On the Avowed Left Coast, a Feeling of Being Left Out
Given the gravity of things, there was really only one thing that Wilder Schmaltz, a 25-year-old Portland artist who had refused to remove the anti-Bush button from his lapel, felt he could do. He called a friend and headed straight to the Red and Black Cafe, an all-organic, wheat-free, vegetarian coffee and food shop, which is run as a collective and is a popular hangout of the Socialist Party USA's candidate for president, Walt Brown.
"I figured that in this place we wouldn't run the risk of being around any cheering Republicans," Mr. Schmaltz said.
Upon entering the cafe, Mr. Schmaltz, who is Jewish, grabbed off the cafe's bookshelf "A Beggar in Jerusalem," by Elie Wiesel, and read it glumly over a bowl of vegetarian chili. "Something Jewish will do me good right now," he said.
At the next table, Tchula Z, 33, an artist and part-time barista at her sister's coffee shop, who uses only Z as a last name, said she woke up Wednesday, learned that Mr. Bush had won and "smoked a cigarette and freaked out."
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Mr. Rubin had been convinced that after four years of the Bush presidency, the country would come around and see things as he and other far-left coasters see them.
Instead, he admitted with bitterness, the election appeared not to be a repudiation of Mr. Bush's foreign and economic policies, but rather values associated with hippies, gay activists, atheists and double-latte liberals who populate his city and many others on the lip of the Pacific Ocean.
"Maybe I'm on the wrong side of the culture war," Mr. Rubin said.
