Josh Marshall, currently a New Yorker himself, nails the dynamic of conservatives trying to own 9/11:
Last week John McCain announced that he too was opposed to the Community Center and Mosque to be built a couple blocks from Ground Zero. To his credit, unlike many others, he noted that as a Senator from Arizona, it wasn’t really clear what relevance his opinion had. But that development did point up a little watched trend in what we might call for lack of a better phrase, the anti-Ground Zero Mosque jihad. Conservatives across the USA are increasingly aggrieved not only as the sponsors of the Muslim community center project, but at New Yorkers themselves. I mean, how can they not when the primary shrine of our national racial-religious holy war is in the custody of America-hating, terrorist coddling squishes who just don’t ‘get’ 9/11?
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Then I saw this column by Star Parker this morning lamenting that Ground Zero is stranded in… well, New York, with all those liberals who don’t care about 9/11.
It would be wrong to assume that New Yorkers by and large are in favor of this project. The most recent polling I saw suggested that a bare majority of New Yorkers are opposed to the project while a similar majority of Manhattanites are in favor of it — which isn’t terribly surprising given the political make up of the different boroughs.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. Back in 2004 you’ll remember the Republican National Convention was held in New York City. And one of the more entertaining memories was hearing convention goers at the local drinking establishments shaking their heads about how the locals didn’t ‘get’ 9/11. It’s part of a long history of New Yorkers hogging all the terrorism from the people who get it.
