NOTE: I took a PDF of a report prepared for the county about the ownership of Harbor Road. I am trying to turn the PDF into an image but that is taking me some time this morning so I just copied and pasted. If anyone wants the PDF, my email is alyson@alysonchadwick.com. I would be more than happy to send it to you.

Also, I bolded some of this. The Stony Brook Community Fund became the Ward Melville Heritage Fund (WMHO) in 1996. Also note the report finds that all property in the report, i.e. Harbor Road, is owned by the WMHO.

---

Thursday, March 27, 2025 Page 1 of 1
Tamir Young
County of Suffolk Dept. of Economic Dev. Invoice
Account Number: 1005
Fax No. Search Number: ST-48268
Order Details: Ordered: 03/17/2025 Customer Reference:
Premises: Harbor Rd/Stony Brook Mill Pond/Main St., Head Of The Harbor, NY (And Others) (Suffolk County)
Date Description of charges Amount Sales Tax * Payments Amount due
03/17/2025 Street Ownership Search $2,750.00 $0.00 $0.00 $2,750.00
03/27/2025 Copies and Opinion Letter $200.00 $0.00 $0.00 $200.00

• Sales Tax not applied Charges: $2,950.00
  Sales Tax: $0.00
  Payments: – $0.00
  Total Due: $2,950.00
  Please make checks payable to:
  Abstracts Incorporated
  100 Garden City Plaza, Suite 201
  Garden City, NY 11530
  Please return this portion with your payment
  Name: Tamir Young Invoice Amount: $2,950.00
  County of Suffolk Dept. of Economic Dev. Amount Enclosed: $___________________
  [ ] Please apply payment towards Search Number(s) ST-48268.
  [ ] Please apply payment towards balance under Account Number 1005.
  Terms: All charges due within 30 upon receipt without penalty. Please make checks payable to Abstracts Incorporated
  March 27, 2025
  Tamir Young
  County of Suffolk
  Dept. of Economic Dev.
  

NARRATIVE REGARDING STREET OWNERSHIP SEARCH

RE: Title No. : ST-48268
Premises : Harbor Road (f/k/a Shore Road and Stony Brook Road), between
Main Street and Mill Creek Road, adjoining Stony Brook Mill Pond and
other Parcels, Head of The Harbor, NY 11790

Dear Sir or Madam:

Abstracts, Incorporated certifies that pursuant to the searches conducted on the above referenced
premises and reflected in the attached documentation, title to the street known as Harbor Road (f/k/a
Shore Road and Stony Brook Road), between Main Street and Mill Creek Road, adjoining Stony
Brook Mill Pond and other Parcels, Head of The Harbor, NY 11790 is vested as follows:

PARCEL A: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 0.00, Lot: 028.000:
The northerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Lots 028.000 vests in Stony Brook Community Fund.
PARCEL B: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 029.000:
The northerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Lots 029.000 vests in Stony Brook Community Fund.
PARCEL C: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 02.00, Lot: 036.001:
The southerly half of Harbor Road in front of Lot 036.001 vests in Stony Brook Community Fund.
PARCEL D: District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 03.00, Lot: 001.001:
The southerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Lot 001.001 vests in Stony Brook Community Fund.
PARCEL E: District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 008.000:
The northerly and southerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Tax Lot 008.000 vests in Stony Brook
Community Fund.
ST-48268

Page 2
Therefore, all of said premises is owned by Stony Brook Community Fund, now known as Ward Melville
Heritage Organization, Ltd.
No liability is assumed for this search. A limited liability search is available upon specific request and
payment of an additional charge.
ABSTRACTS, INCORPORATED
BY: Thomas J. Turano
Thomas J. Turano
President
TJT: HF/LA
Encl.
March 27, 2025
Tamir Young
County of Suffolk
Dept. of Economic Dev.
tamir.young@suffolkcountyny.gov

STREET OWNERSHIP SEARCH

RE: Title No. : ST-48268
Premises : Harbor Road (f/k/a Shore Road and Stony Brook Road), between
Main Street and Mill Creek Road, adjoining Stony Brook Mill Pond and
other Parcels, Head of The Harbor, NY 11790

Dear Sir or Madam:

Abstracts, Incorporated certifies that it has searched the records of the Clerk of the County of Suffolk to
2/14/2025 and has determined that the record owner of the premises known by the street address:
Harbor Road (f/k/a Shore Road and Stony Brook Road), between Main Street and Mill Creek Road,
adjoining Stony Brook Mill Pond and other Parcels, Head of The Harbor, NY 11790
PARCEL A: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 028.000, and
PARCEL B: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 029.000, and
PARCEL C: District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 02.00, Lot: 036.001, and
PARCEL D: District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 03.00, Lot: 001.001, and
PARCEL E: District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 008.000
is as follows:
The following is a chain of title and events for the street known as Harbor Road, determining ownership
of same as existing in the Clerk of the County of Suffolk as follows:
PARCELS A and B: known as District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 01.00, Lots: 028.000 and 029.000, shows
the following chain:

1. Deed from Mamie M. Agne to Alida B. Emmet dated 9/20/1906, recorded 9/22/1906 in Liber 595
   Page 196 (see attached) (covers premises and much more, including Parcels A, B, C and D herein).
2. Deed from Alida B. Emmet to Ward Melville dated 6/28/1940, recorded 7/9/1940 in Liber 2109
   Page 514 (see attached) (covers Parcels A and B and northerly half of Harbor Road in front of
   premises and more).
   ST-48268
   Page 2
3. Deed from Ward Melville to Dorothy B. Melville, Ward Melville, William J. McLain, O. Carol
   Lempfert, Nellie O. Dickerson, T. Boyles Minuse, Frank Schaefer, Dr. F. Duane Squire, Capt. Robert
   F. Wells, Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein and Dr. A. Bernard Shea, the present Trustees of the Stony Brook
   Community Fund, a charitable trust dated 10/18/1952, recorded 11/illegible/1952 in Liber 3441
   Page 377 (see attached) (covers premises herein, Parcels A and B, and more with reservations, by
   the dam and conditions).
   LAST DEED FOR SAME.
   CONCLUSION: The northerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Lots 028.000 and 029.000 vests in
   Stony Brook Community Fund.

PARCEL C: known as District: 0801, Section: 001.00, Block: 02.00, Lot: 036.001, shows the following chain:

1. Deed from Mamie M. Agne to Alida B. Emmet dated 9/20/1906, recorded 9/22/1906 in Liber 595
   Page 196 (see attached) (covers Parcel C and much more, including Parcels A and D herein).
2. Deed from Alida B. Emmet to Ward Melville dated 6/28/1940, recorded 7/9/1940 in Liber 2109
   Page 514 (see attached) (covers Parcel C and southerly half of Harbor Road in front of premises
   and part of Mill Pond and more).
3. Deed from Ward Melville to Ward Melville, Dorothy B. Melville, A. Bernard Shea, William Crawford,
   John S. Archdeacon, Fred C. Zorn, Arthur Harris, George Madge, Lloyd E. Hubbard, Donn M.
   Gaebelein, Robert C. Rugen, Stephen G. Kerekes and Erwin Ernst, as Trustees of Stony Brook
   Community Fund, a charitable Trust dated 12/30/1974, recorded 1/13/1975 in Liber 7781 Page 81
   (see attached) (covers southerly half of Harbor Road in front of premises and part of Mill Pond
   and more).
   LAST DEED FOR SAME.
   CONCLUSION: The southerly half of Harbor Road in front of Lot 036.001 vests in Stony Brook
   Community Fund.

ST-48268
Page 3
PARCEL D: known as District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 03.00, Lot: 001.001, shows the following
chain:

1. Deed from Mamie M. Agne to Alida B. Emmet dated 9/20/1906, recorded 9/22/1906 in Liber
   595 Page 196 (see attached) (covers Parcel D and much more, including Parcels A, B and C).
2. Deed from Alida B. Emmet to Ward Melville dated 6/28/1940, recorded 7/9/1940 in Liber 2109
   Page 514 (see attached) (covers Parcel D and southerly half of Harbor Road in front of
   premises and part of Mill Pond and more).
3. Deed from Ward Melville to Ward Melville, Dorothy B. Melville, A. Bernard Shea, William
   Crawford, John S. Archdeacon, Fred C. Zorn, Arthur Harris, George Madge, Lloyd E. Hubbard,
   Donn M. Gaebelein, Robert C. Rugen, Stephen G. Kerekes and Erwin Ernst, as Trustees of
   Stony Brook Community Fund, a charitable Trust dated 12/30/1974, recorded 1/13/1975 in
   Liber 7781 Page 81 (see attached) (covers southerly half of Harbor Road in front of Parcel D
   and part of Mill Pond and more).
4. Deed from The Stony Brook Community Fund, a charitable Trust to The Stony Brook
   Community Fund, a New York Not-for-profit Corporation dated 6/30/1983, recorded
   6/30/1983 in Liber 9381 Page 16 (see attached) (covers southerly half of Harbor Road in front
   of Parcel D and part of Mill Pond and more).
   LAST DEED FOR SAME.
   CONCLUSION: The southerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Lot 001.001 vests in Stony Brook
   Community Fund.
   ST-48268
   Page 4
   PARCEL E: known as District: 0200, Section: 219.00, Block: 01.00, Lot: 008.000, shows the following chain:
5. Deed from Alida B. Emmet to Ward Melville dated 6/28/1940, recorded 7/9/1940 in Liber 2109
   Page 514 (see attached) (affects Parcel E and northerly and southerly portions of Harbor Road in
   front of premises and much more).
6. Deed from Ward Melville to Frank E.B. McGilvery dated 2/13/1941, recorded 3/6/1941 in Liber
   2152 Page 7 (see attached). Description covers premises and runs to northerly side of the road
   across Mill Dam, however, no rights are granted or released with respect to the road across Mill
   Dam, the Mill Dam itself, the Mill Stream or Mill Pond. At this point the street stated is still in
   Ward Melville adjoining Tax Lot 008.000.
   NOTE: See chains herein for deeds from Ward Melville to Ward Melville, Dorothy B. Melville, A.
   Bernard Shea, William Crawford, John S. Archdeacon, Fred C. Zorn, Arthur Harris, George Madge,
   Lloyd E. Hubbard, Donn M. Gaebelein, Robert C. Rugen, Stephen G. Kerekes and Erwin Ernst, as
   Trustees of Stony Brook Community Fund, a charitable Trust in Liber 7781 Page 81 as to
   southerly half of Shore Road and more and, from Ward Melville to Dorothy B. Melville, Ward
   Melville, William J. McLain, O. Carol Lempfert, Nellie O. Dickerson, T. Boyles Minuse, Frank
   Schaefer, Dr. F. Duane Squire, Capt. Robert F. Wells, Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein and Dr. A. Bernard
   Shea, the present Trustees of the Stony Brook Community Fund, a charitable trust in Liber 3441
   Page 377 as to northerly half of Shore Road and more.
   Final conclusion therefore, Parcels A through E vest in The Stony Brook Community Fund, as a
   charitable or Not-for-Profit Corporation, or the Trustees thereof. Said entity now being known as
   Ward Melville Heritage Organization, Ltd.
   CONCLUSION: The northerly and southerly half of Harbor Road adjoining Tax Lot 008.000
   vests in Stony Brook Community Fund.
   The following deeds contain the same description as Liber 2152 Page 7, as follows:
   Deed in Liber 2712 Page 416 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 5428 Page 373 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 5505 Page 153 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 5906 Page 365 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 9170 Page 563 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 11673 Page 914 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 11675 Pages 915 and 916 (see attached) (Release of Estate Taxes)
   Deed in Liber 12793 Page 520 (see attached)
   Deed in Liber 13230 Page 769 (see attached) (Last deed for premises)
   Street Maintenance Reports show the streets are public roads (see attached).

