How did I suddenly become the enemy? I’ve never committed a crime. I
pay my taxes. I’m a responsible husband and father. I even give up my
seat on the bus if an elderly or pregnant woman — excuse me, person
— gets on.

That doesn’t make me a saint, I know. But I went to bed one night
thinking I was a pretty decent guy and woke up the next morning to find
I was the living, breathing embodiment of a racist, homophobic, ignorant
bigot. Even worse, I am personally keeping poor children in poverty.

The reason? It’s not anything I can say out loud in my neighborhood,
but under the cloak of anonymity, I will confess my little secret — I
am a registered Republican. This becomes a problem when you toss in the
fact that I reside on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It’s not just
that I live in one of the bluest voting districts in the country; it has
also become one of the most intolerant. Here, where people truly believe
they are the most open-minded souls on earth, my political affiliation
is seen as no different in the minds of many of my neighbors as being
a Nazi. Trust me, I’ve heard that comparison.

There are times in history when a strange herd mentality takes over a
population. It can come from both the Left and the Right and it never
leads to anything good. Over the last decade and especially since the
election of President Obama, there is a growing wave of anger towards
anyone who doesn’t conform completely to the Left’s progressive
(formerly liberal) agenda. It is not unlike the Cultural Revolution
in the 1960s when millions of young students rampaged through China,
lofting their little red books in the air. It’s a mindset that must
destroy anyone who doesn’t agree with it.

I hear it on the street and at work, my “friends” post it on Facebook,
it is a constant refrain on MSNBC and in the New York Times. This wave of
intolerance has also managed to rewrite history. Otherwise intelligent
people have come to believe that nothing has changed in America since
the 1950s in terms of civil rights, or women’s rights or economic
rights. All those gains that I lived through and supported somehow never
happened. It’s as if Rosa Parks or Betty Friedan or Oprah didn’t
exist. And if I raise a factual point that might refute this belief
structure — like the fact that medical and law schools today graduate
more women than men or that there is an undeniable black middle class
— I am met with deep hostility.

It turns out my political views are the least of my crimes. Because I
have figured out a way to keep working in a challenging free market
economy, I am told that I am somehow keeping others from doing the
same thing. Because I have a home with food in my refrigerator, there
are people who are homeless and hungry. Everything I have achieved has
come not from very late work nights but from privilege. This, of course,
makes me a very bad man.

I hear this from the top, from President Obama, himself. I am “the folks
not paying their fair share.” That’s me, even with almost half of my
income going to taxes … even though I reside closer to the bottom 40%
in real numbers than the super rich.

The new mayor of my city has now focused on my selfishness as
well. According to Mr. De Blasio, I have horded my “big dreams”
keeping them from poor children … I have used this great city as part of
my own elite domain restricting others from using it. Worst of all, I now
learn that I am part of the plantation system. Although in a subsequent
article in the New York Times, I am told that the ‘plantation’
reference used by Rev. Frederick A. Lucas Jr. at Mayor De Blasio’s
inauguration last month was simply part of “the African-American pulpit
tradition of symbolism.”

I am curious if the New York Times excused George Wallace when he stood
in the schoolhouse door 50 years ago because he was using the “White
Southern tradition of symbolism.”

With the President constantly dwelling on income inequality and the
Mayor discussing the two New Yorks — one of great privilege and the
other suffering from terrible disadvantages — I have actually to stop
and remind myself of something.

I arrived in New York City in the middle of a recession after graduating
from a state school in the Midwest, unlike the President (Columbia and
Harvard) or the Mayor (NYU and Columbia). In all fairness, I will admit
that I had a valuable trust fund that probably placed me ahead of the pack
right at the start. My trust fund had nothing to do with money. I had two
parents — a mother and a father, grandparents, and the Boy Scouts that
instilled a work ethic in me. Despite of all my screwing around with my
friends, I miraculously received a pretty solid education along the way.

So, in the finest baby boomer tradition, I will pass the buck. Please
understand, this isn’t really my fault at all. I was actually taught
the evil lesson that the one percent was something to strive for …
I was told never to begrudge success, but admire it. I never resented
people living on Park Avenue, I wanted to be one of them.

What I find strange, but not surprising, is that the President, the
Mayor and everyone on the Left will readily accept all the evils that
they denigrate — the vast amounts of money, the grand estates and, of
course, the top tier schools — all you have to do is demonstrate your
hatred for white Southerners, Christians who actually go to church and,
of course, anyone who votes Republican.

Then you can fly off to the Vineyard on a private jet for the weekend
and feel downright noble.

Mr. X resides on New York’s Upper West Side