NYC: Vote Republican! Utah: Vote Democrat!

I've never lived in a battleground state. I've lived in California, Oregon, Utah, New Jersey, and New York, and in none of those states did my vote matter much.

In states like New York, and especially in cities like New York City where I am currently, there's something to be said for voting against the local hegemony. Because let's be real: there isn't the liberal conspiracy in NYC that some republicans say there is, but there's definitely a liberal establishment. When I'm at a party or in an elevator, it's a safe bet that I'm the only conservative or even moderate in the group, and I tend to assume as much.

When an entire city of 8 million takes that attitude, it's easy to take liberalism for granted and wind up believing that conservativism is for flyover states. Beyond the inherent arrogance in such a belief, I actually think it makes New York every bit as small-town provincial as any flyover state, because New Yorkers are so rarely exposed to another point of view. Every liberal ideal gets piped from Hollywood and New York into Oklahoma and Utah, but the pipes only flow one way. For instance, have you EVER seen a conservative-slanted movie get major distribution? Yet I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the liberal-slanted major motion pictures from the last four years alone.

So here's how this ends up: flyover-state conservatives "get" urban liberalism, or at least are exposed to it regularly. In the meantime, urban liberals think flyover state conservatives are either stupid or out of their minds. I see this offensive attitude literally every single day, both in the office, on the street, and on TV and in print.

If you're at all on the fence this election season and you don't live in a battleground state, vote against your local political hegemony. Liberals in New York and their representatives need to know that there are intelligent conservatives among them. Conservatives in Oklahoma and Utah might be enlightened by the fact that liberalism isn't just for urbanites who live near large bodies of water. In each case, though, representatives will know that there are diverse constituencies in their districts, and might be pulled toward the center.