ST-48268
Page 5

No liability is assumed for this search. A limited liability search is available upon specific request and
payment of an additional charge.
ABSTRACTS, INCORPORATED
BY: Thomas J. Turano
Thomas J. Turano
President
TJT: HF/LA
Encl.
Street Maintenance Report
TITLE #: ST-48268 DATE: 3/18/2025
PREPARED FOR:ABSTRACTS INCORPORATED (AINC) ORDER ID: 12619744
PREMISES:
0 STONY BROOK ROAD, HEAD OF THE HARBOR
State: NY County: SUFFOLK Town: SMITHTOWN Village: HEAD OF THE HARBOR
District: 0801 Section: 001.00 Block: 01.00 Lot: 028.000
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS
Please be advised that the above-mentioned street is:
A public road.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT SEARCH INFORMATION HEREIN
DATATRACE INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FOR THE PROPER PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES REFLECTING THE CONDITION
OF TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY.THIS SEARCH WAS COMPILED FROM PUBLIC RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE FROM VARIOUS COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICES, AGENCIES AND DEPARTMENTS.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR WARRANTIES BASED ON COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE IN TRADE OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS RESULTING FROM NEGLIGENCE, MISINDEXING, MIS-POSTING OR ITEMS THAT ARE AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE SEARCH.THIS IS NOT AN INSURED SERVICE.THIS DISCLAIMER SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR AND
CONTEMPORANEOUS UNDERSTANDINGS. THE SERVICES ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR DATATRACE CLIENT AND NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY THIRD PARTIES
00800/00800
Street Maintenance Report
TITLE #: ST-48268 DATE: 3/18/2025
PREPARED FOR:ABSTRACTS INCORPORATED (AINC) ORDER ID: 12619744
PREMISES:
0 HARBOR ROAD, HEAD OF THE HARBOR
State: NY County: SUFFOLK Town: SMITHTOWN Village: HEAD OF THE HARBOR
District: 0801 Section: 001.00 Block: 01.00 Lot: 029.000
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS
Please be advised that the above-mentioned street is:
A public road.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT SEARCH INFORMATION HEREIN
DATATRACE INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FOR THE PROPER PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES REFLECTING THE CONDITION
OF TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY.THIS SEARCH WAS COMPILED FROM PUBLIC RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE FROM VARIOUS COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICES, AGENCIES AND DEPARTMENTS.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR WARRANTIES BASED ON COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE IN TRADE OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS RESULTING FROM NEGLIGENCE, MISINDEXING, MIS-POSTING OR ITEMS THAT ARE AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE SEARCH.THIS IS NOT AN INSURED SERVICE.THIS DISCLAIMER SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR AND
CONTEMPORANEOUS UNDERSTANDINGS. THE SERVICES ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR DATATRACE CLIENT AND NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY THIRD PARTIES
00800/00800
Street Maintenance Report
TITLE #: ST-48268 DATE: 3/18/2025
PREPARED FOR:ABSTRACTS INCORPORATED (AINC) ORDER ID: 12619744
PREMISES:
0 MILLD POND ROAD, HEAD OF THE HARBOR
State: NY County: SUFFOLK Town: SMITHTOWN Village: HEAD OF THE HARBOR
District: 0801 Section: 001.00 Block: 02.00 Lot: 036.001
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS
Please be advised that the above-mentioned street is:
A public road.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT SEARCH INFORMATION HEREIN
DATATRACE INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FOR THE PROPER PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES REFLECTING THE CONDITION
OF TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY.THIS SEARCH WAS COMPILED FROM PUBLIC RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE FROM VARIOUS COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICES, AGENCIES AND DEPARTMENTS.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR WARRANTIES BASED ON COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE IN TRADE OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS RESULTING FROM NEGLIGENCE, MISINDEXING, MIS-POSTING OR ITEMS THAT ARE AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE SEARCH.THIS IS NOT AN INSURED SERVICE.THIS DISCLAIMER SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR AND
CONTEMPORANEOUS UNDERSTANDINGS. THE SERVICES ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR DATATRACE CLIENT AND NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY THIRD PARTIES
00800/00800
Street Maintenance Report
TITLE #: ST-48268 DATE: 3/18/2025
PREPARED FOR:ABSTRACTS INCORPORATED (AINC) ORDER ID: 12619744
PREMISES:
0 MAIN STREET, STONY BROOK
State: NY County: SUFFOLK Town: BROOKHAVEN Unincorp: STONY BROOK
District: 0200 Section: 219.00 Block: 03.00 Lot: 001.001 Item: 86-04322
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS
Please be advised that the above-mentioned street is:
A public road.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT SEARCH INFORMATION HEREIN
DATATRACE INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FOR THE PROPER PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES REFLECTING THE CONDITION
OF TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY.THIS SEARCH WAS COMPILED FROM PUBLIC RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE FROM VARIOUS COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL OFFICES, AGENCIES AND DEPARTMENTS.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR WARRANTIES BASED ON COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE IN TRADE OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS RESULTING FROM NEGLIGENCE, MISINDEXING, MIS-POSTING OR ITEMS THAT ARE AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE SEARCH.THIS IS NOT AN INSURED SERVICE.THIS DISCLAIMER SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR AND
CONTEMPORANEOUS UNDERSTANDINGS. THE SERVICES ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR DATATRACE CLIENT AND NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY THIRD PARTIES
00800/004200

