Left Coast

[Gregory {Greg} Downing]

At 01:25 PM 8/24/2000 -0400, bergdahl at ohio.edu wrote:
>Among conservatives (probably deriving from Rush or some other radio
>commentator), the term for the eastern megalopolis from Boston > D.C. is
>called the left coast. Presumably the west, where all the good
>conservatives live, is right.
>

I suspect this is a bit off, but then again we all tend to be most familiar
with only the smallish circle of what is closest to us. I'm sure I've heard
radio and TV hosts occasionally use "left coast" for some years now, in
application to the Pacific coast as a supposed locus of "flaky" New Age
stuff, "liberal" politics (Berkeley, Hollywood, Seattle anarchy, etc.). The
west coast is on the left side of a map. Yes, the northeast is pretty
liberal too. I imagine nonleftists think of themselves as tending to
populate what bicoastalists sometimes refer to as "flyover country" -- inner
west, south, etc.

New Yorkers sometimes tend to think, rather insularly, of NY and LA (OK,
maybe Miami too) as the only places in the U.S. that "matter," which
generates a certain sense of NY/LA rivalry. Hence, cliches about LA and the
"left coast" as flaky and goofy are pretty widespread in NYC. I suspect
that's what the author cited in the original posting was getting at: "left
coast" = putatively flaky, goofy, out-there, both culturally and politically....



Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu