One-Horse Town

I grew up in Washington, D.C., and it was a nice place to grow up — lots of nice parks and monuments.

In fact, my parents still live there and I love going back to see the cherry blossoms. But, man, am I glad I don't live there anymore. D.C. is what they call a one-horse town. And that horse, of course, is politics. Everything and everybody casts some kind of political shadow.

Here in New York — where I live now — I've got friends with whom I've never talked politics. We've got more important things to talk about, like sports or music or our health or work.

That would never happen in D.C., where just about every conversation is either tinged with politics or ends up in a political debate.

In New York, you're judged on the basis of your work, not on the basis of your political contacts. In D.C., you're judged not so much by who you are, but by whom you know.

Now before my D.C. parents disown me, I have to admit these are generalizations. There are a lot of superficial New Yorkers and there are some truly honest politicians in D.C. I've known two: One was a liberal Democrat, the late Sen. Philip Hart. Another was a conservative Republican, Sen. Gordon Humphrey. Both men were defined by the content of their character, not by the color of their political beliefs.

So D.C. isn't all bad. But I still prefer to live in a town where politics is ranked somewhere below sports and music. As Neil Cavuto would say, but that's just me.

David Asman host's FOX News Channel's "Forbes on FOX" Saturdays at 11 a.m. ET