|
In the latter case, some were acting crudely ironic
and others were stressing that overstated yet still
poignant viewpoint that the most “American”
practice would truly be to send the troops home.
Yet, costumed or plain-clothed, belligerent or joyous,
the bulk of the 500,000 or so participants in yesterday's
march against the city's hosting of the Republican
National Convention on Wednesday will be remembered
mostly for their colorful, sharp-toothed and in many
cases hilarious banners.
Despite the expected array of "Bush Lies: Who
Dies,” “Act Now Stop War End Racism,”
and other such generic slogan posters—no doubt
dispensed by the throngs of underground newspaper
founders and provocateurs that continue to keep New
York City predominantly left-wing—there were
subtler, wittier makeshift posters that stood out.
No remotely conservative target was left unskewered—Bush,
Cheney and Ashcroft aside, there were plenty of barbs
tossed at Fox News, the NYPD and Bush's most reputable
foe, John Kerry—and it was clear, for once,
that NYC's left are not just the skewed wild-eyed
liberals they're depicted as, but a group, like the
rest of America's left, with intensely differing agendas.
Many people raised Kerry ’04 signs; others
were hardcore Naderites; still others believed that
whatever party wins will continue to support the war
in Iraq. And there were the dozens of protesters that
felt they could have a good time while spreading their
message.
The crass creativity was everywhere, from the group
of scantily clad femme fatales sporting “The
Only Bush I Care About is My Own” t-shirts to
the man flashing a life-sized “Blowjobs Good,
War Bad” poster. The sexual japery didn’t
stop there. You couldn’t walk three paces without
coming across a banner like “Between Bush and
Dick We Got Fucked” or “When There’s
a Bush and a Dick in the White House Everyone Gets
Fucked.” OK, so maybe a lot of the posters were
on the vulgar side.
But there were also a slew of long-time liberals
and folksy types to balance out the barrage of Generation
X slacker humor. An elderly woman bore the moving
sign, “In all my 84 years I’ve never seen
a worse president.” A little up ahead was a
man with a poster taped to his back: “I marched
against Stalin in ’84, now I march against Bush
in ’04.” And all generations of protesters
took great pride in both yelling and flaunting catchy
rhymes like “The Bush Regime is really shitty,
get the RNC out of our city!”
What made the biggest impression, though, were the
signs that displayed the many layers of whacky, idiosyncratic
humor within the left-wing mindset. At a Republican
march against a Democratic convention, you probably
wouldn’t see a torn-up piece of cardboard with
“Crappy Sign, Crappy President” scrawled
on it in messy blue marker. Or, on the back of a typical
holier-than-thou lament, an advertisement for the
2004 MTV Movie Awards. Or, perhaps my personal favorite,
a sign that reads: “Heterosexual Martial Artist
for Kerry.”
Whether sexual or just plain bizarre, signs like
these reminded me of the wonderfully different attitudes
circling through America’s left. They are not
all humorless, impassioned, anti-American crusaders,
as they are often depicted. Sure, some are, but look
beneath the myriads of those that are merely bitter
and self-righteously offended, and there is a powerful
veneer of humor, one which doesn’t cheapen a
political viewpoint, but sharpens it. In short, it
can make an angry protest more unique and therefore
superior.
| |