“How the Right Turned Radical and the Left Became Depressed

One of the notable dynamics of American life today is that conservatives report being personally happier than liberals but also seem more politically discontented. The political left has become more institutionalist, more invested in experts and establishments, even as progressive culture seems more shadowed by unhappiness and even mental illness. Meanwhile conservatives claim greater contentment in their private lives — and then go out and vote for paranoidoutsiders and burn-it-down populists.

These dynamics aren’t entirely new: As Musa al-Gharbi writes in an essay for American Affairs, the happiness gap between liberals and conservatives is a persistent social-science finding, visible across several eras and many countries. Meanwhile, the view that “my life is pretty good, but the country is going to hell,” which seems to motivate a certain kind of middle-class Donald Trump supporter, would have been unsurprising to hear in a bar or at a barbecue in 1975 or 1990, no less than today.

But something clearly has shifted lately. In Gallup polling from 2019, just before the pandemic, the happiness gap between Republicans and Democrats was larger than in any previous survey. And the trend of worsening mental health among young people, the subject of much discussion lately, is especially striking among younger liberals. (For instance: Among 18- to 29-year-olds, more than half of liberal women and roughly a third of liberal men reported that a health care provider had told them they had a mental health condition, compared with about a fifth of
conservative women and around a seventh of conservative men, according to an analysis of 2020 Pew Research Center data by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.)

There’s also clearly a stronger left-wing identification with big institutions and official expertise than in the past, and an increasing eagerness of conservative voters to cast protest votes against the system compared with the old days of “Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall apart” cliché. Witness not only the rise and resilience of Trump but also the populist takeovers of state and local Republican Parties, the valorization of Jan. 6 and other middle fingers to normal democratic proceduralism. Witness, too, the intellectual correlative of this populism, the sense of despair over America among certain right-wing thinkers, the impulse toward desperate measures to change the national trajectory.

You can see the outline of a unifying theory of these trends — both right-wing recklessness and liberal anomie — in new polling commissioned by The Wall Street Journal that traces the decline of what used to be consensus values in American society. According to the survey, the share of Americans saying that patriotism is very important to them fell from 70 percent in 1998 to 38 percent today. The percentage calling religion very important fell from 62 percent to 39 percent over the same period. The percentage saying that having kids was very important dropped from 59 percent to 30 percent. Only money saw its professed importance
rise.

