Ground Zero
by J. Daniel Janzen

For the past three years, New Yorkers have lived with the constant awareness that at any given moment, evil could strike again. The same could be said of all Americans to an extent, but it's different in the city with the scar that doubles as a bull's-eye for the next one. Every large gathering takes place under a cloud; each subway ride could be the last. Now, after three years of demagogic exploitation, New York has once again been visited by a manifestation of doom. The initial body count may have been lower this time, but the significance of the Republican National Convention may prove none less dire in the long run.

The arbitrariness of the GOP's choice of New York's makes it all the harder to bear. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the very definition of a RINO (Republican in Name Only), having switched over solely to avoid the more crowded Democratic primary, and the local electorate rivals San Francisco in leftward tilt. Republicans in both state and federal government treat New York with contempt, dismissing the city's unique security situation as no more of a funding priority than shielding cornfields from renegade crop-dusters. Why on earth would they have their convention here? Because nothing matters except Sept. 11. So much for transcending victimhood.

Even where that fateful morning is concerned, the administration remains more interested in making political hay than showing any real concern for the city's welfare. On Sept. 14, 2001, President Bush mounted a heap of World Trade Center rubble, grabbed a bullhorn and told New York "I can hear you." Shortly thereafter, concerned with restoring the appearance of normalcy and reopening Wall Street, the administration suppressed reports of toxic air in lower Manhattan and urged its residents and office workers to breathe easy. Since then, thousands have reported persistent coughs, wheezing, shortness of breath and sinus inflammation. When the city begged for the release of federal funds, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert accused us with a straight face of trying of trying to cash in. While Bush has finally, grudgingly come through with $20 billion in long-promised aid, he has also stepped aside while congress goes pork barrel wild over homeland security funding. The city already shouldered more than its share of the national burden, sending $11 billion more to Washington last year than it received in return. Now, it gets to be the dream destination of every suicide bomber inspired to action by the siege in Najaf while its first responders go sorely underfunded and its targets remain soft.

There's a disembodied quality in the way Bush talks about the events of Sept. 11, as if they had taken place in some abstract realm peopled with heroes rather than an actual city where people continue to live and work. He certainly hasn't been much inclined to visit the place, and shows little interest in the rebuilding effort or even the planning of the memorial itself. Maybe that's not something to complain about.

Perhaps the most galling part of having the RNC in town is the nagging sense that this business inside Madison Square Garden is somehow our fault. Before the twin towers came down, President Bush's mandate was very much in question and his low approval ratings made him too weak to do much harm. But Ground Zero provided a bully pulpit from which even the worst chief executive since Warren G. Harding couldn't fail to command, and he milked it for all it was worth to pursue a bellicose neoconservative foreign policy and a hard-right domestic agenda. In essence, the GOP used the murder of several thousand New Yorkers as an opportunity to make their partisan dreams come true. Now the ghouls have descended once again to feed on the city's wounds, weeping out one side of their mouths while vilifying all opposition from the other. The mantle of Ground Zero is enough to transform a national guard slacker into a Wartime President; without it, a genuine war hero can be reduced to a liar and a coward.

In spite of the fundamental incoherence of his campaign, John Kerry is running neck and neck with his opponent, underscoring that this election is no more about him than it is about Ralph Nader, but rather, a national referendum on George W. Bush. Four years ago, Bush ran from the center as a compassionate conservative and a uniter, not a divider; moderates could be forgiven for supporting him. This time around, there's no mistaking his true colors. A victory at the polls would give the administration an overwhelming mandate to stay the course, and it's clear from experience that they'd use it to the hilt.

There has never been more mercury found in American fisheries, while regulatory enforcement continues to relax. The nation's fiscal base has been savaged. National educational policies are based on a system in Houston whose successes turned out to be entirely fraudulent. Homophobia, summary detention and the blurring of the line between church and state are now official state doctrine. Meanwhile, President Bush and his fellow crusaders have brought our nation to the brink of holy war with mainstream Islam. Imagine what he could accomplish with four more years.

New Yorkers didn't ask for this convention but we got it anyway. Promises of a boon for local businesses are proving as accurate as most GOP economic projections. Pre-emptive mass arrests have replaced visions of Chicago '68 with a more Soviet Bloc feeling; Bloomberg says the courts can sort out issues of constitutionality later, as if it would still matter by then. Central Park has already been the scene of a first amendment defeat. The sound emanating from the Garden has been ugly and hateful. It's a grim way to end the summer, making even a week of clear skies and low humidity seem oppressive.

Having had their fun, the Republicans will now pack their bags and once again abandon New York to fiscal neglect and long-distance symbolic exploitation. As if we didn't feel cheap enough already, Bush didn't even spend the night afterwards. New Yorkers will be left with a legacy of one kind or the other: as either the high-water mark of neo-conservatism before the national electorate came to its senses; or the place where the final assault on liberal American values got its marching orders.

E-mail J. Daniel Janzen at jdaniel at flakmag dot com.