Sometimes I think you guys forget that New York and New York City are two different things.
In my experience, once you get out of NYC proper, it really is like being in an entirely different state. The people are much nicer, and more /out/ friendly/red state. They are just stuck with that huge, cancerous liberal shithole that has enough people that they can fuck the entire rest of the state constantly, policy wise.
Just like California, where once you get away from the coast it is actually pretty nice. They would be 300% better, though, if everything west of I-5 just broke off and sank into the fucking ocean.