(In the wake of the frequently violent protests after the second day of the Republican National Convention, I wrote this piece for my liberal friends.)
The Republicans are in New York and so is their opposition. No, I'm not referring to Michael Moore, although USA Today has seen fit to pay that gasbag to write a column as an excuse to put him at the convention so he can make more money off the easily manipulated. I'm referring to the left wing of American politics. I'd say the 'new left' but let's face it, these are the same yahoos that have always been on the left. They're just a little less controlled and a little more direct than usual.
As this report from New York details, the 'protesters' are doing a fine job of engaging in intelligent debate and civil disobedience to impart their message that they disagree with the President and his policies. Oh, wait, that's happening in Bizarro World. What we have herein reality is a criminal free-for-all with the left showing their true colors.
Punching delegates as they attend Broadway plays, shouting epithets and flipping off diners as they try to enjoy dinner, actively seeking out delegates at breakfast and their hotels to disturb them and 'make them feel unwelcome'. Well, I'm really glad these people have such a belief in political freedom that they are willing to do their best to deny the political freedom of those who oppose them.
The Republicans are not in New York to ram their agenda down anyone's throat. They aren't there, marching through the streets, screaming at everyone who even LOOKS like the opposition. No, that's the mass representing the opposition, the left. The Republicans are there to hold their convention.
For those of you in Rio Linda, the convention is where delegates from every state come together to discuss and debate the party platform while casting their assigned electoral votes for the candidate of the party's choice. These delegates were chosen by the votes of the people. In this case, the incumbent won every election as he ran unopposed. In other primaries, such as in 2000, there would have been delegates representing every candidate who received votes.
I nearly volunteered to represent Dr. Alan Keyes' representative block of votes in 2000. My job there would have been to cast my vote as willed by the people of my state, the small percentage that voted for Dr. Keyes. While my candidate didn't carry the state by a longshot, I would have been there to represent his voters and their views as the party built and announced it's platform for the coming election.
The conventions are a key part of our electoral system, especially in the primarily two-party system we now have. The fact is, if no one paid any attention to them, the delegates could come and go with very little notice. For example, the Democrats in Boston earlier this year. Did they even have a convention? I didn't notice. But I digress.
What you see today and over the weekend in New York represents the exact opposite of what progressive political people are supposed to hold near and dear. The effort here is not to voice opposition to policy, but rather to voice opposition to existence. Let me say that again: the policies of the Republican party are not being opposed and protested, the very existence of the delegates is being opposed. None of the actions detailed in the story I referenced (or in any of the other stories I could find on the subject, and I looked around for quite awhile) involve actual, direct protest of policy. The protests have been, at best, an unleashing of hatred at President Bush and the Republican party, and at worst a series of terrorist attacks designed to drive delegates out of the city and disrupt the convention. These delegates are there to exercise their political rights in this country, but the protesters can't even abide by that. I wonder, come election day, if they'll stand outside voting places and attack anyone who looks Republican? This activity is absolutely no different from that, they're both a way of circumventing the established process of electing a president. The father of modern American civil disobedience and political protest, Dr. Martin Luther King, is surely doing an entire floor routine in his grave.
Now, here's the point. I want all of you liberals, all of you who consider yourself left wing, all of you who are considering voting along with these people in this election for any reason to stop and look at things for a moment.
Who is on your side?
The Democratic convention in Boston went off relatively undisturbed. No reports of anything even remotely resembling the chaos brought to New York by the left wing protests was reported. The opposition to the Democratic party allowed them to conduct their convention and engage in their political rights unimpaired. What about the opposition to the Republican party? Who are these people that you are siding with, the people who you would consider political allies?
I know you, you're smart people, you're good people...take a good, hard, honest look at who these people are. Doesn't it make you question, for just a second, whose side you're on? There's a battle brewing here, and look at what the footsoldiers on your side of it are engaging in! Shouldn't this set off some kind of moral alarm inside you that maybe, just maybe, you've been taken for a ride by those who hold such extreme hatred for our president? Maybe you're being tricked and cajoled into joining the villains in this story?
Take a look at it. A hard, honest look. These are your confederates. These are your comrades. These are the public representatives of your side of the issue. If you find yourself completely comfortable joining together with these kind of people because hey, anyone but Bush, right? Go for it. If not, if there's a little pause here, a little hesitation, then I urge you with all I've got: THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING. As much personal animosity as you may have for George Bush, ponder for a second the kind of people who no longer want him in charge. Think about the alternative. Your candidate has been completely silent on this. So quick to demand condemnation for ads that he doesn't like, you don't see him saying a peep about these people engaging in criminal behavior on his behalf.
Is this who you want? Is this what you want? No matter how much you disagree with the war in Iraq, or Bush's abortion policy, or whatever basis you think you have for such deep-seated personal hatred of a man, look at who you're joining.
Look at who's on your side.
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