Since these numbers circulated on Twitter as a kind of “black pill” of cultural despair, I should stress that the real decline probably isn’t quite so steep. As the polling expert Patrick Ruffini noted, the survey changed its methodology between 2018 and 2023, moving from phone to online polls. This may have tilted the most
recent responses in more of a harsh-realism direction — the idea being that people are less influenced by what’s called “social desirability” bias on online polls, and so in the older, phone-based polling patriotic feeling was probably a little overstated.

But even if the extremity of the change should be doubted, the direction still matches other trends and surveys. Whether or not the pandemic hit the accelerator, even before Covid it was clear that values that conservatives consider fundamental to society — and in the Journal polling, it is Republicans who continue
to value religion, patriotism and having kids the most — were experiencing a generational retreat.

In a way, just this trend alone suffices to explain how personal stability can coexist with intensified political alienation on the right. If you yourself feel secure in your own values, confident that yours is a life well lived, but the society around you
seems to swinging rapidly away from those values, it’s natural to be baffled by the shift, to feel that something is badly out of joint, to decide that the entire system needs some sort of hard reboot. And it’s easy even to fall into paranoia and
conspiracy theory, because it seems so unfathomable that so many of your fellow
Americans would be abandoning the tried-and-true; there must be more to it than
just a national change of mind.

Then consider, too, that the entire organizing premise of post-1960s American
conservatism was that the country as whole shared its values — hence the rhetoric
of the “silent majority” and the “moral majority” — and that the problem was just
an elite class of liberals, irreligious and unpatriotic but also out of touch with the
breadth and depth of American society. Remove the weight of ineffective
bureaucracy, end the rule of liberal judges, and watch the country flourish: That
was the effective message of Republican politicians and quite a few conservative
intellectuals for a very long time.

Fewer and fewer conservatives seriously believe that it’s this simple anymore. But where does conservative politics go without a traditional cultural foundation to conserve? To subcultural retreat, maybe — but if you don’t think the walls will hold, if you want a politics of restoration, it will be inescapably radical in a way that
the conservatism of thirty years ago was not. And since nobody — not the policy wonks trying to grope their way to some new form of right-wing political economy,
not the online influencers selling traditionalism as a lifestyle brand — really knows how to do a restoration, how to roll back alienation and disaffiliation and atomization, it isn’t surprising that conservative politics would often be a carwreck, a flinging of ripe fruit against a wall, no matter how happy individual
conservatives claim to be.

For liberals the problem is somewhat different. An organizing premise of progressivism for generations has been that the toxic side of conservative values is responsible for much of what ails American society — a cruel nationalism throttling a healthy patriotism, a fundamentalist bigotry overshadowing the
enlightened forms of religion, patriarchy and misogyny poisoning the nuclear family. Thus in many ways the transformations of the last few decades are ones that liberals sought: The America of today is more socially-liberal on almost every
issue than the America of George W. Bush, more secular, less heteronormative, more diverse in terms of both race and personal identity, more influenced by radical ideas that once belonged to the fringe of academia.

Unfortunately in finding its heart’s desire the left also seems to have found a certain kind of despair. It turns out that there isn’t some obvious ground for purpose and solidarity and ultimate meaning once you’ve deconstructed all the sources you consider tainted. And it’s at the vanguard of that deconstruction,
among the very-liberal young, that you find the greatest unhappiness — the very success of the progressive project devouring contentment.

But that project is now entrenched in so many American institutions that there’s no natural anti-institutional form for these discontents to take. Instead you get the progressive two-step we observed during the pandemic: A doubling down on faith
in official expertise and the expansion of existing bureaucratic forms of power, joined to a push for further ideological purification inside those institutions, a quest
for a psychological revolution that will finally uproot the white-male-patriarchal forces that must still be responsible for any persistent discontents.

