yes, arguably they never had much of either). It means that now any and all behavior, no matter how disgusting, no matter how illegal, is fair game – and as long as you are a Democrat running for office in an impossibly entrenched Democratic stronghold like New York City, you might just win.
Until recent revelations that Weiner was still MMS-ing pictures of his junk after his scandal broke and his career tanked, both Weiner (who LIED about his scandal when it first came out) and Spitzer were ahead in the polls. Spitzer, let's not forget, resigned from office in what can only have been a hush-hush deal to avoid prosecution. The man was attorney general and then governor, responsible for enforcing the state's laws, and he was breaking them in order to pay for sex.
If Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer can run for office and win, there is no hope for New York City. Little has probably changed for Gotham; it has always been a liberal pit of depravity, and it has always presaged the worse that progressives, liberals and leftists of every stripe have to offer this nation. It is a prison, all right. It is a prison, not of high walls and mined bridges, as in Carpenter's film, but of amorality, invasive government and the worst of the nanny state. It is a prison that represents all New Yorkers' futures should men like Spitzer and Weiner again hold positions of political power.
If the Democrats can commit any perversion without fear of consequence, there truly will be no escape from New York — and every reason to try.
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