They'll Take Manhattan
Page 2 of 2
|
|
If you give New York a chance, as we have done already, it will cast a spell on you. Walk down the long, long corridors of your hotel and look at all the doors. Behind every one is a different story -- during the convention, no doubt a Republican story. Peer hard enough behind the city's facade and you'll see in New York a comfortable and normal gated community similar to ones you know. When the action slows in convention proceedings, take a short stroll from Madison Square Garden, home of TV's New York Knickerbockers, and stop at the edge of the inner security cordon nearby. Somewhere far down those streets, actual New Yorkers, perhaps much like delivery people and so forth back home, are living and doing probably what they do every day.
Standing in the heart of the city, pause for a moment and breathe deep. New York always has that certain big-town excitement in the air, combined with particulate matter and a level of ozone not as high as that of some other American cities. New Jersey's Christie Whitman -- former head of the EPA and a true New Yorker if there ever was one -- assures us that the city's denizens are proud of the gritty realism its deregulated free-market air lends to their lives and don't very much want it any other way. In this aspect, as in many, we Republicans can congratulate ourselves on being an ever-increasing part of New York. And if you have time, be sure to sit down with a prescreened group of New York City cops and firefighters who will tell you why their unions are screwy and out of line. It's a delight, we've discovered, to talk to savvy regular folks who see that bluster about higher wages and more money from Homeland Security as the cheap bargaining tactic it is.
Like New York, and like our country itself, the Republican National Convention will encompass a vast cross section of humanity. Maybe your ancestors were devout pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists who came over on the Mayflower centuries ago: You can be sure you'll meet others with pharmaceutical-industry roots here. Or perhaps your family hails originally from one of the real-estate-developing regions of the globe: You'll not have to look far for like-minded souls at the RNC. In limited-access hospitality suites or at tightly restricted gatherings in private loges atop Yankee Stadium, you'll be able to roll up your sleeves and mix in with the tumultuous, teeming New York City milieu. Real estate developers, lawyers, CEOs of Credit Suisse First Boston, trade group association executives, tax attorneys, health insurance chiefs, real estate investors -- here, anybody and everybody is likely to cross your path.
Recently some of our convention planners happened to be looking in their appointment books and noticed that, un-beknownst to them, the anniversary of September 11 will occur just a few days after the convention. This coincidence, which they had no idea of, has caused certain unfair individuals to accuse us of "playing politics" with this anniversary deliberately. Such unsubstantiated charges are absurd and ridic-ulous because, as the planners have point-ed out, they were looking so hard at the particular dates of the convention that naturally they didn't look beyond them at any other dates. Thus, people who make such accusations are playing politics themselves. To critics who ask why the convention wasn't scheduled for July or August, when it is usually held, party leaders reply that they long ago set aside those months for cleaning out the basement and reorganizing some shelves.
Perhaps the inscription on Lady Liberty, rising proudly above New York Harbor, says it best of all: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, your $2,000 donors yearning to be tax-free..." These words are the promise of New York, and of America, which the Republican Party personifies. Emma Lazarus, their author, would have fit in with our upcoming convention just fine. In addition to being a sensitive poet, Ms. Lazarus had the energy and dynamism that certainly would have made her a top Republican and a whirlwind fundraiser for the cause of smaller government. And like the rest of us, after she had achieved her dollar goals, Emma would have played as hard as she worked. We who attend this convention should remember to do the same. Redistributing wealth upward, and the political horse trading that goes with it, can be semibackbreaking work sometimes. We're owed some celebrating, so let's take full advantage of our wonderful host, New York City, the GOP's playground and home away from home.
Illustration By: Maurice Vellekoop