And then there’s a third step, which is to deny that the obvious discontents are actually problems at all. This is the phenomenon that Dustin Guastella, writing in Damage magazine, calls “antisocial socialism” — a left-wing politics that ends up
“excusing or ignoring the steady rise of collective antisocial behavior,” out of a defensiveness about the isolated modes of urban life that experts and bureaucrats helped impose during the pandemic, plus a fear of seeming to justify bourgeois norms and notions.

Thus everything from the decline of marriage and romance and sex to issues like crime, drug addiction and mental illness gets repackaged as something that progressives are expected to live with, even valorize, lest they give an inch to the
reactionaries.

The reality is that there is a coherent (if insufficient) left-wing account of the decline of family, patriotism, religion — one that emphasizes the corrosive role of consumer capitalism, its dissolving effect on all loyalties higher than the self, its
interest in creating addictions for every age and walk of life. Sometimes the 2016- vintage Bernie Sanders movement gestured in this direction, which was part of its appeal: socialism as a defense of normal things, ordinary working people, traditional loyalties.

But the contemporary left is fundamentally too invested in liberating the individual from oppressive normativity to sustain any defense of the older faiths and folkways — which is why it has often ended up as consumerism’s cultural ally despite its notional “late capitalism, man” critique.

Thus our peculiar situation: a once-radical left presiding somewhat miserably over the new order that it long desired to usher in, while a once-conservative right, convinced that it still has the secret of happiness, looks to disruption and chaos as its only ladder back from exile.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about
this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTOpinion) and Instagram.”

I added some columns to the chart and ordered it by year compulsory education was enacted, by the area of the U.S., and whether the state is red or blue politically.

Area	Color	State	year
NE	Blue	Massachusetts	1852
MidAtlantic	Blue	District of Columbia	1864
NE	Blue	Vermont	1867
MidWest	Blue	Michigan	1871
NE	Blue	New Hampshire	1871
West	Blue	Washington	1871
NE	Blue	Connecticut	1872
West	Blue	Nevada	1873
NE	Blue	New York	1874
West	Blue	California	1874
MidWest	Red	Kansas	1874
NE	Blue	Maine	1875
NE	Blue	New Jersey	1875
West	Red	Wyoming	1876
MidWest	Red	Ohio	1877
MidWest	Blue	Wisconsin	1879
MidWest	blue	Illinois	1883
NE	Blue	Rhode Island	1883
MidWest	Red	North Dakota	1883
MidWest	Red	South Dakota	1883
West	red	Montana	1883
MidWest	Blue	Minnesota	1885
MidWest	red	Nebraska	1887
West	red	Idaho	1887
West	Blue	Oregon	1889
West	Blue	Colorado	1889
West	Red	Utah	1890
West	Blue	New Mexico	1891
MidAtlantic	Blue	Pennsylvania	1895
West	Blue	Hawaii	1896
south	Red	Kentucky	1896
MidWest	red	Indiana	1897
South	Red	West Virginia	1897
West	Red	Arizona	1899
MidAtlantic	Blue	Maryland	1902
MidWest	Red	Iowa	1902
MidWest	red	Missouri	1905
South	Red	Tennessee	1905
MidAtlantic	Blue	Delaware	1907
MidWest	Red	Oklahoma	1907
South	Red	North Carolina	1907
South	Blue	Virginia	1908
South	Red	Arkansas	1909
south	Red	Louisiana	1910
South	Red	Alabama	1915
South	Red	Florida	1915
South	Red	South Carolina	1915
South	Red	Texas	1915
South	Red	Georgia	1916
South	red	Mississippi	1918
West	Red	Alaska	1929

But Alaska wasn’t even a state in 1929! I know, I know and it wasn’t a done deal until 1985 BUT people lived there before it joined the United States and those people wanted mandatory schooling so that’s what they had.

Hello!

For a long time, I have been posting my stuff here, on Medium, and on the Daily Kos. I am going to start using Medium as my main site to post and will make a bunch of edits here soon enough.

If you are interested in following me there, great.

Thank you and if you have any questions, let me know!