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As New York prepares to be invaded by the red-state hordes during an election that has much of the city fearing the prospect of four more years, a persistent fantasy resurfaces.
Republican Walking Tour The official off-site entertainment schedule for GOP delegates includes Wicked, The Lion King, and private visits to Saks--but those who wish to venture even farther afield might take this stroll.
Feature Father to Son: What I've Learned About Rage A conversation between a man of legendary fury and his son preparing to go to the barricades about the uses and abuses of Bush hatred.
Ive seen it three times, and with each viewing I became more aware of Michael Moores tricks. I would say about 50 percent of the film is indisputable, particularly the portion on Iraq, but in the first half he uses too many needless tricks. I saw it for the first time last night, and was upset through the first half. You dont make your case by showing George HW Bush and a Saudi sheikh shaking hands. On a photo op, important politicians will shake hands with the devil. Moore seems to think that if you get people laughing at the right wing, you will win through ridicule. Back with the Progressive Party in 1948, we used to laugh and laugh at how dumb the other side was. What you saw was the spiritual emptiness of those people. It could be that the most incisive personal crime committed by George Bush is that he probably never said to himself, I dont deserve to be president. You just cant trust a man whos never been embarrassed by himself. It seeps out of every movement of his lips, it squeezes through every tight-lipped grimace. Never before have I seen so many peoples blood boil at the sight of an American president. Of all the cities out there, why would the Republicans pick New York to hold their convention? If I were a voice in top Republican circles, I might be offering this advice: What we need for New York is a large-scale riot. Some of those activist kids will be crazy enough to do a lot on their own, but we can do better with a few of our guys, well-placed, ready to urinate on the good American flag. Let us recognize that if we lose, all weve been doing since 2000 is bound to come out. Back a couple of years ago, Karl Rove was saying that we could gain a twenty-year hegemony by winning the next election. He hasnt said it lately, not since the worst of Iraq came through. Because now we could be out of power for those same twenty years. So I recommend that we put as many of our people into the protest movement in New York as we can find. Or so, at least, speaks the cool Republican planner I envisage in my mind. There are thousands of 15-, 16-, 17-year-old anarchists who are truly angry. These kids dont really know what anarchy is all about, but they do know that when they throw a brick through a window, it makes them feel good and theres a chance they will end up on television. This feeds into the celebrity craze that America is under right now of Get on TV, man! This may be the first protest where there will be as many cameras as protesters. The networks and cable companies will be looking for clips.
JBM Right, but its also for the demonstrators own protection. A cop is much less likely to bash a protester in the head if hes holding a video camera. JBM I feel weve entered a realm where the question is, whose propaganda is better? The left is beginning to figure out that they cant beat the right with intelligent argument. They need punch phrases that get to the heart of the average American. Or do they assume that expressing their rage is equal to getting Kerry elected? The better mode may be to frustrate the Republicans by coming up with orderly demonstrations. Now, when I was young, the suggestion to be moderate was like a stink bomb to me. Well, Im trying to say, we would do well to realize that on this occasion, there are more important things than a good outburst. I wish we could remind everybody who goes out to march of the old Italian saying: Revenge is a dish that people of taste eat cold. Instead of expressing yourself at the end of August, think of how nicely you will be able to keep expressing yourself over the four years to come if we win. Just keep thinking how much the Republicans want anarchy on the street. NM Well, the trouble with being in a cautionary position is that youre limited. Everyone expects excessesits a question of how many there will be. Most of the leaders of most of the activist organizations are responsible, most of them, certainly. They will do well to look at their own ranks and see if theyve got some peculiarly rotten apples in the barrel. JBM One of the problems with this movement is that theres no leader per se. But this is a movement that has grown organically and has relied on the goodness of human nature almost to a fault. And I believe its coming to a head, where, without somebody directing the huge crowd thats going to be there, without saying, This is what the movement believes in, Middle America will see nothing but anarchy. NM You make me think of the march on the Pentagon in 1967. There was a marvelous guy named David Dellinger, now dead, who led it, and a man named A J Muste, an old anarchist, also gone, a fine old anarchist. They got together and realized they had to find some kind of umbrella organization that could have input to all the activist groups. They had a series of discussions with the various elements. And there was virtually no disarray to speak of, compared to what it could have been. The march on the Pentagon even ended up having a final effect that was impressive. I think it was the beginning of the end of the war in Vietnam, and for a very simple reason: Lyndon Johnson saw 50,000 mostly middle-class people come to Washington to stage a set of demonstrations that were going to be opposed by troops and police. From his point of view, most middle-class people were hardly full of physical bravery. If they were going to pay their own money and come by car or bus or train to march into the possibility of being hit over the head with a cops club, then there had to be millions of people behind them.
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