KEEPING THAT PARTY SPIRIT
After the convention, what now?

By Hannah Selinger| RAW STORY COLUMNIST

In the wake of the Democratic National Convention — OK, Bostonians, you can breathe a sigh of relief — one must consider the best way to move forward. Reporters are still conflicted on their position of how the convention went. Maureen Dowd criticized, while Christopher Buckley praised. Some (this writer’s mother included), found Sen. John Kerry’s opening line, “This is Senator John Kerry, and I am reporting for duty,” moving, while others found it hokey.

One might argue that if Dukakis had been a bit more bloodthirsty during that summer of 1988, we would be a lot better off. The Bush monarchy never would have made it past that summer.

Luckily, what Democrats have on their hands this time around does not allow for a leisurely summer vacation. Despite Bush II’s decreasing popularity, Kerry’s lead in the polls is negligible. Conservative pundits like Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter have made it their business to distort the truth so completely that middle Americans who live in swing states honestly believe that their president has 1) served them dutifully and honestly; 2) found weapons of mass destruction; 3) fought a war that has protected, rather than destroyed, American integrity; and 4) justifiably criticized John Kerry for vacillation in the Senate.

Few of these things, of course, are true. The president has served neither dutifully nor honestly. He has made decisions to benefit big business and his own checking account, stealing more than 2 million jobs from the American people. There are no weapons of mass destruction, and the war in Iraq — which, despite the president’s ceremonious claim earlier this year that the mission was accomplished, continues to claim American lives daily — has garnered international suspicion and distaste. The president’s criticism of the senator from Massachusetts is wrong, too. John Kerry has been consistent in many ways. He is, for one, consistently liberal, voting against bills that have line items tacked on that veer toward conservativism.

The most recent conservative attacks on Democrats, however, are not coming from the O’Reillys or Coulters of the world. Although Fox News’ political commentators do pose a threat to American sensibilities, a new campaign, launched in New York to foster enthusiasm for the upcoming Republican National Convention, does equal damage. On the subways, above lampposts, and at bus stops, Ed Koch stands with an elephant by his side. “Be nice,” says one slogan. “The Republicans are coming.” Another slogan reads, “You don’t have to be a Democrat to love New York.” Several dangerous elements are at work here. For one, Ed Koch is still revered as one of those cardinal New York politicians who spanned party lines. New Yorkers — and here I’m referring to hard-core, liberal-leaning, New York Review of Books-reading, Adam Gopnik-adoring New Yorkers — like Koch, even if they never voted for him, because in many ways, the man does represent the city.

So who better to soothe the frayed nerves of Manhattanites, who loathe the idea of the big red elephant stomping on their parade? It is a way of forcing New Yorkers to be hospitable when they should be out in the streets protesting. But dissent is not tolerated in this administration, even though New York has a reputation as a hotbed for, well, everything.

In 1968, the Students for a Democratic Society rioted at Columbia. In 1969, gays and police officers duked it out at Stonewall in the Village. And three years ago next month, the City experienced a debilitating blow when two planes crashed into the twin towers. But Sept. 11 was an American experience, not a Republican one, though the Republicans clearly chose New York for the RNC to pander to the sympathy of all of those Americans who still associate Republican might with the tender aftermath of the tragedy.

And so, the campaign to win over liberal New Yorkers began. Because it will not look good if, when that convention hits town, the anti-war contingency is out in the streets begging for Bush’s impeachment. Ultimately, what is offensive about the campaign is that it implies that New Yorkers, who are, in great part, Democrats, believe that only Democrats love New York. This is, of course, a stupid and narrow-minded assertion, and it is stupid and narrow-minded to throw hatred back at the liberals, especially when they have been given no choice in the matter of playing host to the right side of the aisle.

So despite Koch’s plea, it is not the duty of New Yorkers to be nice. It is not the duty of New Yorkers to sit back and allow the conservative media to paint the current administration in pastel, because these soft-handed men who run our country are not innocuous, and they are not looking out for the interests of average Americans. If conservative fear mongers can drive around Boston with vans depicting aborted fetuses with the slogan “A vote for Kerry is a vote for dead babies” and call that political discourse, then the liberals, too, must take it to the streets. Fighting back is not unpatriotic. Take back your city, New Yorkers. Koch would not have it any other way.